HOBTON PLAINS 
119 
Horton Plains, alt. 7000 ft. 
March 23rd, 1904. 
This beautiful district gives some idea of what Ceylon must have 
been before the era of tea-planting. Situated about 2500 ft. above 
the railway, and approached by steep zigzag paths through rather 
poor woods, are extensive rolling plains of coarse grass; these 
patnas are surrounded by woods having a general temperate zone 
character, but with here and there an epiphytal orchid to remind 
one that the latitude is but 7° N. In the more swampy parts of the 
patnas the devastating work of Wild Pigs was evident enough; we also 
saw tracks of the so-called Elk, the Sambhur ( Gervus unicolor), while 
paths through woods, and unmistakable droppings, proved that wild 
Elephants had passed that way not many days before. It was, 
however, not the season for Butterflies, the air being too exhilarating 
for their luxurious ways. 
About half a dozen Chittim fumata were seen at elevations of 
6000 to 7000 ft., mostly at their favourite Vernonia. On the patnas 
and among sedges in the woods were a few of the Skipper Baracus 
vittatus ; they were not easy to see. I was surprised to come across 
no other butterflies on these patnas, which seemed the very place for 
a Marsh Fritillary, a Small Heath, or at least for a Blue; but no, even 
the eponymous Nissanga patnia was not to be found. 
In the woods I took two specimens of the beautiful Lethe daretis, 
and saw two or three others. They frequented shady paths and flew 
but a short distance, settling upon a trunk or branch, reminding me 
strongly of P. aegeria in my own garden at Mortehoe. The only 
Argynnis seen here (or indeed in Ceylon) was A. hyperbius; it was 
rather common in open spots in woods, the female looking on the 
wing very like Danaida chrysippus ; a female had the apices of both 
hind-wings and the anal angle of both fore-wings symmetrically 
bitten. 
Of Terias hecdbe I found in a wood a few of the intermediate 
“ dry ” form. Neptis eurynome 1 was not uncommon in the woods, 
flying in its usual ghostly manner, and settling upon leaves of trees. 
In the same woods Gyaniris lanka was common, but yet it was 
astonishing to see so few insects in such a locality. 
1 Col. Bingham, the latest authority, in his “ Butterflies of British India,” reckoned 
astola, varmona , and some others of Moore’s species as mere forms of eurynome, 
Westw. 
