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—it then strikes a small water-course, or leat, 1 cut along the moun¬ 
tain side. The path may be followed eastwards, beside the channel, 
along the contour at a height of about 3600 ft. above the sea. A 
more delightful walk can scarcely be imagined: to the left high 
mountains, to the right and at one’s feet the city, yet for all practical 
purposes miles away, since the numerous barrancos keep all but a few 
farmers well out of reach. There are plenty of flowers along the water¬ 
course and plenty of insects. A walk of about a mile brings one to the 
source, a small mountain torrent rising in the cloud regions far above, 
but compelled by the patient farmers to water their lands below. It 
is easy to scramble down the bed of the stream, but I found it better 
to take a path to the right leading through a picturesque farmyard, 
below which another water-course is reached, about 120 ft. lower 
down the mountain. Here Lepto'phobia arijpa was usually in 
abundance, together with the beautiful day-flying Arctiid, Utetheisa 
ornatrix. The male White has a sweet scent suggesting orange 
blossom; in an aberrant Arctiid the spots on the underside showed 
through the wings, making the moth look very different from the 
usual form. Turning again to the left along the channel the source 
was soon reached. A strip of forest on either bank (presumably re¬ 
tained to preserve the water) hid the torrent from view. Here was 
all that a tropical collector could desire—trees, flowers, shelter from 
wind, sunshine (in the forenoon), and above all moisture. It was 
a little before 4 p.m. on the rather dull afternoon of March 20th, 
1907, that I first scrambled up this gully. I had met with a few 
Ithomiines previously, but only odd ones, here and there; now it 
was my pleasure to see what I had read about. 
Bates, in his classical paper on the Heliconiidae , writing of the 
genus Ithomia , 2 says :—“ They are prolific insects, and gregarious in 
their habits, flocks of many different species associating together. 
Their flight is low and weak; and they affect only certain parts of 
the forest, generally shady hollows, where many hundreds may often 
be seen sporting together, though not an individual is found in any 
other part of the neighbourhood.”— Trans. Linn . Soc ., vol. xxiii., 
p. 539, 1862. 
Again:—“ The flocks of Butterflies, all of the same colour, and 
undistinguishable from one another when on the wing, which fly 
together in the same dry hollows of the forest. . . .”— Ibid., p. 
541. 
1 This is just what a Madeiran Portuguese would call a levada; I have had much 
difficulty in learning the Spanish equivalent, perhaps toma or acueducto. 
2 The Ithomiinae are now held to be quite distinct from the Helico?iiinae. 
