MT. LAYINIA 337 
Mount Lavinia and one at Fort Frederick, Trinkomali, on the East 
Coast; it would appear to be a lowland species. 
The actual coast was too exposed to the prevailing wind to be of 
much good as a collecting ground, and the Cinnamon Garden proved 
somewhat disappointing. Naturally enough my attention was first 
drawn to the Papilios which were obvious and not uncommon. The 
yellow tail-less P. demoleus , Esp. (< erithonius , Cram.), which had been 
such a familiar object in Northern India, was to be seen flying 
swiftly about in exposed spots close to the sea, as well as in the 
Cinnamon Garden. When feeding on flowers it flutters its wings, 
not stopping long on any one flower. A female exhibited a slight 
peculiar scent in the field, which was stronger in the house. Then 
there was another old friend, Papilio aristolochiae, Fabr., curiously 
shaped out of crepe and studded with rubies; it had a hay-like scent, 
sometimes musty, sometimes sweeter, and it was hard to kill. Two 
or three P. pammon, Linn., were seen. The gorgeous red, black, and 
white, P. hector , Linn., than which I have seen few handsomer butter¬ 
flies, occurred somewhat commonly in the Cinnamon Gardens; my 
specimens were netted in the near neighbourhood of Lantana bushes, 
though not actually taken on the flowers. Like the last-named 
species this was tenacious of life, and its male had a musty odour. 
Hector flies straight along, sometimes high, but not very swiftly. 
The movement of its wings, rendered more obvious by the strong 
contrast of colours, appears to be rotatory. My friend Commander 
J. J. Walker, E.N., M.A., has recently called my attention to the 
flight of our little black and white Pyrale Ennychia octomacidalis, 
Fabr., as appearing to “ spin ” on the wing. Something of the same 
sort struck me in the flight of the beautiful Peach Moth of South 
Africa, Egybolia vaillantina, Stoll, a steel-blue and orange-yellow 
Catocaline Noctua. 1 In all these cases I think that the apparently 
excessive movement of the wings in a rotatory manner is due to an 
optical illusion caused by the sharply contrasted colours of the 
insects. 
It was at Mount Lavinia that I first had the pleasure of catching 
the black and green P. agamemnon , Linn., a butterfly that I had 
seen twice before. They were in poor condition, flying rapidly, often 
quite close to the sea, where the only flower under the palms was 
the Periwinkle of the tropics, Vinca rosea , Linn., a plant but little 
attractive to insects. One specimen appeared to have a very slight 
sweet scent. Besides these I saw several of the magnificent, great 
black and yellow Ornithoptera darsius , Gray, and one afternoon 
1 See above, p. 195. 
Z 
