BANDAEAWELA 
385 
Bandarawela, circa 4000 ft. above sea-level. 
March 11th—14th, 1908. 
The railway journey from Hatton to this place is one of mar¬ 
vellous beauty. The train, after running for many miles through 
tea-gardens, enters the primaeval forest near the Horton Plains, a 
most fascinating region but little disturbed by man, where the 
Ehododendrons catch the traveller’s eye, not lofty trees as in the 
Himalaya, but rather having the character of big shrubs. The train 
then enters a short tunnel under the ridge of the mountain, to 
emerge in quite a startling manner: there is a complete transforma¬ 
tion scene. One finds one’s self high on the side of a steep mountain 
range, with a rich plain spread out at least 3000 ft. below. This 
plain is almost enclosed by hills which are highest on the side taken 
by the train. 
At Bandarawela there are tea-gardens on the higher ground, 
but between them and the river is a wide stretch of grass land having 
a down-like character. There is but little wood, though there is a 
swamp not far from the town. 
As at Hatton so here Yphthima ceylonica was conspicuous by its 
absence, but I was pleased to catch a specimen of the very distinct 
Y. singala, Feld., an endemic species. I also took one Mycalesis 
perseus , Fabr., an “ intermediate tending to dry ” female, and saw 
others ; I did not meet with this species elsewhere in Ceylon. Several 
M. polydeda were seen, but they were difficult to catch, owing to their 
habit of keeping close down among the vegetation, whence they are 
dislodged with difficulty. I secured one of each sex, both more or 
less “dry”; when the pencils of hairs on the wings of the male 
were exposed a strong burnt-sugar odour was clearly perceptible. A 
female of Lethe rohria, Fabr., race nilgiriensis, Guer., a butterfly of 
slow flight, was seen settled on the ground in an open place near 
water. 
Neptis varmona was rather common, and a few Precis iphita and 
orithyia were noted. Late one windy afternoon on a bare and ex¬ 
posed hill-top a solitary male Pyrameis cardui was found haunting 
the cairn that crowned the summit; it was just the sort of spot that 
the species loves all the world over, and, as usual, when disturbed 
it returned to its post again and again; both its hind-wings had 
suffered loss, apparently by the mouth of a lizard. I was some¬ 
what surprised to take a female Cethosia nietneri halfway between 
Bandarawela and the river on the Welimada path, 
2c 
