548 
BIONOMIC NOTES 
is not always done with a view to seek shelter from the wind, though 
sometimes that seemed to be the object. It pitches on or close to the 
ground, with the wings fully expanded, just as P. natalica ; in this 
position it is less conspicuous than might be supposed, especially 
when it settles on dark clay, or peaty soil, as it appeared to be fond of 
doing. Both Dr. Dixey and I saw it orient itself like its congeners, 
sometimes with adjustment. On one occasion only did I see it close 
its wings over its back, casting, as a result, a minimum shadow. 
Another Precis , nearly the colour of the red soil, but more orange 
in tint, was observed to orient with tail to the sun. This I saw 
several times but failed to catch; it was on August 18th, on somewhat 
open ground at the edge of a large banana garden above the Congella 
Woods, Durban. I thought at the time that this was P . octavia , 
Cram., the wet-season form of P. sesamus , but it is just possible that 
it may have been P. cloantha, Cram., which I took on the other side 
of Durban. With the possible exception of this doubtful Precis all 
my remarks about South African butterflies apply to dry-season forms. 
Hamanumida daedalus, Eabr., is a common African Nymphaline 
that we only met with on the banks of the Zambesi. We both noted 
that it usually flies near the ground, on which it settles with the 
wings closely appressed to the surface. It occasionally flaps its 
wings, but as long as they are still it is very inconspicuous, its grey 
colour approximating closely to that of the sand, the whitish spots 
aiding its concealment by breaking up the surface. One was observed 
to walk about on mud regardless of the sun’s direction, but it finally 
settled down with tail to the sun and wings spread out in the 
usual way. 
\Abisara {Zemeros) flegyas , Cram., a common Oriental Erycinid, 
has a 'strikingly similar pattern to the last-named Nymphalid, but 
I do not know what its favourite resting-places are.] 
Pyrameis cardui, Linn. I summed up my observations on this 
butterfly in Algeria in the following words :— 
I can confidently say that it generally settles with its tail to 
the sun, though it does not do this with the regularity of 
Pararge meone. I saw two specimens turn their heads to 
the sun, and saw a third settle twice with its body at right 
angles, though the third time it settled normally. 1 
At Durban, on August 21st, I watched this cosmopolitan butterfly 
orient, but full weight must be given to the following very definite 
observation of Dr Dixey’s when watching lizards :— 
1 Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1905, p. xxix. 
