52 
probably a few weeks earlier—some time in February—one would have 
a better chance. The occasion on which the latter of these two insects 
was taken 1 shall remember for a very long time. I had set myself 
the task of walking from Ivalacoon, on the Mazaruni, where I had 
spent the previous day with Mr. McTurk, to Bartica, ria the Caburi 
road. I had armed myself with a compass, and was told to return 
to Ivalacoon if the road was too overgrown. A start was made 
at 7 a.m., and after about a mile had been covered the sun shone 
brilliantly, and Morpko menelaus simply swarmed. It was a grand sight 
to see about 20 of these fine fellows flashing about in all directions, and 
the day would have been memorable for that alone ; but I dared 
not stay too long in this spot, as there was a lot of ground to cover 
before the midday meal. After this the forest became more dense and 
lepidoptera more scarce, and the ground was covered as fast as possible. 
A white Lymantriid, apparently not yet described, now became plenti¬ 
ful, but kept out of reach of the net, seeming to like to skim over the 
tops of trees and young underwood. After a lot of patience one of 
these was secured, and, following that, a very large NympkicHuin made 
its appearance, which turned out to be A. latiris, as I have mentioned. 
The specimen is the worse for wear, and looks as if some bird had 
been at it. It had a very feeble flight, but this may have been due to 
its having lost some chips out of its wings. On getting up after 
having papered it, my eye fell on what looked like a human being 
perched in a tree almost straight above me. At first I felt startled and 
could not believe my eyes, but there was no mistake; here was an 
Indian, stark naked, crouched down in the fork of a tree, with a gun 
of some sort in his hands, waiting for an ac-uri to come and feed on 
the fallen nuts from the tree in which lie was perched, when it would 
fall an easy prey to his weapon, however antiquated and out of date it 
probably was. An experience like this after one had been walking for 
over three hours through the still and lonely forest was a little nerve¬ 
upsetting, but a scientific fact was learned from it—namely, that the 
red skin of the Indian harmonised so wonderfully with his surround¬ 
ings that it was difficult to see it, even though fully exposed to view. 
A short distance more was covered, and then no path was at all dis¬ 
cernible, and it looked as if the distance would all have to be retraced. 
I actually did turn back for a short way, and then, in spite of my com¬ 
pass telling me 1 was going in an utterly wrong direction, continued 
what I originally thought might have been the track. Very soon 
familiar ground was reached, and thankful I was that food was not to 
be long delayed, as I thought it was. On the whole, one certainly 
would expect more on a walk like this of some eight or nine miles, 
through unbroken forest. Probably many more insects would have 
been obtained where Morpho menelaus was making such a show, about 
a mile in from the Mazaruni. One or two nice Erycinids were picked 
up here also, where the forest was composed chiefly of the tree known 
as Wallaba, the wood of which is used extensively for taking the place 
of slates on roofs of houses. In this Wallaba forest there is not a 
vestige of undergrowth of any kind, and rotten and decaying leaves is 
all that is to be seen beneath the dense shade. 1 should have expected 
some Ithomiids here, as the larva* are generally supposed to feed on 
rotting leaves, but only Ithomia zarcpha was to be found, and that only 
rarely. It already seemed evident that this was not the country for 
