and these comprised on each occasion from half to two-
thirds that number of distinct species. Some of them
wonld settle on the wall, some on the table, while many
would fly up to the roof and give me a chase all over
the verandah before I could secure them. In order to
show the curious connexion between the state of the
weather and the degree in which moths were attracted
to light, I add a list of my captures each night of my
stay on the hill.
Date.
1855.
No. of
Moths. Remarks.
Dec. 13 th 1 F in e ; starlight.
» 14th 75 Drizzly and fog.
33 15th 41 Showery; cloudy.
33 16th 158 (120 species.) Steady rain.
33 17th 82 W e t; rather moonlight.
33 18 th 9 Fine ; moonlight.
33 19th 2 F in e ; clear moonlight.
33 31st 200 (130 species.) Dark and windy;
heavy rain.
1856.
Jan. 1st 185 Yery wet.
33 2d 68 Cloudy and showers.
33 3d 50 Cloudy.
33 4th 12 Fine.
33 5th 10 Fine.
33 6th 8 Yery fine.
33 7tli 8 Yery fine.
33 8th 10 Fine.
33 ' 9th 36 Showery.
33 10th 30 Showery.
33 11th 260 Heavy rain all night, and dark.
Carried forw ard j 1,245
i Date. No. of
Moths. Remarks.
Brought forward 1,245
Jan. 12th 56 Showery.
m b 44 Showery; some moonlight.
„ 14th 4 Fine ; moonlight.
„ 15th 24 R a in ; moonlight.
16th 6 Showers; moonlight.
„ 17th 6 Showers; moonlight.
„ 18th 1. . Showers; moonlight-
Total . . 1,386
It thus appears that on twenty-six nights I collected
1,386 moths, but that more than 800 of them were collected
on four very wet and dark nights. My success here
led me to hope that, by similar arrangements, I might in
every island be able to obtain abundance of these insects ;
but, strange to say, during the six succeeding years I was
never once able to make any collections at all approaching
those at Sarawak. The reason of this I can pretty well
understand to be owing to the absence of some one or
other essential condition that were here all combined.
Sometimes the dry season was the hindrance; more frequently
residence in at toWii or village not close to virgin
forest, and surrounded by other houses whose lights were
a counter-attraction; still more frequently residence in a
dark palm-thatched house, with a lofty roof, in whose
recesses every moth was lost the instant it entered. This
last was the greatest drawback, and the real reason why I
never again was able to make a collection of moths; for