5 2 BATCHIAN. [c h a p . XXIV,
I obtained a good series of the new butterfly, ;which I have
since named Ornitboptera croesus. The Musssenda bush
was an admirable place, which I could visit every day on
my way to the forest; and as it was situated in a dense
thicket of shrubs and creepers, I set my man Lahi to clear
a space all round it, so that I could easily get at any insect
that might visit it. Afterwards, finding that it was often
necessary to wait some time there, I had a little seat put
up under a tree by the side of it, where I came every day
to eat my lunch, and thus had half an hour’s watching
about noon, besides a chance as I passed it in the morning.
In this way I obtained on an average one specimen a
day for a long time, but more than half of these were
females, and more than half the remainder worn or broken
specimens, so that I should not have obtained many
perfect males had I not found another station for them.
As soon as I had seen them come to flowers, I sent my
man Lahi with a net on purpose to search for them, as
they had also been seen at some flowering trees on the
beach, and I promised him half a day’s wages extra for
every good specimen he could catch. After a day or
two he brought me two very fair specimens, and told me
he had caught them in the bed of a large rocky stream
that descends from the mountains to the sea about a mile
below the village. They flew down this river, settling
occasionally on stones and rocks in the water, and he was
L ap. xxiv.] INSECT HUNTING. 5 3
obliged to wade up it or jump from rock to rock to get at
[them. I went with him one day, but found that the
stream was far too rapid and the stones too slippery for
me to do anything, so I left it entirely to him, and all the
!rest of the time we stayed in Batchian he used to be out
all day, generally bringing me one, and on good days two
or three specimens. I was thus able to bring away with
me more than a hundred of both sexes, including perhaps
twenty very fine males, though not more than five or six
that were absolutely perfect.
My daily walk now led me, first about half a mile along
the sandy beach, then through a sago swamp over a causeway
of very shaky poles to the village of the Tomore
people. Beyond this was the forest with patches of new
clearing, shady paths, and a considerable quantity of
felled timber. I found this a very fair collecting ground,
especially for beetles. The fallen trunks in the clearings
abounded with golden Buprestidse and curious Brenthidse
and longicorns, while in the forest I found abundance of
the smaller Curculioriidse, many longicorns, and some fine
green Carabidse.
Butterflies were not abundant, but I obtained a few
more of the fine blue Papilio, and a number of beautiful
little Lycsenidee, as well as a single specimen of the very
rare Papilio Wallacei, of which I had taken the hitherto
unique specimen in the Aru Islands.