By A Liberal Use Of Quinine, I Soon
Recovered, And Obtaining Other Men, Went To Stay At The
Government Bungalow Of Ayer-Panas, Accompanied By A Young
Gentleman, A Native Of The Place, Who Had A Taste For Natural
History.
At Ayer-panas we had a comfortable house to stay in, and plenty
of room to dry and preserve our specimens; but, owing to there
being no industrious Chinese to cut down timber, insects were
comparatively scarce, with the exception of butterflies, of which
I formed a very fine collection.
The manner in which I obtained
one fine insect was curious, and indicates bow fragmentary and
imperfect a traveller's collection must necessarily be. I was one
afternoon walking along a favourite road through the forest, with
my gun, when I saw a butterfly on the ground. It was large,
handsome, and quite new to me, and I got close to it before it
flew away. I then observed that it had been settling on the dung
of some carnivorous animal. Thinking it might return to the same
spot, I next day after breakfast took my net, and as I approached
the place was delighted to see the same butterfly sitting on the
same piece of dung, and succeeded in capturing it. It was an
entirely new species of great beauty, and has been named by Mr.
Hewitson - Nymphalis calydona. I never saw another specimen of it,
and it was only after twelve years had elapsed that a second
individual reached this country from the northwestern part of
Borneo.
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