In the narrow lanes near the village we passed great numbers and many varieties of butterflies in a few minutes’ ride. Judging from what we saw, an entomologist would find a rich harvest in the Taimòro country. Dr Vinson, a French naturalist who came up to the capital in 1862, says: “The habits of the lepidoptera are much affected in Madagascar by atmospheric changes. In the misty mornings everything sleeps or hides itself under the damp foliage, but as soon as the sun shines out, the forest, the footpath, the beds of the torrents, are peopled with bright-coloured and light-flying butterflies. They give themselves up to all kinds of frolic with a wanton joy; they court, they pursue, they fly, interlacing and eddying in their flight in the air like the brilliant flakes of a coloured snow.” In travelling up through this eastern forest a few years later, but in the hotter season of the year, I was struck by the number and variety of the butterflies which crossed our path. There was the rather common one of greyish-green with dark markings, the blackish-brown one with two large blue spots, the widely distributed warm brown one with black-edged wings, the pure white one, the white with orange edges, the white with black edges, the white with small black spots near the edge of the wings, the small yellow species, the small buff one, the white with crimped edges, the minute brown and blue, and many others. In damp places, a cloud of the smaller yellow and buff kinds may be often seen sipping the moisture. While staying near the forest I was several times struck by the curious formation of the wings of one of the smaller species of butterfly. The insect in question is of plain inconspicuous colouring, chiefly shades of brown, and when at rest sits with the wings erect. The noticeable point is that there are several strongly marked and dark-tinted processes from the hinder part of the wings, which resemble the head, eyes and antennæ of a butterfly, so that when at rest it is very difficult to say which is the head and which is the tail of the insect. The tail markings and points are so much more strongly emphasised than the actual head and antennæ, that it is only when the wings slightly open that one is undeceived. Mimicry of one insect by another, and mimicry of leaves, grass, etc., by insects, are of course well-known facts, but I do not remember to have seen any similar instances noticed of resemblance between the different parts of the same insect; but may not the reason of this mimicry of the head by the tail be of some service in directing the attention of birds and other enemies to the less vital part of the butterfly’s structure? It is evident that the hinder portion of the wings might be snapped at and broken off, and yet no serious injury be done to the vital parts of the insect. However this may be, the point appears to me to be worth noting down as a curious fact. [Sidenote: ARAB INFLUENCE]