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Show 16 MR. R. TRIMEN ON BUTTERFLIES FROM [Jan. 16, Butterflies, 1 did not take any great number on the Umtali side of Christmas Pass, partly doubtless owing to the fact that during the greater part of the time I was working there the weather was very rainy; but as soon as I had crossed the Pass and got to the coast side of the range of hills to the south of Umtali, I at once found myself in an excellent collecting ground. As I had to make a long cutting down the side of the mountain and blast away a lot of hard rock, I was luckily enabled to remain in this happy hunting-ground for nearly a month. Scarcely a day passed that I did not catch something new to me. Just below Christmas Pass was an isolated granite hill, very thickly wooded on its lower sides, and in the hollow between this hill and the main range was a deep shady ravine, at the bottom of which ran a small stream. At the top of the ravine the country was covered with bush interspersed with large granite boulders, and beyond this again open prairie-land running up the hill-sides, on which flowers of many varieties were very plentiful. Thus in a small extent of ground I found a great diversity of conditions and many different species of Butterflies. The elevation of this portion of the country is about 3000 feet. " After leaving Christmas Pass the road leads through open prairie-land for four or five miles to the head of the Mineni Valley. This open grass country is intersected by the Sikuva Eiver and several of its tributaries. I did not take many Butterflies in this part of the country. " The Mineni Valley runs between two high ranges of hills, and is for the most part well wooded with open forest, intermixed with large open glades entirely free from forest or bush. Several large tributaries flow into the Mineni from the surrounding ranges of mountains, and innumerable smaller streams. The banks of these streams, overhung as they were by large shady trees and ferns, I found to be very favourable places for collecting, and I caught a great many sorts of Charaxes and Skippers drinkiug at the fords which we cut across the streams for the waggon road. It was also in the Mineni Valley that I was lucky enough to find a tree from one of whose branches some sap was exuding, which proved a constant attraction to many species of Charaxes; and on this tree I caught a fine series of G. bohemani, one of the handsomest of a genus that are often very difficult to catch. " After leaving the Mineni Valley one gets out of the hills and enters upon a level country covered almost entirely with forest, sometimes free from underwood but in places becoming thick jungle. This country is intersected by many rivers, such as the Kevue (into which the Mineni flows), and the Lusika and Lopodzi. The general altitude of this part is about 2500 feet above sea-level. At the river Lusika I found another tree, a species of Acacia, which was much frequented by Butterflies of the genus Charaxes, and here I captured the only specimen of C. azota that I s a w - a female in very fine condition. " I do not think there is anything more to be said about the country, except that during the whole of the time I was working |