Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/73

Rh rivers, however, are pretty abundantly supplied, and afford many species peculiar to the country. This is the metropolitan station of the genus Acrea, and it is likewise inhabited by several peculiar groups of the genera Papilio, Pieris, &c. The neighbouring island of Madagascar is much richer than the continent, and exemplifies what has been observed in relation to many other islands, that their zoological productions by no means correspond to those of the nearest portion of the main land. Little relation exists between the diurnal lepidoptera of Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope, but a very close one can be traced between the former and those inhabiting distant parts of the continent, such as Senegal and Sierra Leone. Mauritius and Bourbon likewise differ considerably in their lepidopterous productions from Madagascar. In the latter, magnificent Papilios, Acrææ, Euplœæ, Danaides, Uraniæ, Cyrestes, and Xanthidia, embellish by their elegant forms and splendid colours, the marshy and pestilential forests of that extensive island, and rival in beauty that majestic and teeming vegetation which has always excited the admiration of botanists. New Holland is not without its peculiar species, although this department of its zoology is not characterised by such marked singularities as are observed among its higher animals and vegetable productions.

A singular circumstance has been recorded by a