Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Foreign Butterflies.djvu/74

72 recent traveller regarding one of the species, Euplœa humata (Mac Leay), found in the country just referred to, namely, that it is employed as an article of food!

He states that there is a certain mountain, called the Bugong Mountain from multitudes of small moths, named Bugong by the natives, which congregate at certain times upon the masses of granite which compose it. The months of November, December, and January are quite a season of festivity among these people, who assemble from every quarter to collect these moths. They are stated also to form the principal summer food of those who inhabit to the south of the Snow Mountains. To collect these moths (improperly so called, for as above indicated, they are true butterflies), the natives make smothered fires under the rocks on which they congregate; and suffocating them with smoke, collect them by bushels, and then bake them by placing them on heated ground. Thus they separate from them the down and the wings; they are then grounded and formed into cakes, resembling lumps of fat, and often smoked, which preserves them for some time. When accustomed to this diet, they thrive and fatten exceedingly upon it. Millions of these butterflies were likewise observed on the coasts of New Holland, both by Captains Cook and King; and thus, says Mr. Kirby, has a kind Providence provided an abundant supply of food for a