t us and is ever present. And much of it is as
beautiful as the flowers. For sheer attractiveness the butterflies are
as compelling as the orchids. Mosquitoes, gnats, flies, leeches, every
torment there is. But we forgive everything for the chance of being
able to see alive and in the full glory of their colouring these brilliant
gems of the insect world which we can in places view in hundreds
and thousands at a time--and in extraordinary variety, for in this
little country more than six hundred species are found--about ten
times as many as are met with in England. Moreover, there is no
season when they are wholly absent, for in the hot valleys they may
be seen all the year round, though naturally there are more in the
summer than in the winter.

If it were not for other attractions we would like to concentrate our
attention on these beautiful creatures alone. For they fascinate us by
the daring of their colours, by their bold designs, by the way in
which they blend the colours with one another, and by the extreme
delicacy and chasteness of both colour and design. We are reluctant
to take the life of a single one of the thousands we see, but yet we
are itching, too, to lay hold of one after another as it sails into sight
displaying some fresh beauty. We want to handle it as we would a
flower, turn it about and examine it from every point of view till not
a shade or aspect of its beauty has escaped us. In the presence of
these brilliant butterflies we are children once more. We want to
have them in our hands and feel that they are in our possession. It is
tantalising merely to view them from a distance. We want to enjoy
their beauty to the full.

These butterflies of Sikkim are such complete strangers to us we do
not even know their names. From the "Gazetteer," however, we
learn that the most beautiful of them are the papilios, of which alone
there are no less than forty-two species. And three of these--namely,
the _Teinophalus imperialis_ (which occurs on Tiger Hill above
Darjiling) and two ornithopteras, or bird-butterflies--are among the
most splendid of all butterflies. The former is green on the upper
side with yellow spots on the hind-wing, and the long tails are tipped
with yellow. The two bird-butterflies are common in the low valleys
from May to October. They are truly magnificent insects, measuring
from 6 to 8 inches across. Their fore-wings are wholly of a velvety
black and the hind-wing golden yellow scollo