120 
MANTIS. 
^inment with that afforded by fighting cocks and 
quails: (for it is to this insect or one closely allied 
to it that I imagine the following passage in Mr, 
Barrow’s account of China to allude.) “ They 
have even extended their enquiries after fighting 
animals into the insect tribe, and have discovered 
a species of Gryllus or Locust that will attack 
each other with such ferocity as seldom to quit 
their hold without bringing away at the same 
time a limb of their antagonist. These little crea-- 
tures are fed and kept apart in bamboo cages, 
and the custom of making them devour each other 
is so common that, during the summer months, 
scarcely a boy is to be seen without his cage of 
Grasshoppers.” Barrow's Travels in China, p. 159. 
The Mantis precaria is a native of many parts 
of Africa, and is the supposed idol of the Hottem 
tots, which those superstitious people are reported 
to hold in the highest veneration, the person on 
whom the adored insect happens to light being 
considered as favoured by the distinction of a 
celestial visitant, and regarded ever after in the 
light of a saint. This species is of the same gene- 
ral size and shape with the M. oratoria, and is of 
a beautiful green colour, with the thorax ciliated 
or spined on each side, and the upper wings each 
marked in the middle by a semitransparent spot, 
Of all the Mantes perhaps the most singular 
in its appearance is the Mantis gongyloUes of 
Linnmus, which, from its thin limbs, and the gro- 
tesque form of its body, especially in its dried 
