THROUGH WATERBERG. 91 



had failed. These birds roosted at night on the reeds 



O 



growing in a small river-bed or vley, and one night, 

 shortly before my arrival, and after particularly heavy 

 rain, the waters suddenly rose and covered the reeds to 

 the almost total destruction of the birds, for my host 

 said he had seen scarcely any since. We frequently 

 see swarms of insects swept away by floods, but I had 

 not hitherto heard of a wholesale destruction of birds 

 by the same means. 



The wood-bush we visited w r as only a few miles in 

 extent and thin in appearance, and yet contained 

 almost another zoological world to the bare veld which 

 adjoined it. Birds of many species not seen before 

 were now met with, and many new skins secured for 

 the collection. In insects the fine day-flying Moth 

 (Xanthospilopteryx superba] flew amidst the shade of 

 the acacias, and in Butterflies Herpasnia eripMci and 

 Teracolus eris and T. evenina were captured by myself for 

 the first time. The fine Ant-lion (Palpares caffer] was 

 abundant round the outskirts of the trees, and large 

 and gaudily-marked Spiders (NepMla transvaalica)* 

 occupied in family groups or industrial communities 

 the immense webs that stretched from tree to tree. In 

 the ardour and pleasure of collecting we had aimlessly 

 wandered among the trees, with the inevitable result 

 that about noon we found we had not only lost our- 

 selves, but all held different ideas as to the direction we 

 should pursue. It is at such times that the mind grasps 

 the full benefit of both savagedom and civilization, 

 for we possessed neither the wood-lore nor path-finding 

 capacity of the first, nor did we carry the pocket com- 

 pass of the latter. Of course we went miles out of our 

 way, and after hard walking for hours under a broiling 

 sun we at last reached our spider again, and arrived 

 late in Pretoria on the evening of Majuba day. 



Since January our Coleopterous visitants had in- 

 cluded the fine and showy Buprestid Sternocera orissa. 

 The first time I saw this grand beetle for in the 

 Transvaal the Beetles, as a rule, are neither large nor 



* A new species, described in the Appendix by Mr. Pocock (Tab. V. fig- 4). 



