;:::::::aE THE MAGIC POOLS xfe:::::::: 



sail steadily from tree to pool, snatch a proboscisful of 

 the water, and dash frantically back to the roughened 

 bark, there to cling motionless with flat pressed wings, 

 until its thirst calls it again to the pool ? How could 

 it know all this ? How could such philosophy be passed 

 on, through egg and worm and chrysalis, to its tiny 

 thread of nerve-stuff? We asked in vain, and the great 

 fio'-tree rustled its leaves in the wind and seemed to 

 close protectingly around the insect which had flown, 

 so full of trust, to its bark. These butterflies {Arjero- 

 nia aUantis) were very abundant in certain places at the 

 edge of the jungle, fluttering in the air a moment and 

 then snapping back, flat to the trunks of trees as if 

 governed by some form of magnetism which they were 

 powerless to resist. 



Another wood-haunting species of butterfly ( Victor- 

 ina stelenes) defied detection even when we knew to 

 a certainty its position to within a few inches. Its mngs 

 were dark brown, blotched with large ovals, circles, 

 and irregular figures of transparent green. When it 

 alighted, it held its wings flat and vanished from 

 sight, hidden by the myriad spots of sunshine and 

 shadow all about it, which the markings on its wings 

 so exactly simulated. 



THE FAMISHED ONES 



However continuous and varied the succession of 

 thirsty wild creatures all through the day; however 



<^ 211 ^ 



