MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 585 



morning a leopard was discovered by the coolies, when they went to work, 

 on a lighter just ahead of the ship. They attacked and drove it overboard, 

 and followed it up in a boat, making numerous very badly aimed blows at 

 its bobbing head. Up the E. I. M. S. Ncmcoimjs anchor chain it tried to 

 scamble, but failed, swam ashore, and was shot, sinking and being carried by 

 the strong tide below a pontoon, whence it was subsequently dragged wuth 

 long poles. 



The Marine Survey had the good fortune to be present in Moulmein at the 

 time of Lord Elgin's visit, and to admire the decorations, which were of 

 the most lavish description, and thoroughly appreciate a posture dance given 

 by some twenty young Burmese girls in honour of the visit. The lights, the 

 flashing jewels, the prettily shaded pale blue and pink silk dresses, the most 

 infectious music, and the graceful and harmonious poses of the girls, alto- 

 gether made up a charming picture which it will be impossible to forget. 



At the mouth of the Moulmein river lies the small town of Araherst, and 

 on tbe coast slightly to the south of this on several occasions a landing was 

 effected. Here the country becomes undulating, with hills rising to a few 

 hundred feet and densely wooded to their summits, but at their bases the 

 trees have been cleared in places to make durian, raangosteen, and sugar-cane 

 gardens. Unfortunately these gardens are said to be extremelj unhealthy 

 during the rainy season, but inhabitable at other times of the year. In these 

 hills and in the scrub jungle near Amherst live large numbers of jungle fowl 

 barking deer, mouse-deer and pig, and a few leopards, tiger, and sambhur. 

 They are also inhabited by more undesirable animals in the form of minute 

 ticks, so small and so numerous that one's hands often look as if peppered • 

 by large numbers of both the large dark green and the small straw-coloured 

 scorj)ions : and by many snakes — the last, fortunately, usually of a harmless 

 species. One of the most vividly coloured of the Indian snakes. Coluber 

 oxycephalus, was caught here, and afterwards deposited in the Calcutta 

 Zoological Gardens, where it is probably still being exhibited. 



(The above appeared in the Times of India on 30th May, 1899.) 



NO. XIX.— NOTE ON EUMENES CONICA,¥XBR, AND MEGA- 



CHILE DISJUNCTA, FABR, AND THEIR PARASITES 



GHRYSIS FUSCIPENNIS, BRULLE, AND PAREVASPIS 



ABDOMINALIS, SMITH. 



Mr. Aitken's note on " A Wasp and a Fly" in Vol. XII, No. 2 of the 



Magazine, recalls some observations I made some eight or nine years ago on 



the abovementioned Fossorial wasp and bee and their parasites. I noted 



down the details of the incidents at the time and here they are : 



Moulmein,, April 2^ih. — Noticed a half-finished mud cell of Eumenes bein^ 

 made on the woodwork of a window in my study. While examining it 

 closely with a lens, the wasp returned with a pellet of mud and buzzed rather 

 angrily round my head. I moved away a little and watched her. After 



