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taken refuge in the "attaps,"and tliere been eaten by numerous enemies 

 of all orders, from bunting spiders to rats ; there are plenty of bats 

 flying about now, and I rarely see above half-a-dozen moths in an 

 evening. Should any one wish to try this method of collecting, I 

 would recommend him to make his clearing some four or five miles 

 from any open space. I felled jungle, and made a little bungalow for 

 myself at a place about half a mile from an old " campay," and expected 

 to see lots of moths, but the bats found their way over at once ; at first 

 I had a few moths, eight or ten or so, fly in of an evening, even these were 

 usually of the most insignificant looking character (though one, at 

 least, was not : I enclose picture of it, which I shall be much obliged 

 if the editors will name for me*), and latterly there were few or none 

 at all. 



When I came out here, the late Mr. Smith was anxious to know 

 if I could get any information as to the reputed light-producing power 

 of the Fulgoridce. All my evidence is entirely to the negative ; the 

 Indians know no light-giving insect but the common fire-fly, and T have 

 kept some of the family alive for days, and watched them closely, but 

 have never seen the slightest luminosity about them. 



"With regard to the discussion at the Entomological Society on 

 the 4th February, 1880, about fire-flies, Sir S. S. Saunders was entirely 

 in the right; that the intermittent character of the fire-flies' light should 

 be doubted would be looked upon by the poorest native with much the 

 same amusement with which Englishmen hear Erenchmen aver that 

 the sun never shines in England. The commonest observer on any of 

 the most ordinary lines of travel cannot but notice this : a bush, 

 generally some kind of low mangrove, will have thousands of fire-flies 

 on it, and the nearest parts of the adjacent bushes, also within a radius 

 of ten feet, will have their hundreds down to scores : their light all 

 disappears and re-appears as though it was the action of one insect, 

 a singular and most striking phenomenon. Mr. McLachlan seemed to 

 think that fire-flies flew together in swarms, and, therefore, suggested J 

 the theory that a slight current of air altering the position of the 

 whole swarm at once, so that their light-producing surface could not 4 

 be seen, accounted for the supposed intermittancy. In the first 

 place, I, at all events, have never seen fire-flies swarm when flying ; as 

 far as my own observations go, they always fly about singly. Secondly, 

 place a fire-fly in any position you like, you cannot obscure its light ; 

 even if you wrapt it up in anything so that the portion of the body 

 giving forth the light was even partially obscured, still the light would 

 be visible. 



* This drawing was not received. — Eds. 



