218 [March, 



your nose is all but touching the tree, wuz-squeak-wuz ! a fellow takes 

 the alarm and is off, just brushing your face. Another follows ; and 

 the concert stops in your immediate vicinity. A few minutes' patience, 

 and they strilce up again. Tou are getting to know the trunk now, — 

 you scan it narrowly — something moves ; and lo ! the whole choir is at 

 last visible— half-a-dozen stout, bull-headed individuals, sitting close 

 together, with their abdominal plates vibrating most rapidly. Tou no 

 longer marvel at the difficulty of discovering them, for their bodies are 

 coloured with greenish and grey, so as closely to imitate the surface on 

 which they sit ; and their wholly transparent wings, which cover tbe 

 abdomen, obscure any distinct outline of the insect. 



A fluttering above your head makes you look up. Two large 

 butterflies, which you at once recognize as species of Nymplialis 

 (Charaxes) are hovering about a moist spot on one of the branches, 

 and the beating of their strong wings against the adjacent twigs causes 

 the sound which you heard. They settle, and you at once see that 

 there is quite a cluster of insects on that particular part of the branch, 

 all sucking away at the exudations from the bark. Besides the two 

 species of Nymphalis, there are half-a-dozen examples of Evmica Natal- 

 ensis, several of Eurytela Siarhas, a fine Philognoma, and a sturdy 

 little Loccura. Beetles, too, are busily feeding : the fine " Goliaths," 

 JEudicella Smithii and Amati/rodes Passerinii are in great force, not to 

 mention several smaller Oetonias ; while every available space is occu- 

 pied by Diptera and Hymenoptera of various sorts. Towering above 

 them all, a very skeleton at the banquet, is a monstrous green Mantis, 

 with a half-devoured butterfly in its paws. This is indeed a chance for 

 making a good " bag ;" and you accordingly get the long bamboo from 

 your Kafir and fix the hoop-net to the end. The bamboo is fortunately 

 of sufficient length, but, as you steady it, you soon perceive that to 

 capture the whole company " at one fell swoop" will be impossible, 

 from the nature of the branch. Tou therefore specially keep your eye 

 on the Goliaths and Nymphalis Brutus, as you make your stroke. The 

 net sweeps along the branch, dispersing all the revellers and capturing 

 some seven or eight. While securing the specimens, you observe a 

 little space sprinkled with the wings of butterflies and other insects, 

 lying just beneath the branch. On examining these, you notice that 

 some of them are gnawed at the base, and others have portions of the 

 thorax still adhering to them. This is clearly the work of that big 

 Mantis which you saw eating a butterfly on the tree, and which is now 

 kicking about at the bottom of the net. Butterflies of most Families 

 have their remains scattered here ; but you observe no wings of Danaidcr 



