208 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vou. VII, 
most rampart of a double or treble line of sand-hills running 
parallel to the sea, and behind these is a flat expanse of sand 
extending inland to a distance of about two miles and bounded on 
its inner side by the Sur Lake. With the exception of the green 
vegetation on the shores of the lake, and of some trees round a 
small temple on one of the sand-hills, Spznzfex is the only plant 
rising above the surface of the sand, and this does not grow 
luxuriantly. The vegetation is principally composed of small 
plants lying close on the surface of the ground; except on the 
beach these occur more or less abundantly over the whole sandy 
area not affected by the lake. There is nothing resembling the 
long grass which is of such importance in the well-known South- 
port sand-hills in England during the early stages of their forma- 
tion. In spite of this, the Balyghai sand-hills present a much 
greater appearance of stability than do those at Southport (an 
appearance in keeping with the nature of the vegetation), the 
sand being much firmer, probably on account of greater ‘* bind- 
ing’? power. The shore therefore, though sharply marked off 
from the country out of reach of the tide, differs but little from it 
in character, and the way in which the darkly coloured and con- 
sequently conspicuous Cicindela biramosa confines itself absolutely 
to the former becomes peculiarly striking and suggests that the 
cause of its restriction must lie either in a restriction of its food 
to the area between tide-marks or in some effect of the sea on the 
climate of this particular area. I do not rem@mber to have seen 
any tiger-beetles on the sand-hills; but there are some curious 
long- legged heteropterous bugs living there whose appearance 
and mode of progression is very like that of a tiger-beetle. On the 
sand further inland Cicindela cancellata, Dej., C. albina, Wdm., 
and C. agnata, Fit., occur, their markings blending with the 
general colour of the sand in such a way as to render them almost 
invisible. All three species may occur together, but their relative 
abundance differs greatly in different places; the last-named I 
found particularly plentiful on bare sand not far from the shores 
of the Sur Lake.! 
Extensive floods occurred at about the time of leaving Ba- 
lyghai and consequently the return journey to Calcutta was much 
impeded, and a night was spent at Cuttack on the way. By this 
time the floods had subsided again to a considerable extent, and 
among the bushes on the bank of the Mahanaddi (a big river 
crossed by the railway not far from Cuttack station) there were 
exposed at intervals little patches of firm sandy soil of not more 
than a few square yards extent each. On this dull soil numbers 
of tiger-beetles were assembled, and on more than one occasion I 
saw a specimen dig his jaws into the ground, from which I presume 
that he drew forth some food though I was unable to obtain con- 
firmation of this. With the exception of one _brightly marked 
L Concerning the habits of ‘the above four species see also Annandale in 
‘ Annotated list of the Asiatic Beetles in the Collection of the Indian Museum,’ 
Pt I, pp. 13 and 28—30 (Calcutta, 1909). 
