62 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



redolent of insect-life, of which the late summer broods still 

 linger in somewhat tarnished glory, and the winter early broods 

 are just out in their splendour. This day has been anticipated 

 some little time, for our veteran fly-catcher, from the old colony,* 

 has come up to Natal to see its life, and has come out to stay a 

 day or two to see it in its butterfly form. Last night we had a 

 short look in on the moths, but the end of a thunderstorm had 

 spoilt our sugaring, and there were not many insects to be 

 attended to this morning as the result of our operations, Pacidara 

 venustissima being the only notable. To-day, as our intention is 

 to do our neighbourhood thoroughly, I shall take my reader 

 along with us, so far as I can by word-painting, and give him the 

 "carte du pays" equally with my veteran visitor. 



Our arrangements were, after a substantial breakfast at 10, to 

 leave our house about 11, and working in a circuitous route, to 

 reach a point some four miles awa)^ at about 4 p.m., where the 

 cart was to meet us to bring us back, or perhaps the ladies would 

 pick us up, and extending our drive we should see something of 

 the neighbourhood by a cruise on wheels before returning home 

 to dinner. We occupied the time from bath and " chota hazari," 

 an institution somewhat recognised in Natal plantation life, till 

 breakfast, by a desultory examination of my cabinets on the part 

 of my visitor, with gossip and anecdote, and the arrangement of 

 my over-night sugar captures, a very meagre set, by myself. Our 

 breakfast, a combination of Eastern luxuries, in the way of curried 

 this-or-that, with a cutlet, a salad, and a bottle or two of light 

 wines from the West, and cafe noir to follow — Natal cofi'ee seven 

 years old and grown on the estate — was sufficiently substantial, 

 and at the same time aesthetic, to satisfy even an entomologist. 



At 11 sharp our boys present themselves in the verandah to 

 assist in carrying such paraphernalia as we may require, — 

 sweeping nets, forceps nets, killing bottles, larv£e tins, lengthening 

 pieces to the rods for our Nymphalid sugar-sucking friends, and 

 finally a snack for lunch. Their arrival is the signal for the 

 termination of our meal, and the very pleasant gossiping 

 conversation which is the essential accompaniment of our 

 veteran's presence, and we prepare for our expedition by 

 adopting what, to the English mind would be a sufficiently 

 eccentric costume, — a sun-hat with a very considerable puggarie, 



* Col. J. H. Bowker, the well-known South African authority and collector. 



