FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 9 



leaf stalk was something which resembled a leaf rolled into along 

 spiral form ; it was veined like the leaves around it, its color was 

 the same, and it had a stalk. We looked closely and still more 

 closely and at last found it to be a green caterpillar-' with a short 

 tail (the aforesaid stalk) attaching itself to the real stalk by its 

 hindmost pair of legs and extending the rest of its body in a 

 perfectly motionless straight line at an angle of forty-five degrees 

 from the rest of the leaf. Altogether it was as nearly like 

 a rolled-up leaf, as it was possible for an insect to look. 

 Near here there was a small bundle of dirty looking 

 cotton, half the size of a walnut, caught in a web of 

 gossamer, which turned out to be a large spideiyr carrying 

 its young ones in a bag of silky webbing. Further on 

 we noted a dried flower stalk which had presumably fallen from 

 the mango tree above, resting on a broad plantain leaf but 

 flower sprigs do not move as this one did and closer scrutiny 

 revealed the fact that it was an insect of the Mantis j family 

 catching with its long barbed fore-legs at the flies incautiously 

 skimming past it. In color it was black and the imitation it 

 presented at a little distance, of a dried flower stalk, was simply 

 perfect. In the pool at the fo it of the hill we again observed 

 the little fish (Ciprinodontes) which belong to the carp family, and 

 also caught a glimpse of a cray -fish shooting backwards under a 

 rocky ledge beneath the clear water. How the cray-lish so 

 unerringly manages to shoot from the distance of at least a 

 yard — tail first into its hole, is a matter for wonder when one 

 first sees it perform the feat. It is only by long watching that 

 we can find out how it is done. Canon Kingsley described it, 

 in his inimitable language, only his remarks had reference to a 

 lobster, but lobsters and crav-fish alike possess this peculiar 

 faculty. Kingsley says : " If he wanted to go into a narrow 

 " crack ten yards off, what do you think he did ? If he had gone 

 '• in head foremost of course he could not have turned round. 

 '• So he used to turn his t;iil to it. and lav his long horns which 

 " carry his sixth sense in their tips (and nobody knows what that 

 " sixth sense is), straight down his back and twists his eyes back 

 " till they almost come out of their sockets and then made ready, 

 '•'' present, fire, snap ! — away he went pop into the hole ; and 

 " peeped out and twiddled his whiskers as much as to say 'you 

 " could'nt do that !' " 



We crossed over the stream by means of the stepping stones 

 and ascended the steep incline on the other side. Here we met 



'Belonging to the Geometrida?. 

 tNow being identified. 

 JGenu3 Acanthops. 



