388 Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon, 



picture lay ou the foot of the grave, while the head was supported 

 on poles, so as to incline it to an angle of about 40°. The other instance 

 alluded to was in the Pasdoom Corle, and the slab of mud and wattles 

 contained two figures — a man and his wife, I presume. 



How true it is, that the life of a naturalist is one of never-ending 

 enjoyment ! Little as I know of the vast hook of nature so liberally 

 opened to me in the East, how varied and interesting are the inci- 

 dents supplied at all times and seasons ! Happening to lift my eyes 

 from my book, they fell on the half-finished mud-nest of a mason 

 wasp {Odynerus ?), on which the busy architect was hard at work with 

 her natural trowel : how deftly she spread her mortar, ever and anon 

 flying off for more ! At length, having finished the cell, which occu- 

 pied her some three hours, she flew away, and presently returned 

 with a green caterpillar, which was thrust through the narrow round 

 opening left in the surface ; another, and another followed, till the 

 cell was full, when, depositing her egg, she carefully closed the en- 

 trance and flew away. 



I have frequently selected one of these flies for observation, and 

 have seen their labours extend over a period of a fortnight or twenty 

 days ; sometimes only half a cell was completed in a day ; at others 

 as much as two. I never saw more than twenty cells in one nest ; 

 seldom, indeed, that number ; and whence the caterpillars were pro- 

 cured was always to me a mystery. I have seen thirty or forty 

 brought in, of a species which I know to be very rare, in the perfect 

 state, and which I have sought for in vain, although I knew on what 

 plant they fed. Then, again, how are they disabled and yet not 

 injured so as to cause them immediate death 1 Die they all do, at 

 least all I have ever tried to rear after taking them from the nest. 



The perfected fly never effects its egress from the closed aperture 

 through which the caterpillars were inserted, and when cells are 

 placed end to end, as they are in many instances, the outward end of 

 each is always selected. I cannot detect any difference in the thick- 

 ness in the crust of the cell to cause this uniformity of practice. It 

 is often as much as half an inch throvigh, of great hardness, and, as 

 far as I can see, impervious to air and light. How, then, does the 

 enclosed fly always select the right end, and with what secretion is 

 it supplied to decompose this mortar ? 



I never saw a mason wasp employ an old nest to rear another 

 brood. It is not, however, useless on that account : it forms the 

 cradle of a beautiful blue Chrysis ; and before the introduction of 

 gun-barrels, flutes, keys and key-holes, pens, and other tube-like 

 articles, it was, I doubt not, extensively used. Man, with his inven- 

 tions, has, however, supplied this lovely pest so many comfortable 

 abiding-places, that the humble mud-dwelling of the Odynerus is 

 neglected, and the dung- stoppered nest of the Chrysis is met with 

 wherever a tube or keyhole strikes its fancy. 



Starting from Koodakakerawe at daybreak on Monday the 20th, 

 I visited the tanks in the neighbourhood, and procured a fine speci- 

 men oi Sarkidiornis melanotis, Pen., which is apparently common in 

 these tanks, of which there are no less than three within a mile of 



