— 128 : 



likewise from all tlie species preserved in our Musentn, he 

 imagines it will prove quite new. The variation of colour in 

 different individuals to which he alludes, seema not uncommon 

 in the species, for Cuvier says o{ Phasma rossia from the 

 South of France, that it is either of a yellowish green or grey- 

 ish brown. The second kind of Round Island Orthopters 

 approach the Sauterelles or Grasshoppers, and Colonel Pike 

 cannot identify No. 12 with any native of Mauritius. No. 

 13, he thinks, resembles Truxalia nasutus of Fahricius, 

 (Oryllus Nasutus Lin.) one of the travelling Crickets or 

 Locusts No. 14 is a gryllo-talpa or common Mole-Cncket, 

 but seems to differ slightly from the Mauritius example. A 

 single Lihelulla or Dragon Fly, wafted as Colonel Pike sup- 

 poses from Mauritius, is the sole representative of the eighth 

 Order of Insects, the Nevropters or transparent winged 

 family. 



The ninth Order, the Hymenopters, or veined instead of 

 nerved winged Insects, have likewise but one representative, 

 a very rare and curious bee of a deep crimson colour, when 

 first caught in 1868. Colonel Pike never saw it in Mauritius, 

 and could not catch a second specimen during his last visit. 



I have thus taken a retrospective glance at the Animal 

 Kingdom so far as we saw it exemplified during our brief 

 sojourn on Round Island. Hasty and superficial as my treat- 

 ment of the subject has been, it will serve to show that its 

 Fauna differs still more than its Flora, from that of Mauritius. 

 Nor can it fail to strike the most unreflecting mind with won- 

 der almost akin to bewilderment that within five and twenty 

 miles of Port Louis, nay within half that distance from the 

 nearest point of our coast, there should be a little spot of 

 earth, the remnant of one small isolated volcano, possessing a 

 whole series of animal and vegatable productions, not merely 

 varying from, but often wholly unlike those of the main is- 

 land at least five hundred times its size. The Fauna like the 

 Flora of the islet in question is no doubt of the Indo African 

 or more correctly Malay-African type ; and may therefore be 

 styled Mascaren in the wide signification sometimes attached 

 to that word, but it certainly more resembles that of Mad^-^ 



