A PREY-PROBLEM. 273 



In the Colony and the Republican States there is a 

 law against their destruction, for doubtless they do a 

 great deal of good. Why they are called secretary- 

 birds I learned from an old French work. On the top 

 of the head each bird has a few stiff, upright detached 

 feathers ; these were supposed to resemble the quill or 

 quills stuck behind the ears of a clerk, hence the name 

 secretary. They are easily domesticated, and have been 

 introduced into Guadeloupe and other French West 

 Indian Islands to make war upon the formidable reptile 

 the jir -de-lance . 



A most peculiar insect here first came under my 

 notice ; it was nearly an inch and a half long, clothed 

 with almost black hair, and about the thickness of a 

 pipe -stem. The method it adopts to secure its prey is 

 very peculiar, and, in fact, rather astounding, for it 

 places its head and shoulders in the entrance to an ant- 

 hole, then commences a quick vibratory motion. The 

 ants peep out or come near to learn the cause of the 

 disturbance, when they are seized by the powerful 

 forceps with which the intruder's tail is armed; bat 

 the puzzle is, with its head and shoulders sunk in the 

 ground, how does it see its prey? 



Our treck completed, and the camping-ground 

 reached, to my surprise I found at least a dozen Boer 

 wagons there before me. Both males and females came 

 forth and gave me a hearty welcome, the latter each 

 bearing a plate of rusk bread as an offering. This habit 

 I have not observed among the Boers before, and I 

 should imagine it had a Biblical origin ; whether or not, 

 it is a very pleasant way of making the stranger feel 

 that he is welcome. Just as night was closing in a 

 religious service was performed. An old grey-headed 

 s 



