THE BALOLO. 63 



these little, creeping, crawling things, with their cylin- 

 drical, jointed body, are a delicacy to be recommended 

 or a nuisance to be avoided. 



The most singular portion of the natural history of 

 the Balolo is the regularity of its periodical appearance. 

 About Hanover I have often observed devout Roman 

 Catholics going on the morning of St. John's day to 

 neighbouring sandhills, gathering on the roots of herbs 

 a certain insect (Coccus Polonica) looking like drops of 

 blood, and thought by them to be created on purpose 

 to keep alive the remembrance of the foul murder of 

 St. John the Baptist, and only to be met with on the 

 morning of the day set apart for him by the Church. I 

 believe the life of this insect is very ephemeral, but by 

 no means restricted to the 24th of June. But there is 

 an Australian bird (Psittacus undulatus) which is known 

 to lay its eggs always on the 17th and 19th of Decem- 

 ber, and forms another instance of certain actions in the 

 life of an animal being performed, with unerring cer- 

 tainty, on particular days. 



On the 22nd, at four P.M., we entered the harbour of 

 Levuka, the principal port of the island of Ovalau. 

 Captain Wilson, who had left Somosomo a few days be- 

 fore me, was standing at the beach, and conducted me 

 to the office of the British Consulate, where I found 

 Mr. William Pritchard, by whom the cession of Fiji to 

 England has been brought about, and to whom I deli- 

 vered a letter from Earl Russell. Mr. Pritchard is the 

 son of the Rev. George Pritchard, formerly British Con- 

 sul at Tahiti, at the time when the French, against the 

 wish and will of the natives, assumed the protectorate 



