484 TROPICAL WILD LILK I\ BRITISH GUIANA 



never saw it in repose, upon a leaf, or branch. Another but- 

 terfly always ah'<>lite(l upon the trunk of a particular kind 

 of tree, from the bark of which it was hardly distinguishable. 

 Indians would not detect it, until 1 pointed it out to them. 

 This fact, with some others of like nature, suggest that the 

 Indians are quick to see tilings which interest and concern 

 them — as one woman will take in the details of another wo- 

 man's attire, at a glance — and tliat they are not keenly ob- 

 servant in other resj)ects. 



When crossing the savannahs, between the Xapi and 

 the JNIanari, upon two occasions, I disturbed a tiny butterfly, 

 settled upon the kanju flower, of which it was the same color. 

 The wings were the size of the petals of the flower, which is 

 a blue mauve, ahnost lavender. The kanju is an herbaceous 

 growth planted by the Indian maidens, who rub the juice 

 of the flowers upon their faces, to make themselves attractive 

 to the Indian youths. A popular name for this butterfly 

 might be, The Kanju. 



JMoths, beetles, stick-insects, leaf-insects and grasshop- 

 pers, I shall not attempt to list. A few locusts were to be 

 seen, occasionally, upon the savannahs, to the West of the 

 INIission, flying at an altitude of about forty feet. Some 

 alighted close to us, thus enabling us to examine them. 



The six-o'clock bee may be heard, and there is another 

 cicada which rasps in the middle of the day. Its shrrr-shrrr 

 is given forth from a slit in the thorax in quick two-time. 

 The Indians reproduce the noise by means of certain seed- 

 cases strung and affixed to a stick, which they shake. It is 

 an accom])animent to the tuku-i dance. In the hills, aback 

 of Tuka, during October, I have heard the drone-bee, the 

 call of which might lead a stranger to think that a miniature 

 engine was running amongst the hills. 



One day, when breakfasting at ^Nlare-kupu, I noticed a 

 bee-hive, in an old tree, at a height of five feet six inches 

 from the ground. I have seen other hives as low as this, 

 which had been cleaned out by some wild animal. The large 



