128 COLLECTOR'S RAMBLES 



They chartered a train, and went prepared to spend 

 the day. There was very little of the whale left when 

 they started for home. 



As Shelley had gone away to spend the Christmas 

 holidays, a young man named Terry and myself went 

 insect-collecting up the Yara River. I bought a net 

 to put on my straw hat, to keep the flies, which were 

 very numerous, away from my face. We started one 

 afternoon late in the week, and walked to Heidelberg, 

 where we camped during a rainy night, in a straw- 

 stack. The next day we were up early, and after the 

 winged denizens of the field and forest. Beetles and 

 butterflies were quite numerous, and we were busy all 

 day, catching, killing, and putting them up in papers. 



We found many of the beautiful diamond beetles, 

 which were the first I had seen. They are a bright 

 metallic green, and when placed in the sunshine, the 

 scales with which their hard wing cases are sprinkled, 

 sparkle like so many minute diamonds. 



Cicadas of large kinds and several colors kept up such 

 a squeaking in the tree-tops that talking intelligibly 

 was out of the question. 



Ants swarmed in many places, and we frequently 

 came across troops of them marching for long distances 

 in well-worn paths, and carrying green leaves, like so 

 many banners. We lay down on the ground to watch 

 a number of them drag a large cicada to their nest. 

 The creature was alive, although there were dozens of 



