50 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



to have left for their breeding-grounds. A small terrier 

 dog in our possession also played havoc with the ants, 

 which it not only caught, but eat in large numbers. 



After a fortnight's intermittent rain, the weather 

 became sufficiently favourable, or rather the roads were 

 once more passable, for another visit to my Kafirs at the 

 Bark farm. A new world of animal life now met the 

 view as I drove along the roads, which in many places 

 were composed of marshy mud, where on my last visit 

 I raised clouds of dust. In Coleoptera giant Anthias 

 (Anthia thoracica and A. maxillosa) were seen foraging 

 about, and the huge Manticora tuberculata was very 

 abundant, whilst Polyhirma macilenta ran about the 

 roads where the surface was sandy and gritty. In this 

 way I frequently stopped and obtained some fine 

 species. In the wooded tracts I found Cetonias on the 

 wing, many adhering to the leaves of trees, and one 

 (Diplognatha hebrcea) even on the long stalks of last 

 season's dried but now damp grasses. In the wet but 

 scant herbage Blue Cranes (Anthropoides paradisea), 

 usually in pairs, searched for the orthopterous insects 

 which now almost daily became more plentiful, whilst 

 the Widow-bird (Cher a progne) had now again deve- 

 loped its long tail-feathers for the breeding-season, and 

 frequented the long sedgy grasses that grew on the 

 marshy portions of the veld. These long tail-feathers 

 appear to offer a direct hindrance to flight, and the 

 birds always seemed to proceed with difficulty and great 

 encumbrance, like a Court Lady dragging a heavy 

 train. 



Nature frequently reminds mankind of her forces, and 

 she did so with these heavy rains : small spruits became 

 torrents, and insignificant rivers raging floods. As usual, 

 accounts slowly came into Pretoria for it is the press 

 which allows civilized man to rise above tradition and 

 hearsay, and newspapers give to prosaic life the romance 

 of current history. The "Six-mile Spruit," a stream 

 through which the coaches drive, and at a distance from 

 Pretoria which its name specifies, came down with a 

 suddenness that has made it famous among the streams 



