Myriapods. 7661 



T am familiar with these two all the way there and back again, for the 

 huge-bodied buffalo and the yelping dog, the oblique-eyed child or 

 little-footed woman, are but casual road-side acquaintances. 



The sky at this time of the year, and when the weather is fine, is 

 of a pale clear blue, and the fields are fresh and emerald-green with 

 the young wheat; the first swallow is a pleasing sight, and the 

 quaint Uttle children are spread over the landscape, for there are no 

 hedges, filling small baskets with every esculent leaf and blade not 

 .sown by man. '^lese are chiefly Compositse and Cruciferaj, the 

 knowing urchins carefully avoiding Euphorbiaceae. 



Our myriapod crawls in every sunny path. Above, but not much 

 above him, go the early Andraenas — for the other bees are not yet 

 out — with steady zigzag flight, always diligently seeking something. 

 The insect world is not yet fairly roused from its winter's sleep. A 

 glittering black Staphylinus alights upon the path, or a dull Apho- 

 dius falls down before you ; an adventurous land-crab makes an 

 experimental trip from one hole to another on a sunny mud-bank • 

 and the dykes are filled with little pellucid fish, with big heads and 

 large golden eyes. 



As for the Mina bird, he is everywhere. As you pass through the 

 Settlement a loud cheery note salutes your ear, and, on looking about 

 to thank the feathered vocalist, you see, perched upon the cornice of 

 the tallest house, a Mina, solitary, but apparently on good terms with 

 himself, and piping, at intervals, in the fulness of his joy. The old 

 women are sitting in groups before their doors, busy with their spin- 

 ning and their cotton-pods; and there, beside them, disputing the 

 crumbs with the ducks and the fowls, is the Mina bird. Among the 

 buffaloes in the marsh by the river's brink, familiar and noisy, the 

 Mina birds gather in little flocks, perching on the heads and backs of 

 their flat-horned, mud-covered companions, or refreshing themselves 

 by making short excursions to the adjacent homesteads. From the 

 bamboo and fir-tree plantations, which make the temples so pic- 

 turesque, issue forth the clear, sweet notes of the Mina, mingled with 

 the impudent " quirk, quirk " of the magpie, the harsh screech of the 

 longtailed butcher-bird, the noisy chatter of the blue jay, and the 

 familiar chirp of the homely sparrow. 



And on every path where the sun is at his brightest crawls our 

 myriapod, urging his way onward " with a heart for any fate." Like 

 his brother worms with legs less numerous, he is supremely ignorant 

 of the sayings and doings of the powers above ; so he prefers the diy, 

 sunny paths, instead of the scented bean-fields and the shelter of the 



