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single file, which might well create amazement. The naturalist soon 

 settles down to the investigation of the habits of some of the more 

 interesting species, and we have a history of the Saiiba ant {(Ecodoma 

 cephalotes) given with a minuteness of detail, and at the same lime in 

 such graphic language as the naturalist alone can pen, who, with un- 

 tiring zeal, patience and perseverance, has watched for those moments 

 when Nature deigns to uplift the veil to her votaries. 



The Saiiba ant is a great scourge to the Brazilians, in some districts 

 we are told rendering agriculture almost impossible : this ant defoli- 

 ates trees, and sometimes does great injury to orange and coffee 

 plantations. Mr. Bates appears to have been the first to make known 

 the use to which the leaves are applied ; after much time spent in the 

 investigation he discovered that they were used to thatch the domes 

 which cover the entrances to their subterranean dwelling : these 

 domes, or outworks, _are sometimes forty yards in circumference, but 

 not more than two in height ; they are composed of agglomerated 

 sand, having numerous entrances all leading to the main gallery or 

 mine ; the tunnels are occasionally very extensive, running under 

 rivers as wide as the Thames at London Bridge. The Saiiba, at 

 times, enters dwellings and stores, committing serious depredation ; 

 were it not that at the time of the swarming of these ants they are 

 preyed upon by animals and insectivorous birds, they would soon 

 become a devastating scourge. 



Let us now accompany the naturalist into the forest, to a part of 

 which we are told that " description can convey no adequate idea : " we 

 are desired to imagine " a vegetation, like that of the great Palm House 

 at Kew, spread over a large tract of swampy ground, but mingled with 

 large exogenous trees, similar to our oaks, covered with creepers and 

 parasites ; the ground encumbered with rotting trunks, branches and 

 leaves ; the whole illumined by a glowing vertical sun, and reeking 

 with moisture." Can any Entomologist picture to himself a more 

 glorious locality ? Yet even this, we are told, fails to do it justice. 

 What does the naturalist find in such a locality as this ? First, the 

 splendid Morpho Achilles, a large glossy blue-and-black butterfly, six 

 inches in the expanse of its wings; then comes Papilio Sesostris, clad 

 in velvet-black, relieved by a large silken green patch on its wings ; 

 and in his train follow the lovely P. ^Eneas, P. Vertumnus and P. 

 Lysander : no one will dispute the truth of the remark, " Such places 

 are paradises to a naturalist." All this beauty is to be sought for in 

 the shade of the swampy forest, and we are tempted to ask, Why is it 



