THE BALOLO. 63 
these little, creeping, crawling things, with their cylin- 
drical, jointed body, are a delicacy to be recommended 
or a nuisance to be avoided. 
The most singular portion of the natural history of 
the Balolo is the regularity of its periodical appearance. 
About Hanover I have often observed devout Roman 
Catholics going on the morning of St. John’s day to 
neighbouring sandhills, gathering on the roots of herbs 
a certain insect (Coccus Polonica) looking like drops of 
blood, and thought by them to be created on purpose 
to keep alive the remembrance of the foul murder of 
St. John the Baptist, and only to be met with on the 
morning of the day set apart for him by the Church. I 
believe the life of this insect is very ephemeral, but by 
no means restricted to the 24th of June. But there is 
an Australian bird (Psittacus wndulatus) which is known 
to lay its eggs always on the 17th and 19th of Decem- 
ber, and forms another instance of certain actions in the 
life of an animal being performed, with unerring cer- 
tainty, on particular days. 
On the 22nd, at four P.M., we entered the harbour of 
Levuka, the principal port of the island of Ovalau. 
Captain Wilson, who had left Somosomo a few days be- 
fore me, was standing at the beach, and conducted me 
to the office of the British Consulate, where I found 
Mr. William Pritchard, by whom the cession of Fiji to 
England has been brought about, and to whom I deli- 
vered a letter from Earl Russell. Mr. Pritchard is the 
son of the Rev. George Pritchard, formerly British Con- 
sul at Tahiti, at the time when the French, against the 
wish and will of the natives, assumed the protectorate 
