Quadrupeds. 1869 



wasps, beetles, and butterflies do, with the body nearly horizontal and the legs down- 

 wards. How then do they so suddenly and unhesitatingly pitch upon the flat roof of a 

 room with the legs upwards? My notion, though, as I said before, I cannot satisfy 

 myself of its correctness, is, that they first throw up the two fore legs and fasten them 

 to the ceiling, much in the same way as we should throw up our arms in order to seize 

 hold of a rope or horizontal bar above us. Then, I imagine, the body is wheeled up as 

 on axis, and the other legs come into their proper and final position. Of course, con- 

 sidering the small size of the insect and the abundant practice he has, such a manoeu- 

 vre could be easily accomplished with a rapidity that would baffle the scrutiny of any 

 but the most accurate observers. 



I need not apologize, I feel sure, to naturalists, for the apparent minuteness and 

 triviality of these remarks. Such untrodden footpaths as these more often lead in 

 Natural History to novel and important truths than the regular beaten highway. — W. 

 S. Lewis; Trinity College, Cambridge, August 17th, 1847. 



Capture of Cordulia arctica in Scotland. — As enquiry has been made in England, 

 and on the continent, if I have again met with this insect, I have the gratification of 

 recording in the pages of the 'Zoologist ' that I took four specimens, one male and 

 three females, in the Black Forest, in June last. It is the locality in which I captured 

 the specimen that is in Mr. Dale's cabinet, and till now the only one known as 

 British. — Richard Weaver ; Kinloch Rannock, July \5th, 1847. 



Insect Stratagem. — Yesterday, while walking on the cliffs near Baramouth, I wit- 

 nessed a most amusing instance of insect stratagem. A grasshopper clinging to the 

 stem of an Orchis (maculata ?) attracting my notice, I stooped down to look at it, the 

 insect perceiving my movement, adroitly wheeled round to the opposite side; upon my 

 moving my head to that quarter it wheeled back, and upon my again moving it, 

 changed its position, and did so repeatedly ten or eleven times ; I put forth my hand 

 to capture it, but it eluded my grasp and escaped. — E.J. R. Hughes ; Catharine 

 Street, Whitehaven, June 30th, 1847. 



The Monkey and the Castanha Nut. — " Back of the house was a grove of fine trees, 

 some apparently having been planted for ornament, others bearing profusion of various 

 sorts of fruits. The one of all these most attractive was that which produces the 

 Brazil-nut, called in the country castanhas. Botanically it is the Bertholletia excelsa. 

 This tree was upwards of one hundred feet in height and between two and three in di- 

 ameter. From the branches were depending the fruits, large as cocoa-nuts. The 

 shell of these is nearly half an inch in thickness, and contains the triangular nuts so 

 nicely packed that once removed no skill can replace them. It is no easy matter to 

 break this tough covering, requiring some instrument and the exercise of considerable 

 strength : yet we were assured by an intelligent friend at the Barra of the Rio Negro 

 that the guaribas or howling monkeys are in the habit of breaking them by striking 

 them upon stones or the limbs of iron-like trees. This friend related an amusing in- 

 cident of which he had been witness, where the monkey, forgetful of everything else, 

 pounding down the nut, with might and main, in a fever of excitement struck it with 

 tremendous force upon the tip of his tail. Down dropped the nut and away flew 

 monkey, bounding and howling fearfully. How long the victim was laid up by his 

 lame tail our friend was unable to inform us ; but we thought one thing certain, that 



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