ZOOLOGICAL BAUBLES. 159 



inevitable "Peruvian"* or Russian Jew, whose inferior liquors, 

 with the illustration of drunken Kafirs around the establishment, 

 proved once more that, with few exceptions, these people should 

 never be entrusted with a licence. The best law passed by the 

 Transvaal Government of recent years, and, to their credit be it 

 said, in the face of great opposition by some of their interested and 

 selfish supporters, is one which now prohibits the sale of intoxi- 

 cants to natives, entirely necessitated by the vile compounds 

 supplied to the Kafirs at the mines. However, by pushing on 

 we reached another roadside house kept by an English Colonial 

 and a Dane, and there we passed the night. 



This thickly wooded spot, in the vicinity of a well-known Nek, 

 is an excellent halt for the ornithologist. It was here I first met 

 with the African Grey Hornbill, Tockus nasutus, a bird,, strange 

 to sa} r , which became rather common in the gardens of Pretoria 

 during the winter months of 1896. Hornbills are not averse to 

 human habitations, and I had brought to me the yellow- and 

 red-billed species, Lophoceros leacomelas and L. erythroryncJms, 

 both killed in town gardens. 



Although the season had been abnormally dry, we now found 

 many boggy and loose sandy tracks, to avoid which loop ways had 

 been made through the trees, though these were often little better 

 than the discarded road. In these sandy tracks I found the Cicin- 

 delid beetle, Manticora tnherculata, and later on I was able to add 

 to the list of its victims a small member of the Cicadidae, Callip- 

 saltria longula, which I extracted from its closed mandibles. It 

 is often thought and frequently stated that the Cicadas are a 

 highly protected group, owing to their generally assimilative hue, 

 when at rest, to the twigs or boughs which they frequent, and 

 certainly some species are difficult to detect. But any conceal- 

 ment thus acquired is more than negatived by the stridulation 

 of the males, and protective resemblance can scarcely be a factor 

 in the insect's existence when by its piercing notes it proclaims 

 the place of its concealment. In collecting I was usually apprised 

 of their whereabouts by their stridulating music, and the difficulty 

 I experienced in finding them among the bush would improbably 

 be felt by birds. As if aware of the danger they incur by 



* S. African corruption of a local European name for these people. 



