Quadrupeds. 709 



is much duller in colour, the body being nearly black, having little 

 of the bright green reflections ; the wings are browner, and they are 

 all marked with a rhomboidal white stigma, near the tip, which is 

 wholly wanting in the male. I have the best evidence of their iden- 

 tity, which I need not particularize. The female is figured in Drury's 

 ' Exotic Insects.' Their mode of flight is graceful, but rather slow, 

 so that they are easily captured ; and they will not leave these their 

 favourite haunts, even though pursued. I have no doubt they are 

 born and die within the limited space of a few yards. The refreshing 

 coolness of these wild woodland bowers was so tempting, that I could 

 not resist taking refuge in them from the burning heat without ; and 

 thus I contracted an acquaintance with these " demoiselles." I en- 

 countered a stream however of higher pretensions, Mush-creek, which 

 I crossed by means of a very primitive bridge, the trunk of a tall fo- 

 rest tree, which had been cut down so as to fall across. On this tree, 

 basking in the sun, lay a large snake of a dusky brown, about four feet 

 in length, which, on my disturbing it, instantly plunged into the mid- 

 dle of the stream, and dived to the bottom. As the water was turbid, 

 I saw no more of it. It was, no doubt, the species commonly called 

 the copper-belly (Coluber porcatus, Bosc), which is numerous, but 

 harmless. I afterwards observed a snake, probably of the same spe- 

 cies, swimming swiftly in a clear stream, close to the surface, but en- 

 tirely submerged ; occasionally it stopped, protruding its head and 

 neck above the surface to look about. 



In these unimportant but pleasing observations, a few only of which 

 I have attempted to record, the day waned away unperceived. When 

 I arrived at the hospitable mansion of my friend, the afternoon was 

 considerably advanced; and I found that I had accomplished the tor- 

 toise-pace of one mile per hour ; tired in my walk, but not of it. 



P. H. Gosse. 



Note on a newly-discovered Cave in Westmoreland. This remarkable cave is situ- 

 ated to the south of Arnside Knot, looking upon Morecambe-bay. The entrance to it 

 can only be effected by creeping like a serpent, through a long passage, just capable 

 of receiving a person of ordinary size. In a long gallery, the floor of which is covered 

 with debris, have been found a number of bones ; some of them are pronounced to be 

 those of the hyaena, the wolf, and other animals now extinct in this country. At the 

 extremity of this gallery is a natural chamber, the roof of which is overhung with sta- 

 lactites, while the floor is covered with the stalagmitic formation. — Edward Newman. 



