8460 



Banks of the Chu-Kiang. 



membra " of the great black Copris. The dung of the buffalo is forth- 

 with scattered to the winds, and dozens of the living beetles are dis- 

 entombed and brought me. They know the haunts of skink, mouse, 

 bird and beetle. Do I desire an ant lion ? They are under the oolam 

 trees, blowing away the sandy soil with their breath till they spy the 

 lurking lion in his den. He hides in a hole on one side of the pit-fall, 

 his long powerful jaws being just visible in the centre. As they scratch 

 him out they sing a little ditty appropriate to the occasion. Do I want 

 a frog ? A slight pencil sketch is shown them : off scamper these pig- 

 tailed Ariels, and in ten minutes as many frogs are forthcoming as 

 would feast a dozen Frenchmen. Infants of tender years will join in 

 the sport, and toddling up will bashfully offer a locust struggling in 

 their tiny paws. One little fellow is bitten by a large spider which he 

 has courageously seized, and, as he presents his prize, he points with 

 tearful eye to his swollen finger. 



The ants of this island are very interesting. One yellowish species, 

 with very long legs and antennae, builds large nests in the oolam trees 

 by bending down and joining together the leaves. The jaws of the 

 ants are strong and toothed, and pierce the edges of the leaves, when 

 a viscid sap exudes which soon hardens in the air and cements the 

 leaves together. Another ant, with a roundish body covered with a 

 gray pubescence, forms cylindric holes in the ground with an elevated 

 tubular shaft, an inch or more above the surface, formed of grains of 

 sand. Another solitary ant jumps about the pathways like a Saltica 

 or hunting spider, and is a curious elongated species with a great head 

 and thorax, and with the mandibles produced in front forming a long 

 pair of forceps curving slightly upwards. My friend, Mr. Frederick 

 Smith, to whom I presented a specimen, told me its name, but 1 have 

 forgotten it. 



Although not specifically the same the flowers I meet with in my 

 walks remind me of those in England. The Oxalis is yellow-flowered 

 and not so pleasant an acid as our own wood-sorrel ; the shepherd's- 

 purse appears to be the same as ours; the groundsel is represented by 

 Emilia sonchifolia, and the Persicaria is replaced by Polygonum chi- 

 nense ; the woolly Gnaphalium is like ours of waste places ; instead 

 of the bluebell we have here Wahlenbergia agrestis ; and in place of 

 the bindweed we find the trumpet-like flowers of Evolvulus emargin- 

 atus. By the margin of a running stream, springing in numbers from 

 the fresh green sod, I see Spiranthes australis, a delicate little orchid 

 reminding one of S. aestivalis and familiar Hampshire meadows. In 

 the deep damp fissures of the ground the red coral-like corymbs of 



