230 
NATURE NOTES. 
three or four inches across, have pink or 3’ellow stripes, and a 
proboscis twice the length of their bodies. 
Some of the girls out here keep orange sticks hanging up in 
their rooms, and it is the custom for each of their admirers to 
give them a bow of different coloured ribbon to tie on a thorn. 
Some girls have each thorn on their sticks tied with a different 
bow. 
November 2nd. — There are no sparrows here, and although 
the Florida “ stink sparrow ” is a small brown bird, it is not at 
all the same as our little English friends. We saw one to-da}’. 
They have a scent so e.xactly like that of the quail, that the dogs 
are invariably taken in by it ; and as the birds also have a 
habit of hopping along the ground in the long grass, the hounds 
often point them, thinking they are quail. The sporting dogs 
here are all called “ smell dogs,” pointers being “ whip-tailed 
smell dogs ” and setters, spaniels, or long-haired ones, “ feather- 
tailed smell dogs.” We have found several brown caterpillars 
living in cases composed of bits of dead leaves and sticks, 
very much like caddis-worms. These cases are fastened hang- 
ing from the mid-rib of a leaf (generally a live-oak), and the 
caterpillar crawls out to eat when hungry ; sticking to the one 
leaf till that is finished, and then moving, case and all, to another. 
I do not think we shall ever be able to keep them, as the leaves 
shrivel as soon as gathered, which fact upsets the caterpillar 
ver\' much. 
Another striking bird is the turkey-buzzard, a most useful 
scavenger in such a hot country, and so valued on this 
account, that a fine of $5 is imposed on anybody found killing 
one. It is a large bird, with much red flesh about its head, and 
having a curious w’ay of turning up the tips of its wings when 
flying, or rather hovering in the air. Their instinct is wonderful. 
They will stand round a “bogged” horse, or follow sick cattle 
for days waiting for them to die, and will entirely demolish a 
dead calf in a few hours. 
November i6th. — It is very curious to see the stumps being 
burnt on freshly cleared land. The trees are cut down so as to 
leave about three feet of trunk out of the ground ; holes are 
dug at the roots of each, in which a fire is lit. Passing such 
a clearing at night, and seeing the fire flaming up out of the 
ground in every direction, reminds one very much of Bore’s 
picture of the heretics’ graves. 
Rabbits here do not burrow, but are in their habits much 
like English hares. Owing to this, no doubt, their feet are 
quite altered in shape, being pointed, instead of spread out for 
digging. They are called “ cotton-tails.” There is a nest of three 
young ones just in front of the house. They are not in a hole, 
but lying in a hollow under a clump of grass. 
June ist, 1893. — Have been through one of the hammocks. 
No words can describe the luxuriant beauty of the vegetation, 
which in most places is quite impenetrable. Cabbage-palmettoes 
