210 
NATURE NOTES 
had swallowed two animals weighing 30 lbs. apiece — one a small kind of deer, 
and the other a young wild pig — each about the bulk and weight of a medium- 
sized retriever ; a very creditable performance for the expanding powers of the 
throat and jaws of a snake whose body was 8 inches in diameter at the thickest 
part. Now, a tiger 6 feet long from the head to the base of the tail (and they 
run larger than this) weighs at least 200 lbs. There is a lot of difference between 
swallowing an animal of 30 lbs., and one of 200 lbs. However, the python 
seems, according to the story, to have managed to spiflicate this unique 
Cingalese tiger, and to have, or “ partly,” got it down its capacious throat. 
Why the missionary did not shoot the tiger in the tree, history does not say. 
He must have been a patient man, for the process of swallowing an animal 
takes a “ long time.” He seems to have waited till all danger was over, and 
when the tiger was “partly down” the “huge python’s” throat he descended 
from the tree, and shot the unoffending “reptile” that had saved his life. A 
shameful case of clerical ingratitude. 
Mr. Houghton will, I fear, vote me a sceptic. Some snake stories do 
require a pinch of salt. 
Soathacre , Swaffham, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
October , iqo6. 
437 . Tiger Beetles. —In the side of a hill I have come across a vast 
number of holes made by the larva of the wood tiger beetle ( Cicindela sylvatica), 
a beautiful green insect, half an inch long, strikingly marked with spots and dashes 
of a light cream colour. Most beetles are deliberate and slow in taking flight. 
This one is so quick in folding and unfolding its wings as to make use of them 
almost with the rapidity of a fly. Its name, both in the larval and the perfect 
state, is well deserved ; for it is insatiable in its search for prey. The place 
selected by the larva for its operations is some sunny steep bank, or hillside, 
free from vegetation ; in this it bores a perpendicular hole the size of a quill, 
eight or nine inches deep, at the mouth of which it lies in wait for any insect 
that comes its way. In shape the body resembles the letter Z. The two 
anterior segments are much enlarged, and with the head, which is armed with 
formidable jaws, exactly fit the hole, and lie even with the surface of the ground. 
There are two tubercles side by side in the middle of the back, furnished with 
hooks, which have only to be seen for their use at once to be appreciated. 
They press against the side of the hole, and keep the body in place. On 
approaching the holes our presence was discovered by the noise of climbing the 
hill, and the larvae retreated out of sight. In a short time, however, they resumed 
their post at the mouth of the hole, with jaws extended in readiness for prey. 
We then proceeded to feed them with any insect we could catch. Flies, cater- 
pillars, ants, were instantly seized and dragged to the bottom of the hole to be 
devoured at leisure. It is difficult to imagine any spot more dangerous to insect 
life than the side of this hill which these voracious larvae had selected for their 
home. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
October, 1906. 
438 . Leaf-cutting Bees. —Both J. E. W. and Mr. R. T. Lewis state, 
in their notes on Leaf-cutting Bees, that after the piece of leaf has been cut out, 
the bee flies straight away to her nest. I have several times watched these insects 
at work and each time have noticed that, after the cutting out has been accomp- 
lished, they only fly a short distance and then settle on the top of another leaf, or, if 
I remember rightly, on any other flat surface, such as the top of a wall or post, 
where they rest for quite a considerable time before flying again, as if they had 
found the task of cutting the leaf a great exertion. 
The Nurtons, Tintern, Mon., J. F. Bird. 
October 8 , 1906. 
439 . Leaf-cutting Bees. — In the last number Lena Shaw asks if the 
bees gathered the leaves which she observed them carrying. It may interest 
her and other readers if I relate what I witnessed on the riverside here some 
weeks ago. When taking a walk one day I rested awhile on a large balk of 
timber. When doing so a bee came close to where I sat. Its hovering attracted 
