NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
121 
they settled on a stone, and I prepared to stalk them when 
suddenly along flashed one of these red dragon-flies ; a sharp 
scuffle and rustling of wings in the air, and in less than twenty 
feet from where I stood, the larger insect had carried off one 
of the happy couple. Every time I have failed to capture 
one of these big creatures. Brought home a web of cater- 
pillars with a hundred caterpillars ; I left a lot behind. 
May 3, 1915. — Cycled out on the plains to Kell’s farm, 
about six miles out. Chased butterflies on my bike across 
the plains, which is quite good riding compared with some of 
the municipal roads. A butterfly migration was in progress, 
and has lasted several days ; it is a wonderful sight, and only 
one species is taking part in it — Catopsila florella ; the male 
might easily be mistaken for that of the English brimstone, 
the female is more orange than Gonepteryx rhamni. They 
drift along with the wind like snowflakes. Of course they are 
very sparse, but as far as the eye could scan, they could be 
seen, and as it went on unceasingly for days, thousands of 
insects must have taken part in it. Another remarkable sight 
was a bush something of the size and appearance of an English 
laurel smothered in caterpillars and their webbing. They 
had nearly stripped the bush of all its leaves. On a bridge 
over a stream I took two fine blue wasps (larger than an 
English hornet) at work on their mud nest, which was over 
a foot long. What interested me most was that a brilliant 
metallic green cuckoo bee was waiting placidly by the entrance 
for one of the owners to retire — I captured it also. 
May 5, 1915. — Caught a Cape wolf snake ( Lycophidium 
capense), whose tail I observed sticking out of the galvanised 
side of an outbuilding. I fetched a pair of forceps and hauled 
it out. The species is harmless, though rather addicted to biting, 
hence its name, and also on account of some large teeth supposed 
to resemble canines. 
May 9, 1915. — One of the thin-waisted black-and-yellow 
wasps ( Sceliphron ) has been building a mud nest on one of 
my bookshelves, and I surprised her for the first time. It 
was a surprise to me too, for I caught a number of this genus 
some while ago at Kabete, and they were all hanging on to 
a paper nest from the verandah roof ; that species was quadri- 
