NATURE STUDY 
25 
insects, trees, and flowers as yon find there. This can be 
done to a great extent through the medium of this Society, 
and a helping hand will be afforded to all who desire to learn. 
Then note down in a journal facts about these tenants of 
your realm : note the dates wdien the better-known plants 
come into flower, note when the birds nest and the number 
of eggs they lay, note when the caterpillars appear to eat your 
vegetables and identify them, note when the Cetonia beetles 
first appear to eat your roses ; keep a record of the first 
appearance of the swallows and other European birds, and 
their date of departure. When do the snipe flight, and note 
the species ; when do the quail and the sand-grouse appear — 
notice, too, if their numbers vary from year to year ; when do 
the great flights of European storks appear, the locust-birds 
as they are generally called. Try to find out whether all 
the migrants come from the North, as is often alleged ; try 
to discover if any come from the South during the period 
of the southern winter, say June to August. On what date 
did you see a cloud of locusts, and from which direction did 
they come? If you live near the plains, when did you see 
the first young gazelles or antelopes ? When did you observe 
the first swarm of bees, and on what date did the white ants fly 
out in myriads ? The white ant, although so common, has 
been very incompletely studied, and there are many species 
still undescribed. Here is a field for investigation. When do 
the armies of soldier-ants, ‘ siafu,’ begin to march, and where 
do they retire to in the dry season ? When do the swarms 
of black and green caterpillars appear, and when do the clouds 
of the marbled white butterfly (. Beleneis severina, the imagined 
form of the above-mentioned caterpillar) appear ? When 
does the standard winged nightjar put on its breeding plumage ? 
When do the elephants leave the high forests and come down 
into the lower country ? When do the fresh-water medusae 
appear in Lake Victoria, and how are they propagated ? These 
are a few points upon which accurate information is required ; 
there are, of course, thousands of others, and simultaneous 
observations made by members in different parts of the country 
will, when collected, prove of the greatest interest to science. 
Here is work for every one and much of it at your very doors. 
