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white flag on the staff* in order that our friends of the Forte 
might know of our whereabouts. 
“ Here we had lunch on, but found a number of uninvited 
guests. Large striped lizards soon showed on every leaf, and 
grew so bold they fairly ran over us to get at bits of bread 
and chicken. At last they were daring enough to snatch food 
from our hands, they were however exceedingly difficult to 
catch, as they threw off their tails when seized by them. T 
am sorry to say I ill requited their friendship by imprisoning 
many of them in a bottle of rum. These lizards are inveterate 
enemies of the Geckos, and make war on them incessantly. I 
had noosed a Gecko with a horsehair and was drawing him 
in, when a lizard seized him and bit off his tail before I could 
interfere. The Gecko’s only chance is flight as the peculiar 
formation of its feet gives it an advantage on a smooth wall 
over the sharp claws of the lizard. I found here a species of 
PJiasma about 5 inches long of a bright red, quite different to 
any species I know. 
“ One of the first things a stranger would remark in Sey- 
chelles, a naturalist especially, is the curious mason wasp, 
that intrudes everywhere. It is of a bright brown colour 
about If inch in length. No place is sacred from them. As 
a friend tells me, they invaded his books and allied works of 
the most incongruous character with their muddy cement. The 
strong odour of nicotine in an old pipe did not prevent their 
filling the bowl with their cells. Even a piece of strong left 
hanging from a shelf was appropriated as a foundation. Their 
cells, nearly hexagonal in form, about .j an inch in length and 
diameter are built of red mud. No creature shows more 
wonderful instinct in its provision for the young than these 
wasps. A single egg is laid in each cell, when the female 
makes a terrible raid on the neighbouring spider’s webs, 
carrying off and imprisoning the luckless owners until the 
cell is full, when it is at once covered with a thin coating of 
mud. It is supposed that the wasp stings its victims, and 
paralysis is ensues, so that it is easy to stow them away in 
the cell, which could not be done if they struggled. A supply 
of fresh food is thus laid up, and it is supposed the poisonous 
