THE BANIAN TREE. 
51 
louse. Its head and feet are hidden under it, and it walks 
backwards and forwards with equal ease. This will turn 
into Iraota timoleon , one of the most brilliant butterflies 
that ever spread its wings to the sun, though it has no 
English name. 
The honey is not in the leaves, but on them. If you 
turn over any well-grown leaf you will find a whitish 
smear just at the junction of the stalk, as if a candle, or a 
cake of soap, had been rubbed against the leaf. It does 
not look very toothsome, but it is ambrosia, the food of 
gods. I believe it is the chief cause of the presence of 
the little striped squirrels, which make the tree ring with 
their wild cries. 
It is for this also, and not for the fruit, that the red- 
headed Parrakeets swarm about the Banian tree early in 
the morning at certain seasons of the year. If you watch 
them, you will see that they are not eating anything, but 
clambering about the outermost twigs, too busy even 
to scream, and that, as they pass each leaf, they stoop 
down quickly and give it a lick on the under side. How 
many licks go to make a breakfast I cannot say, but it 
is evident the little epicures have no time to lose. 
Ants also of many kinds are travelling along the boughs 
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