84 
NATURAL HISTORY JOTTINGS IN NATAL. 
April, 1892. 
little time back. I noticed what seemed to me a peculiar 
insect gambolling about on the ground, and on stooping to 
ascertain what it was, I found a large fly—one of the Asilidte 
—straddle-legs across a mole-cricket, which it was endeavour¬ 
ing to drag along. It would manage to get along for a few 
inches, when it would let go, walk around the cricket as 
though it were trying to fiud a better method of working, 
and then, seizing its prey again, would commence another 
struggle. The cricket, although not dead, appeared to be 
stunned, and, as the fly appeared to find it too heavy a load, 
I killed both captor and captured. 
These mole-crickets are common here during the summer, 
and may often be found buried in the ground in holes 
excavated by means of their curiously flattened forefeet, so 
excellently adapted to the purpose. 
They have a nasty sickly odour, and are not very 
prepossessing in appearance. I have never heard them 
making the usual cricket chirp, but we have some large 
crickets that make up for what their brothers are backward 
in ; for in the evenings, when the bats come out and fly 
squeaking round the fig trees, the chorus begins, and is 
strengthened by the “ whistle of a stray tree-frog and the 
indescribable confusion of countless frogs in the marshy 
ground close by, contending for the vocal prize in all tones 
of voice, from the deep-pitched growl of an old grandfather 
to the asthmatic efforts of the frog who has but lately lost 
his caudal appendage. ” 
Grasshoppers and cicadas join in with their song, which is 
a noise like steam escaping from a safety valve, and a very 
shrill whistle combined, so you may judge that there is no 
lack of music on a summer’s night. 
One thing Imiss very much is the song of birds, for, although 
many of them here are very beautiful in colour, they have none 
of the power of song with which some of their more sombre 
coloured brothers at home are so richly endowed. They have 
some peculiar call notes, several of which have a very mournful 
sound when heard in the stillness of the bush. Our butcher 
bird makes great havoc amongst the grasshoppers and other 
insects, and, makes use of the sharp pointed leaves of the 
aloes on which to impale its victims. The tick bird is a great 
friend to the cattle, for it wanders about on their backs, 
picking off ticks with its bright red beak and seeming quite at 
home and undisturbed by any movement that the beast may 
make. 
These ticks are an awful pest, as they swarm on the stems 
of the grass in thousands, and it is impossible to walk there 
without getting smothered ; and, as they bury their heads in 
