April, 1892. NATURAL HISTORY JOTTINGS in natal. 
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exhibit colours that have earned for them the above appro¬ 
priate name. From the grass you may kick up what seems 
to be neither insect nor bird, but it flies for some distance, with 
its bright red wings expanded, and then drops to the ground. 
It is only a grasshopper ; but what a size! Its expanded 
wings will reach six inches, and its hard upper wings rattle 
together as it flies with a noise that can be heard for some 
little distance. When vou leave the “ flat ” and enter the bush 
*/ 
again, a large brown butterfly gets up from among the dead 
leaves, flits slowly along for a few yards, and then drops Go 
up to where it settled and I defy you to distinguish it from 
the ground it is resting on. Rustle the leaves and disturb it, 
then follow it quickly to where it drops, and unless you really 
see it settle you will not distinguish it, and even with practice 
one is often deceived, so excellent is the mimicry. 
This butterfly measures about four inches across the wings, 
and is of rich brown, with yellow eye-like markings on the 
upper side ; but its under side is indescribable. In colour 
it ranges from ochre-yellow to almost black, and varies in 
marking from having no marking at all to being speckled 
and spotted as though with salt and pepper. Now as when 
settled it closes its wings and keeps them perpendicular, you 
can see how easy it would be to pass it over as it rests 
among the dead leaves in the quiet shade of the bush. 
Another of our butterflies has a habit quite the reverse of 
the one just mentioned, as it settles in the glare of the mid¬ 
day sun, on a dry sandy bank or stony spot, and opens and 
closes its lovely purple-blue wings, with their conspicuous 
vermilion spots that gleam like gems in the sunlight. To 
find this butterflv in its sleening haunts at sundown one 
would never dream of its being so fond of showing off its 
beauties in the daylight. On a steep, sloping bank on a 
river side, in places where the wind and rain had worked out 
the sand, and left the long wiry roots of the plants and trees 
hanging down like tangled network, I found the sleeping 
places of this pretty “ fly.” In making a sweep with my net 
while endeavouring to catch one of them. I struck the bank 
close to a small hollow beneath the roots of an overhanging 
tree, when out flew a swarm of these very same butterflies. 
Leaving the place for a short time, I came back and put the 
mouth of my net over the hole, and so captured the tenants. 
On counting them, I found that I had caught no less 
than fourteen, and yet some had escaped. One of our 
entomologists caught twenty-nine in a similar manner. 
Wishing to know how they settled when at rest, I wandered 
along the bank until I came to another hole where they were 
equally numerous, and you may guess my surprise to find 
