218 [March, 
your nose is all but touching the tree, wuz-squeaJc-wuz ! a fellow takes 
the alarm and is oflP, just brushing your face. Another follows ; and 
the concert stops in your immediate vicinity. A few minutes' patience, 
and they strike up again. Tou are getting to know the trunk now, — 
you scan it narrowly — something moves ; and lo ! the whole choir is at 
last visible— half-a-dozen stout, bull-headed individuals, sitting close 
together, with their abdominal plates vibrating most rapidly. Tou no 
longer marvel at the difficulty of discovering them, for their bodies are 
coloured with greenish and grey, so as closely to imitate the surface on 
which they sit ; and their wholly transparent wings, which cover the 
abdomen, obscure any distinct outline of the insect. 
A fluttering above your head makes you look up. Two large 
butterflies, which you at once recognize as species of NympTialis 
(Charaxes) are hovering about a moist spot on one of the branches, 
and the beating of their strong wings against the adjacent twigs causes 
the sound which you heard. They settle, and you at once see that 
there is quite a cluster of insects on that particular part of the branch, 
all sucking away at the exudations from the bark. Besides the two 
species of Nymphalis, there are half-a-dozen examples of Etmica Natal- 
ensis, several of JEurytela Siarhas, a fine Philognovia, and a sturdy 
little Loxura. Beetles, too, are busily feeding : the fine " G-oliaths," 
Mudicella Smithii and Amaurodes Passerinii are in great force, not to 
mention several smaller Getonias ; while every available space is occu- 
pied by Diptera and Symenoptera of various sorts. Towering above 
them all, a very skeleton at the banquet, is a monstrous green Mantis, 
with a half-devoured butterfly in its paws. This is indeed a chance for 
making a good " bag ;" and you accordingly get the long bamboo from 
your Kafir and fix the hoop-net to the end. The bamboo is fortunately 
of sufficient length, but, as you steady it, you soon perceive that to 
capture the whole company " at one fell swoop" will be impossible, 
from the nature of the branch. Tou therefore specially keep your eye 
on the Goliaths and Nymphalis Brutus, as you make your stroke. The 
net sweeps along the branch, dispersing all the revellers and capturing 
some seven or eight. "While securing the specimens, you observe a 
little space sprinkled with the wings of butterflies and other insects, 
lying just beneath the branch. On examining these, you notice that 
some of them are gnawed at the base, and others have portions of the 
thorax still adhering to them. This is clearly the work of that big 
Mantis which you saw eating a butterfly on the tree, and which is now 
kicking about at the bottom of the net. Butterflies of most Families 
liave their remains scattered here ; but you observe no wings of Danaidcd 
