COLENSO—LADYSMITH 
201 
pale ashy; belly flesh-colour. When chloroformed, the short stumpy 
tail was cast off (causing slight haemorrhage), and took much longer 
to die than the body, wriggling with an apparently spiral movement. 
Professor Poulton believes that the vitality and activity of the 
tails of lizards after they have been cast off are an adaptation for the 
purpose of distracting the attention of a pursuing enemy. Professor 
W. A. Herdman, F.R.S., suggested that the persistence of the move¬ 
ments of the tail in this instance was due to the fact that the 
amputated part had lost its connection with the respiratory and 
circulatory organs, by means of which the chloroform is conveyed to 
the tissues. Professor Herdman’s explanation is doubtless the correct 
one and tallies with the fact that active insects, such as Humble-bees, 
succumb much more rapidly to volatile poisons than do more sluggish 
beetles of the same size. At the time, however, I connected the 
greater activity of the tail in the killing-bottle with the absence of a 
brain. 1 
A drive to Hart’s Hill in the afternoon made us realize com¬ 
pletely what is meant by “ carriage exercise,” for the road is probably 
the worst that we ever traversed. It proved more interesting from 
the point of view of Military History than that of Entomology, 
nevertheless at the bottom of the hill we kicked up Sterrha lineata, 
Warr., a brownish Geometer; on the slopes, we took under stones 
Harpalus capicola , Dej., $ ; Paederus crassus, Boh.; a Staphylinid 
represented in the General Collection at South Kensington and in 
the Sharp Collection, but in both unnamed; the big Ant Acantholepis 
vestita, Smith; the tiny Plieidole irritans , and Tetramorium solidum, 
Emery. 
Here I got a couple of Snails, the handsome, shiny, yellow-green 
and brown Achatina simplex, Smith. 
On the summit of the hill, in an old Boer trench, looking down 
over the slopes on which many a brave soldier breathed his last, was 
Pyrameis cardui, the only butterfly that we saw that day. It may 
be remarked that it was bitterly cold when we reached Ladysmith 
a little before miduight. 
Ladysmith, lat. 28° 38', 3300 ft., August 25, 1905.—The next 
day was devoted to Spion Kop, and naturally enough disputed 
questions of strategy and tactics diverted our attention from insect 
hunting. We had a perfect day for the enjoyment of the glorious 
view, we had also the advantage of the company of a Sapper Captain 
to assist in the interpretation of the Timed History map of the 
battle. We realized how the hill was the key to the position, and 
1 Journal of the Linnean Society , Zoology , vol. xxx., 1907, p. 48. 
