164 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
derful autumn tints of the forest trees in this, the fall of the 
season, ranging from every shade of red and yellow, was the 
numbers of leaf-eating caterpillars that one could find feed- 
ing quite openly upon the foliage, so different from the 
retiring habits of our Lepidoptera. There is one, a large, 
“woolly bear,’’ that one often sees crawling along the paths 
(Pyrrharctia isabella), covered with black hairs, except on 
the anal segments, where the hairs change to dull red. At 
Cornell University Prof. Comstock, showing it to me crawl- 
-ing along, said the extent of the red hairs was very 
variable, and the children say that on finding one they can 
tell by the length or otherwise of the red pubescense ‘‘whether 
it is going to be wet.”’ 
Through the Southern State from Washington one passes 
through great cypress swamps before reaching New Orleans; 
and many of the trees right on into Texas are covered with 
Spanish moss (¢77llandeia uanoides), hanging down in 
great trailing mosses, and often quite covering the foliage. 
Though the mocking birds are found in many parts of the 
States, it was at Baton Rouge where I first noticerd them, 
and recognised their notes; in many of the States they are 
consilered such useful insectivorous birds that it is illegal to 
keep them in captivity. In Mexico, however, it is the favour- 
ite cage bird, and in the better class of Mexican houses there 
are often a dozen or more cages of them hung along’ the 
verandah. : 
Cotton is grown all through the South into the dry dis- 
tricts of Texas, where in a bad season the fields have a very 
poor crop. This was pointed out to me as ‘‘Bumble Bee 
Cotton’’—a Texan joke. The bushes are so short and stunt- 
ed that the Bumble Bees can stand on their hind legs and 
suck the honey out of all the flowers. 
At San Antonio I found the ‘‘curio shops’’ full of the shells 
of the pretty little Armadillo (Yadusia novemctincta) for sale 
as lady’s work baskets, the long, slender tail being curved 
round for a handle; if this fashion continues, the curious little 
animal will soon become extinct. Another thing very no- 
ticeable here was the quantity of ‘“‘rattles’? from the tails of 
the rattlesnakes ; these were made into trophies and hung on 
the walls of saloons, or sold in the shops, showing that these 
snakes must have been very numerous in old days. 
The “Turkey Buzzards,’’ of which there are two species, 
one with a red and the other with a black head and neck, . 
range all over the South, through Mexico and the West In- 
dics. In Jamiaca the negroes call them ‘“‘Jimcrows.’’ You 
can imagine a heavy, clumsy bird the size of a large fowl, 
with the head and neck of 4 turkey and the beak of an eagle, 
