' THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES A NATUBALIST THE TRANSVAAL. NATURALIST IX THE TRANSVAAL BY W. L. DISTANT, I EMBER OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE, FELLOW OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF STOCKHOLM AHD OF THE BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. WITH COLOUKED PLATES AND OKIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS. ' Nature retains her veil, despite our clamours : That which she doth not willingly display Cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws, and hammers." Faust' (Bayard Taylor's Transl.). LONDON: K. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W. 1892. [All Hights reserved.'] PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FEANCIS, BED LION COVBT, FLEET STEEET. TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER. Jita'and^r Distant, WHO, IN OLD SOUTH-SEA WHALING-DAYS, SAILED ROUND AND ROUND THE WORLD, AND TRANSMITTED A LOVE OF ROAMING TO HIS SONS, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. 83822-1 PREFACE. THE following pages record the impressions of a natu- ralist, who, during a twelve months' business sojourn in the Transvaal, deprived of the society of family and friends, employed the whole of his leisure time in that most delightful consolation zoological recreation. In my schoolboy days a journey through the Trans- vaal would have almost attained the dignity of an ex- ploration ; now Pretoria can be reached in three weeks' time from London, and the once long wagon-trek from the Cape is replaced by less than two days' train and a little more than two days' coach service. But this facility of transit, so valued by the business man and so necessary to the material development of the country, has deprived the sportsman of a hunting-ground and curtailed the view of the naturalist. No longer do vast herds of ruminants roam over these solitary plains, for when commerce reached the land, and bid for the skins of the buck and antelope, the Boer accepted the price and slaughtered, if not actually exterminated, the finest Vlll PREFACE. ruminant fauna that ever a land possessed. Further inland the Kafir, armed with a gun, pursues the same desultory warfare, and this portion of Southern Africa has completely lost what was once its most distinctive zoological feature. This animal extinction has also reacted on the Boer himself: now no longer the mighty hunter, he will soon cease to be the matchless marks- man as of old ; and his life on the solitary farm is thereby rendered more monotonous, for the gun was once his constant companion. When railways intersect the country the ox-wagon will gradually disappear, and with it the last characteristic feature of the old " voor- trekkers." The Transvaal is thus changed in its natural aspects from a tract once supporting an immense number of wild animals, and peopled by rugged farmers who lived a semi-pastoral, semi-hunting existence, to a country becoming progressively subject to European laws and customs, in which the earlier rough struggle for ex- istence is now transformed into a race for wealth. The lawyer and the financier thrive where in recent years the lion and leopard fought for food, and townships have sprung up on spots where living Boers have formerly shot big game. I thus saw the old order changing, and a state basing its progress solely on the foundation of aurifer- ous reefs, for the future of the Transvaal largely depends upon the development of its mineral wealth. But the real Boer population form no appreciable portion of the inhabitants which reside in the large towns and depend on commerce and mining; the true Boer is still a PREFACE. ix farmer, and a few high officials do not adequately re- present the characteristics of what let alone would have formed a distinct race of Dutch people. I hope I have been fair with these emigrant farmers, whom I really respect, but it is difficult to steer clear of both Boer and British prejudice : the first resents any criticism, the second criticises in a too sweeping and trenchant manner. In an Appendix I have given an enumeration of my zoological collections, which were much assisted by an old and valued servant, Timothy Donovan, who accom- panied me to the Transvaal. The proportion of new species is perhaps as high as might have been expected from the number of specimens collected, which may provide the material by which to commence a tabulation of the fauna of the Pretoria District, and also show that even a busy man, during his leisure hours, may do some not altogether useless biological work. The lamented death of my friend, Mr. H. W. Bates, as these pages were passing through the press, adds a melancholy reflection to the obligations I am under, for his reading of my proofs with valuable suggestions. These were probably the last of the many friendly offices he undertook to aid his favourite study and to oblige his friends. To the specialist friends who have aided me in working out my collections I render my best thanks, and have individually acknowledged their kind help when enumerating the different Orders in the Appendix. My travelling companion, Mr. Henry Blackwell, Jun., x PREFACE. who allowed the use of some photographs taken by himself, has placed me under great obligation, and I am also indebted to the painstaking care of my artists, Mr. P. J. Smit and Mr. W. Purkiss. Last, but not least, my thanks are due to my publisher for having afforded me every facility to produce this small book in a worthy guise and manner. Purley, Surrey. February, 1892. CONTENTS. PAGE DEDICATION v PREFACE vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv CHAPTER I. TO PRETORIA. Sail for South Africa. Passengers illustrate evolutionary factors in the formation of a Colony. Zoological observations at sea. Flying- fish. Malays at Cape Town. South- African Museum. Port Elizabeth. Different routes to the Transvaal. Durban. .Railway views between Durban and Newcastle. Coach-travelling and its incidents. MajubaHill and scenes of late Boer War. Extermi- nation of the ruminant-fauna. Johannesburg after the boom. Pretoria ; botanical features ; design of the town 1 CHAPTER II. THE BOER. Where are the Boers ? The Boer a farmer. Grass-fires and their consequences. Habits of the farmer. Peculiar theology of the Boer which governs his life and action. Boer relations to the Kafirs. Violence of Church disputes. President Kriiger. Some causes of the Boer War. The Boers as soldiers. Homely life of the President ; his great influence with the Boers. Many farmers now wealthy men. Physical characteristics of the Boers ; their supposed dislike to the British ; their mistrust of the Hollanders , . 20 x j[ CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. PAGE Natural aspects in the dry winter season. Orthoptera and Coleoptera. Commencement of the rainy season. Protective resemblance in butterflies. Vegetable tanning-products. Survival of spined and hard-wooded trees in the struggle for existence with herbivorous fauna. Baboons. Bad roads. A Boer farm. Grass-fires. Dust- storm. Vast quantities of beetles under stones. Bad weather and heavy losses in live stock. Appearance of winged Termites. Swollen streams and their dangers. Accidental dangers in animal life. Birds of Prey 38 CHAPTER IV. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA (continued). Geological features. Dendritic markings. The highlands and the sea. Heavy rains and floods. A protected butterfly and its enemy. Mimicry. Cicadas. Species found both in England and the Transvaal. The Secretary-bird. Vultures. Locust-swarm. The Paauw and other Bustards. The Monitor. Partridges. Evolu- tion and struggle for existence 58 CHAPTER V. THROUGH WATERBERG. Scarcity of timber in the Transvaal. Leave Pretoria for Waterberg. Waterless region of the Flats. The Warm Baths. Beautiful scenery. Euphorbias and their poisonous qualities. Fever dis- tricts. The Massacre at Makapan's Poort. Sanguinary retribution at Makapan's Cave. A fine orthopterous insect. The Prospector. Reptiles. Ravages of the " Australian Bug." Majuba day. Mimicking insects 77 CONTENTS. Xlli CHAPTER VI. ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. PAGE Start for the Spelonken in Zoutpansberg. Horse-sickness. Pietersburg. A fine Convolvulus. A castellated residence in the Wilds. Night in a wagon. Kafir traders. Kafirs on the tramp. Poly- gamy. The Magwambas, their customs and institutions. An ox feast and dance. The Makatese. The Mavendas and their iron- work. Birds' food largely orthopterous. Good entomological spots. Zoutpansberg with its natural riches still undeveloped .... 94 CHAPTER VII. A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. Acacia mollissima. Heavy cost on imports to the Transvaal. Johannes- burg and its Hotels. Heidelberg. A Priest of Islam. Across the Ingogo heights to Newcastle. Durban. Colonel Bowker. Best collecting-grounds around Durban. Flowers, fruit, and insects. Peculiarities in railway construction. Model Natal farms. Insect-pests to gardens. Difficulties in coaching after heavy rains. The store- and canteen-keeper of the veld 115 CHAPTER VIII. THE MEN OF PRETORIA. The inhabitants of Pretoria. Auriferous wealth alone the present cause of Transvaal development. Uneducated condition of the Boers. Liquor traffic with the Kafirs. The British colonist in the Trans- vaal. The Hebrew in Pretoria. Commercial morality. The name of Mr. Gladstone execrated in the Transvaal. The Kafir and his value as a labourer. Sanitary condition of Pretoria. Vital statis- tics, After-effects of the boom. Attachment of Colonists to their adopted country 132 xiv CONTENTS. APPENDIX. PAGE Enumeration and Description of the Anthropological and Zoological Objects collected by the Author, with Contributions by ERNEST E. AUSTEN, Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus., G. A. BOULENGER, Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus., F.Z.S., JULES BOURGEOIS, M.E.Soc.Fr., J. H. DURRANT, F.E.S., C. J. GAHAN, M.A., Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus., Rev. H. S. GORHAM, F.Z.S., MARTIN JACOBY, F.E.S., K. I. POCOCK, Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus., H. DE SAUSSURE, Socius hon. Soc. ent. Lond. Rossic. Belg., &c., &c., Prof. C. STEWART, Pres. Linn. Soc., &c., &c., and the AUTHOR 151 MAMMALIA 157 AVES 163 REPTILIA AND BATRACHIA 173 ARACHNIDA AND MYRIOPODA 179 INSECTA . . 187 INDEX . . . .263 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGK Makapan's Cave Frontispiece Good-bye to the Tender 1 Pier-head, Cape Town . 4 Changing Mules on the Veld 10 View in the Town of Pretoria 15 Boer Wagon with Firewood 20 President Kriiger 29 Chera progne. Male in nuptial plumage 38 Batrachians devouring Termites 49 After the Rains. Coleoptera 51 Buteo desertorum. Post of Observation 56 Dendritic Markings in Quartzite 58 Hemisaga pradatoria, n. sp 63 Locust-swarm in Pretoria 71 The Monitor (Varanus niloticus) 77 Cfonia wahlbergi 83 Native Hut, Spelonken . 94 xv i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Castellated Residence in Zoutpansberg 97 Magwamba Woman crushing Meal 101 Native Arts of the Spelonken facing 102 Magwamba War- Axes 103 Magwamba Assegais and Shield 105 Native Iron-smelting 109 Magwamba Carvings 114 Apple- destroyers in Natal 115 Mylabris transversalis on Rose 127 Kafir Shepherd . 132 Native Policeman 141 Glauconia distant I 175 Spirostreptus transvaalicus 182 COLOURED PLATES : Tab. I. New Species of Coleoptera. II. ,. Rhynchota. III. Lepidoptera and Rhynchota. IV. Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymeno- ptera, and Coleoptera. UNCOLOURED PLATE : Tab. V. New Species of Arachnida and Hymenoptera. ( 1 ) GOOD-BYE TO THE TENDER. CHAPTER I. TO PRETORIA. Sail for South Africa. Passengers illustrate evolutionary factors in the formation of a Colony. Zoological observations at sea. Flying-fish. Malays at Cape Town. South-African Museum. Port Elizabeth. Different routes to the Transvaal. Durban. Railway views between Durban and Newcastle. Coach-travelling and its incidents. Majuba Hill and scenes of late Boer War. Extermination of the ruminant- fauna. Johannesburg after the boom. Pretoria ; botanical features ; design of the town. Ox a fine June day in 1890, the 'Norham Castle' slowly hauled through the Dock-gates and steamed down the river, to carry many hopes and fears to South Africa. At Dartmouth our principal contingent of passengers joined the vessel and we sped South. It is a well-established rule that readers shall be spared the dreary recital of a voyage that has now lost all its romance with increased speed and additional comfort, though a floating hotel w r as a strong contrast to the surroundings of my trip to the Malay Peninsula in a sailing-vessel twenty-three years previously. 2 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. The sociologist, however, may see much to interest and instruct him in the curious group of individualities which constitute the passengers on an ocean steamship. Thrown so close together, with no outside news of the world, we notice each other's peculiarities and expose our own. South Africa is now not only a health resort for the invalid, and a campaigning ground for the com- mercial traveller, but its gold-fields attract those spirits of enterprise and speculation who wait on fortune and scorn laborious days. By the side of the sufficiently opulent man of weak constitution who can afford the time and money incidental to a trip for health, is the commercial traveller who now carries his samples through the colonies as he once " worked " the United Kingdom, and starts for the Cape with little more preparation than he would have previously made for a journey to the North of England. Church of England curates who take precedence on Sundays and members of High Anglican Sisterhoods sail along with highly educated and less educated dissenting ministers. Forward our hardy mechanic, " whose bones were made in England," who will carry his handicraft, his energy, and also his love of " wholesome beer " to a colony that will be certainly the richer for his first two qualifications, rubs shoulders with the lower form of Israelite, who does not compliment his race, who may possibly buy " illicit diamonds," or even succeed to the greater height of assisting in the promotion of a bogus gold company. All, however, are "hail, good fellows, well met," on board, and though saloon, second-class, and steerage are a little timorous of each other afloat, the distinctions are not so accentuated as on shore. It is in these migratory assemblies that one may study the evolution of a colony. There is little opportunity for a naturalist on board a fast steamer ; and for one who has travelled the ocean before, the animals met are much the same. But after twenty years the sight of a flying-fish is a renewed delight. We first met with the genus for there are TO PRETORIA. 3 several species near Madeira, and here Exoccetus* Uneatvs, the largest species, is found ; further south the flying-fish are more numerous, but smaller in size. This fish is certainly the most prolific of any to be found in the warmer parts of the ocean, and its numbers are simply prodigious. All day, and presumably all night, as the vessel ploughs its course, it constantly (Disturbs and disperses the fish, which in these parts must universally populate the surface waters. I have frequently spent considerable time looking over the bows of vessels, and watched the almost incessant flight of the frightened creatures as the ship, like a monstrous enemy, tore through their midst. In recent years much attention has been paid to the question as to whether these Exoccetans flap their wings during flight, or simply skim with expanded wings from the initial velocity with which they leave the water. My own observa- tions certainly incline to the last opinion, and that the rising of the fish was coincident with a rapid movement of the tail, which always more or less reminded one of the action of the blade of a steamer's screw. This can also be frequently observed when the fish at the end of its flight apparently observes a lurking enemy f, and just touching the water, the action of its tail can be again noticed preparatory to a fresh escape from the sea. There can be little doubt that the flight of this fish is always of a protective character, and is scarcely undertaken for any pleasure or relaxation. A ship must appear as a hideous monster, and add to the many terrors in the lives of these abundant animals : some are more alarmed than others, for many of them will again take to the water but a short distance from the vessel, * This generic name is derived from a curious belief of the ancients, who were under the impression that these " sea swallows," as they called the flying-fishes, left the ocean at night and slept on shore, in order to be free from their enemies. From this practice of "sleeping out" they were named E.vocceti. t Pigafetta witnessed this in 1520, and quaintly wrote : " Meanwhile their enemies follow their shadow, and arriving at the spot where they fall, seize upon them and devour them a thing marvellous and agreea,ble to see." B2 4 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. whilst a few, and generally the larger specimens, pursue a more prolonged flight. Although I have never been able to detect any flapping of the wing-like pectoral fins of the flying-fish, I could not but agree with a previously recorded observation, that there appears to be a vibrating movement, as in the wings of a grass- hopper*. The question, however, is dependent on the evidence of the senses and is difficult to determine. One very large school of Porpoises, an occasional Shark, basking or sleeping near the surface, many specimens of the "Portuguese Man-of-War " (Phyxalice) as we passed through the tropics, and oceanic birds (Molly- mauks, Albatrosses, and Petrels) as we approached the cooler regions of the Cape, were all that gratified the greedy eye of a naturalist. PIER-HEAD, CAPE TOWN. We reached the Cape in fifteen days after leaving Madeira, at least a day late, and our impatience was thp ^ r . tbe fl a !^ umen t and evidence against the non-flapping of the wings of F^heSh di^f f!^7^ ?^ iU /' " Die Bewe ^4eS der fliegefden W lifl? ( Zelts clmft fur wissenschaftliche Zoolo 8 ie, Suppl. %"i. xxx. p . !>">). See also Livingstone ('Popular Account Missionary Travels and Researches,' new edit. p. 28). THE BOER. 25 money; whilst the poor wretches have often been bound to an apprenticeship of 21 years (which they did not comprehend), any attempts at escape being met with savage floggings and shootings. But these are not purely Boer characteristics. I remember the floggings on English-managed eastern sugar-estates twenty-three years ago, and the flagellations of the Stanley expedition are not yet effaced from memory. This conflict between Boers and Kafirs still quietly exists. The following was published and guaranteed as true by the ' Uitenhage Times ' of this year * : " A Dutch farmer and his wife living far north in the Transvaal, with no near neighbours, were surprised one day by twelve strange Kafirs. The farmer, who was outside the house, was bound hand and foot ; then, entering the house, the Kafirs began ill-treating the poor woman, but on the suggestion of one of their number, ordered her at once to cook a large pot of mealie pap. This the poor woman did in the presence of the Kafirs, although her clothes were torn from her back, and she was almost naked. When the pap was ready they all squatted round the pot and ordered the woman to get them sugar. She had only a canister and that w r as in the wagon box; she was told to fetch it. She remembered also at the same time that there was a bottle of poison in the wagon box, which her husband had bought for killing wild animals. Swiftly and secretly she shook the contents of the little bottle among the sugar, and shaking the canister well up, handed it to the Kafirs who helped themselves liberally, with the result that in a short time they were all suffering agonies and went outside one by one. Trembling at what she had done, at the escape she had from death or worse, and for the safety of her husband, the poor creature waited in the house for some time ; but eventually went out and found all twelve Kafirs dead, and her husband bound hand and foot in the kraal, but otherwise uninjured. She * Copied by the ' Press,' Pretoria, Feb. 18, 1891. 26 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. immediately released him. He quickly buried the bodies of the dead Kafirs, and they resumed their farming-operations as if nothing had happened." Not only does a crude theology colour the life and guide the political existence of the Boers, but it absolutely threatens to prove the source of their dis- integration. From the earliest days of their history church disputes have been readily fomented and violently contested. At the present time one of these is raging to the edification of the whole community, and is consequent to the amalgamation of the two churches, Ned Herv and Ned Gereformeerde, which took place about five or six years ago. There were many dissentients to this amalgamation who refused to join it, and obtained a minister from Holland. It was agreed at the fusion that all properties should be transferred to the amalgamated churches, but this the dissentients refused to ratify, and a lawsuit was commenced in the High Court. But this is little to what occurred at Zeerust last year, when fifty armed Boers entered a Church, took possession of the same, forcibly ejected the minister from the pulpit, and turned the congregation adrift. It is no exaggeration to say that over this dispute the Boers were in mea- surable distance of civil war. My friend the farmer, of whom I have previously spoken, assured me with anger and sincerity that before any alteration was made with the present government of the Pretoria church, the contents of his rifle would have to be reckoned with, and that a notice would be sent to all the Europeans to avoid the Church Square on a certain day. The President at the time of writing is en- deavouring to bring about, if not a reconciliation, at all events some form of arrangement ; but feeling runs so high, that a cartoon on the subject just exhibited in a stationer's window was compulsorily removed, in obedience to the threats of angry men, who would otherwise have demolished the windows. The Boer has no sense of humour. These disputes are a real danger to the State ; their THE BOER. 27 solidarity to the present moment is the only strength of the Boer government, and when once faction commences the liquidators of the present Republic will step in *. On October 5th occurred the first Dutch church festival during my residence, and of which there are several annually. To attend these the Boers travel in their wagons with their families from all the sur- rounding districts. Members of the church take the Sacrament, and the younger people are examined and admitted as church members. In former years the Church Square was covered with tents and wagons on these occasions, as the Boer has the right to out- span on the Square, and still possesses the privilege, which does not improve the sanitation of the town. The government now by quiet persuasion endeavours to induce these worshippers to camp outside; but most stand upon their "rights," though, as amongst all people, there are found the few reasonable spirits who listen to advice. I counted thirty-five wagons on the Square this Sunday morning, with the tents under which the families had slept, and towards evening the oxen were gathered together, ready to inspan and start homeward at daylight. Truely these Boers are a strange and unromantic people, a mixture in religion of the old Israelite and the Scotch Covenanter, and a nasty people to manage if their religious prejudices are attacked. I met the President walking to attend this service with his Bible under his arm and his pipe in his mouth. The President, however, belongs to the Dopper branch of the Church, which still remains intact, and the church is opposite the presidential residence, and is regularly attended by his honour, who sometimes conducts the services. The Doppers are the Quakers and Plymouth Brethren of the Dutch Church in the Transvaal. As a rule no instrumental music is used in their services, and no hymns are * Since this was written the President has by conference settled this dis- pute and has stated " that a serious danger to the State had been happily averted by the combined efforts of the delegates " ( ' Press ' Weekly Edition, Sept. 5, 1891). 28 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. allowed, the Psalms of the Old Testament alone being sung. I could not help noticing that the Bopper congregations were better and more neatly dressed, and possessed that appearance of comfortable independence as is observed among the Friends at home. President Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kriiger was born on the 10th October, 1825, in the district of Colesberg in the Cape Colony, and is without doubt the greatest and most representative man that the Boers have yet produced. Uneducated or self-educated, he possesses a very large amount of that natural wisdom so often denied to men of great learning and of literary cultivation. With many prejudices he is fearless, stubborn, and "resolute, and he really under- stands Englishmen little better than they understand him. In his earlier days he has been a somewhat ardent sportsman and a good shot; he has been engaged and honourably mentioned in most of the Kafir fights of his time, and at the end of a rough and stormy life he fills the Presidential chair of a country that has passed Boer aspirations, and attained a financial character and position due to its mineral wealth and the energies of its Colonists, in which Boer industry and Boer influence have played but a small part. Socially he has always lived in a somewhat humble position, and it is to the credit of his nature as a man that he bears not the slightest trace of the parvenu. Plain and undistinguished in appearance, he combines the advantages of a prodigious memory with a remark- able aptitude for reading his fellow man, and this last quality would be more valuable were it not leavened by a weakness in resisting flattery and adulation. He is very pious and self-reliant, which is provocative of bigotry and hot temper ; and surrounded and approached on all sides by clever and often unscrupulous financiers and speculators, his scutcheon has worn wonderfully well, and his character and reputation passed through immy fiery ordeals ; he is also a rough diplomatist of no mean rank. He has been twice married : by his first wife he had PRESIDENT KBUGEB. THE BOER. 31 one child ; by the second, who still survives, he became the father of sixteen children, seven of whom died when young. Each morning, about 9 A.M., he may be seen driving to the Government Offices, and in the afternoon he holds with pipe and coffee a reception on the " stoop " under the verandah of his house. Here he is daily seen by a heterogeneous assembly of visitors men with a grievance, applicants for posts, would-be concessionnaires, and even Boers, who seek his advice on family troubles. During the British annexation this was one of the features of Boer life we quite ignored, and for which we afterwards paid a heavy penalty. I have been assured by old and non- official residents, both by English and Dutch, that had " Shepstone remained," the outbreak might have been avoided. The Boers have a patriarchal form of procedure, and when they have, or think they have, a grievance, some elders are deputed to visit Oom Paul, as the President is usually called. President Kriiger listens to all they have to say, has a long talk with them, argues the point, hammers in his own convictions with his own private reasons and perhaps a few texts of scripture, and the elders go back, explain to their constituents that they now see it all clearly and that they must all be satisfied for the present. Shepstone was trusted and liked, pursued the same policy, possessed their con- fidence, and had touch with the whole state, and these qualities Lanyon had not. The longer one lives it is seen that people are governed by their prejudices and illusions, and the mystery becomes greater how the British Colonial Empire exists, governed by pro-consuls who do not possess that idea, and act as though the contrary prevailed. If a West-Indian Governor was transported to rule these Boers, and had the slightest trace of creole blood in his veins, he would be looked upon as a half-bred Kafir, and despised by the most ignorant and unwashed farmer in the territory. The late Boer w r ar should never have broken -out. Incapacity caused it; incapacity fought it; incapacity finished it. 32 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. The Boers are trained irregular troops from their birth. A lad is first taught to ride a calf, and then a horse. At a certain age he has a rifle given to him, and two cartridges at a time. After a few occasions he must not return empty handed, even if he only brings a bird, or punishment ensues. A Boer in a fight stands behind his horse if in the open, like a dragoon ; only the dragoon is taught late in life, and the Boer and horse have grown up together and are one. In a campaign he only requires some dried meat beltong attached to his saddle, and a bottle of hollands or water ; his rifle and cartridges are secured around his body ; his horse will live on the grass of the veld : thus he is fully equipped, and baggage and commissariat unrequired and unknown. Whether in future years they will maintain their wonderful proficiency as marksmen, now that the big game is almost exterminated, is at least open to much doubt ; and in after years it is probable that the Boer (not the Hollander), with all his weaknesses, prejudices, and undoubtedly fine qualities, will be but a story that is told. It must always be remembered that not nearly all the Boers were called up in the late war ; while some of the richer combatants had two or three young Kafirs behind them with spare rifles, which they loaded and passed to them. Another cause of the war was the question of the official language. The convention clearly stated that English and Dutch were to be used ; but English soon became dominant, and thus a grievance arose. English residents in the Transvaal at the present time must not therefore complain overmuch that Dutch has been made the official tongue. The President lives in a homely style, and receives no company. His house is not situated in the best part of Pretoria, and there is nothing to denote the abode of the chief of the executive, save a flag-staff and a lounging sentinel. I advisedly use the word lounging, for I passed daily, and have seen these sentinels looking perfect victims of ennui and assuming such positions as would drive a European drill-sergeant to despair. THE BOER. 33 Thrift marks the Presidential residence. In the spring I witnessed his small front flower-garden being arranged for the coming summer. Two small beds were being bordered by reversed empty glass bottles, the outer border being composed of wine-, the inner border of lemonade-bottles. It was a pity that all the labels had not been washed off; but still the arrangement illustrates the homely and economical, if not artistic, tastes of President Krtiger. It must not, however, be imagined that these bottles had been emptied in his establishment, as his honour is practically a total abstainer. The power and influence of the President are best exemplified at the deliberations of the Eaad. When great opposition is manifested to a measure which the President is anxious to pass, he will frequently adjourn the House to the following day, and in the meantime have an interview with the principal dissentients and afford them further reasons for its advocacy. Many of the Boer representatives are bewildered by financial schemes they do not understand, and by political moves which they think affect their rugged independence, and it is then that these personal explanations so largely contribute to the progress of business. The President is thoroughly in accord with his people as to the belief in direct action of a Special Providence guiding the fortune of the Transvaal ; and their present position is still a source of devout wonder to most of the Boers, many of whom really believe that at the last war they actually beat the whole British Army. Of course the President who has three times visited this country and the other officials are not under these hallucinations, but looking back at their early experiences much crudity of thought is readily explainable. An extract from the President's speech at Krugersdorp last year, when the memorial stone was laid of the new Government Buildings there, will readily show his strong feelings on this point *. " Burghers," he exclaimed, * The speeches recently made at the Paardekraal celebration last De- cember more strongly emphasize these views. D 34 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. " when I cast an eye about this spot, I cannot but acknowledge the hand of the Supreme Being who rules the Universe. The wailing that was once so lamentable here, is now changed into sounds of joy and gladness. From the earliest days the Ruler of trie Universe has guided and guarded us. He has protected us from the rude attacks of barbarians when this land saw but few white people attacks which, if not providentially averted, would have extinguished us. Who does not remember in years gone by the moaning even of women and children when attacked by the savage Kafir hordes 1 Who can forget when their husbands were fighting for their very lives, their wives brought branches of trees to make a fortification round their wagons and tents ? Who, I say, can forget the torture to which some of the voortreJckers of this country were exposed 1 " * Of course the Kafirs would take quite another view of these matters ; but like the successful man of business, so it is the victorious people who most often trace the hand of Providence. It seems easy, all the world over, to be thankful for great blessings, and much more difficult to appreciate those more frequent and untoward events which by some have been styled " blessings in dis- guise." I have remarked that the President has a slight weakness for adulation, and the following remarks were dished up in the Government Journal on the occasion of his last birthday (1890) : " While he has accom- plished much that in other countries would immortalize his name in song and idealize him, as it were, to future generations a section led by unscrupulous speculators and mean and degraded journalists, whose name it is not necessary to mention, will probably take no notice of the day at all." Many of the Boer farmers are now wealthy men not only in land but in cash owing to the large sums paid them by mining companies and syndicates for their auriferous farms. Frequently this cash is kept in some * As reported in the { Press ' of Pretoria, Sept. 20, 1890. THE BOER. 35 sure hiding-place, for the Boer has not yet acquired a confidence in Banks ; and I have been assured, on good authority, that some of these primitive folk who have deposited sums at Banking institutions have called and asked to see their money. A ready cashier Avill at once produce a quantity of gold from his drawer, and con- fidence is restored. In former days little cash was handled by the Boers ; they possessed large farms or, rather, unworked tracts of land, but money was scarce, and heavy and laborious wagon transport was under- taken for small sums. In stature the Boer is tall and strongly built, but seldom stout. Living in one of the most healthy and invigorating climes I speak of the high veld he possesses, as a rule, a splendid constitution and a capacity for much more work than he cares to undertake; his ordinary spare and meagre diet prevents much aptitude for corpulency. For bathing he has no desire, and he is as economical in the use of soap as any white race found on the globe. It is generally thought, and especially in this country, that the Boers have a hatred for Englishmen. This is a fallacy, for, in spite of all that may be said and done, the Britisher is respected though not loved. His word is taken, his honesty accepted, but his arrogance is over- estimated. The Hollander, on the contrary, though so near by blood, is neither respected nor loved. English- men improve the country, even if their old colonial instincts prompt a desire to fly the old flag ; the Hol- lander is often a financial parasite. The Englishman will toil if he can reap : the Hollander will reap if possible, but not toil. It is the Hollanders in the Transvaal who dislike the English, and are alike detested by the Boers. The longer I remained in the country, the more absurd it appeared for the English to have lost it. England could have worked well with the Boers by proper management, and Hollanders would no longer have had the opportunity of exploiting them. But a Boer is a plain man: he can understand an English farmer but not an English aristocrat, and why a pious D2 36 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL, straight man like Sir Bartle Frere could not manage the President is only explainable on faults of individuality and not of character. An Indian proconsul, with his acquired hauteur and social exclusiveness, which are so often more apparent than real, is no diplomatist for the Transvaal; the imported Hollander, however, is, and has been, too often a financial curse to the Republic. The Boer to-day is what may be called " smart " in the little business he does with the community, and this applies principally in the relation of sample to bulk of the produce he disposes on the market. But it must not be forgotten that he has learned much of this through bitter experience and from those who now speak the strongest on the subject. The Chosen People swarm in the Transvaal and have pitted their financial and com- mercial talents against the once unsophisticated farmer, with of course one result. One Israelite, whom I fre- quently saw in Pretoria, and of whom many good and other stories were told, had acted as produce agent for a Boer, whom he generally cheated of a few pounds, in the settlement. One day the Boer arrived indignant, and with a " ready reckoner " in his hand demanded a balance. "What book have you there 1 ?" enquired the clever Semite. "A ready reckoner." " Let me see it;" and then returning it contemptuously to the dissatisfied one, added with withering scorn, " why it is last year's edition you have got ! " The Boer retired mystified. The Boers seldom laugh, and have no gaiety ; they know neither the pleasures of music, literature, nor even the table ; they are fond of shooting, and are perhaps the finest shots in the world, though they have now nearly exterminated all the big game. No people have ever made the wagon such a home, or driven it with such skill. They possess all the virtues of home life, and are sober and thrifty, drinking perhaps less alcohol and smoking more tobacco than any other people. They have a character for inhospitality, as many a lone and weary traveller or prospector who has sought the shelter of their houses, or asked for food, will declare. But the Boer wished to be left alone, his early treks were made THE BOER. 37 for solitude as well as freedom. He is amazed at the developments of the big towns and prefers the quietude of his farm. Other people are now supplanting him in the Republic ; his habits of retirement will prove his effacement, and his want of education will consign him to oblivion unless he treks still further on. If the records of these early treks could only be gathered before the chief actors, who are now old, have passed away, much zoological and ethnological information would be saved, often of no mean importance ; whilst deeds of endurance and heroism would be recorded, and a love of exploration disclosed, that would rival the doings of some of our modern travellers who write big books and receive great receptions. I have sought to be impartial to the Boer, whom I respect but cannot love ; and my principal remarks apply to the real Boers, the farmers, the dwellers on the plains, and not to the official Kriigers, Jouberts, Smits, and others, who really constitute the Boer aristocracy, and no more represent the average population than the inhabitants of the West-end of London are typical of the real population of England. The shadows are deepen- ing over these hardy farmers, the pen will conquer what the sword could not subdue, and they must be either absorbed in or fly from the busy mercantile population that is now surrounding and must ultimately dispossess them. In the nineteenth century there seems no room for this old pastoral life, especially when nature has baited the soil with auriferous deposits ; but I shall ever remember the family wagon of the Boer when my fancy recalls the peaceful wilderness of the veld. Chera progne. Male in nuptial plumage. CHAPTER III. PHASES OF NATURE ABOUND PRETORIA. Natural aspects in the dry -winter season. Orthoptera and Coleoptera. Commencement of the rainy season. Protective resemblance in butter- flies. Vegetable tanning-products. Survival of spined and hard- wooded trees in the struggle for existence with herbivorous fauna. Baboons. Bad roads. A Boer farm. Grass-fires. Dust-storm. Vast quantities of beetles under stones. Bad weather and heavy losses in live stock. Appearance of winged Termites. Swollen streams and their dangers. Accidental dangers in animal life. Birds of Prey. To a naturalist who has seen the glorious profusion PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 39 of plant and animal life in the Eastern tropics, the bare, withered, treeless veld as it appears in the neigh- bourhood of Johannesburg and Pretoria at the end of the dry or winter season is most dispiriting. The few thorny acacias are almost universally destitute of leaves, the few plants that should be green are more or less covered with fine brown dust, and the only charm is the clear and invigorating air and the bright blue sky. Insect life is almost absent at this period. The first insect I saw was a large locust with red underwings, flying along a road in Pretoria, and chased by dogs who eventually secured it the strangest hunt I ever wit- nessed. At this period, the end of July, five butterflies alone enlivened the scene the ubiquitous Danais chrysippus was the most prevalent, a close ally to our English Clouded Yellow was found in Colias electro, with its two forms of the female sex, a small Teriad (Terias brigittcL}, the wide-ranging Pieris mesentina, and last, but not least, an old friend, known in England as the " Painted Lady " (Pyrameis cardui) *. A few orthopterous insects are even then found amongst the dried and scanty herbage of a cast-iron soil ; but these are few in number, still fewer in species, and poor in size and colour. The coleopterist now only finds his prey under stones near banks of streams or in other damp places, and it was in such spots that I secured rare species of Chlcenius, Tetragonoderus, and other good things, besides finding the large earwig (Lapidura riparia) sometimes seen in the south of England. Even these were, however, very scarce, and the searcher for Carabidse must have energy, patience, and experience. The stones must rest in spots neither too dry nor too damp for these small and usually brilliant beetles to seek a shelter beneath them, whilst the labour of turning over the numbers under which nothing is found becomes monotonous and fatiguing. On the dry and hard ground of the more open veld, the removal of a large stone or piece of rock frequently dis- * Excluding the Teriad, these butterflies are found all the year round. 40 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. closes the retreating form of a small and elegant beetle down a narrow hole made in the irony soil. It is under these stones that vast colonies of ants are frequently found, and in the immediate neighbourhood of these it seems useless to search for beetles, save the small Pentaplatarthrus natalensis, which, as well known, is a messmate of the ants. Two species of "Bombardier Beetles " are not uncommon ; one of these, Pheropsophus litigiosus, is found under and amongst stones by the banks of streams. When handled its peculiar and protective anal explosion gave a distinct sound, and a considerable puif of smoke was emitted*; the resultant excretion thereby not only deeply stained my fingers, but actually in one case caused a feeling of a smart burn which lasted for fully a minute. The stain on my fingers was indelible for five days. One naturally became anxious for the promised rains, which would transform this sterile scene, and afford some illustration of African insect-life. On August 5th the clouds gathered about 4 P.M., and a strong wind arose bringing clouds of dust from Pretoria, and a moderate shower of rain. But this was of short dura- tion, and in half an hour the wind blew strongly from the opposite quarter and carried the dust back again. This was premature rain, and no more denoted the arrival of the wet season than a warm January day in England is a harbinger of the spring. But in August the nights became warmer, trees commenced budding, and in a few places the veld showed signs of fresh life. In some spots a few more butter- flies now appeared. Junonia cebrene and Hamanumida dcedalus took wing, and the last named afforded me an opportunity of observation which supplemented, if not corrected, some previous statements. Since Darwin taught naturalists to seek and read the story of cause and effect, where genera and species had alone been formerly observed, butterflies have been much studied * It is possible for these Bombardier Beetles to have their artillery arti- ficially discharged after death, as I once found on pinning some dead specimens. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 41 and with great effect on the questions of " mimicry " and " protective resemblance." It has been eloquently remarked by Mr. Bates, that on their wings " nature writes as on a tablet the story of the modifications of species, so truly do all changes of the organization register themselves thereon " *, and a cabinet of butterflies in the possession of a competent naturalist now not only exhibits what used simply to be called the " works of nature," but absolutely in many cases shows how nature works. Hamanumida dcedalus, formerly and generally quoted by its better-known synonym Aterica meleagris, has been recorded as a good instance of " protective resemblance." Mr. Wallace has recently stated that it "always settles on the ground with closed wings, which so resemble the soil of the district that it can with difficulty be seen, and the colour varies with the soil in different localities. Thus, specimens from Sene- gambia were dull brown, the soil being reddish sand and iron-clay ; those from Calabar and Cameroons were light brown with numerous small white spots, the soil of those countries being light brown clay with small quartz pebbles; whilst in other localities where the colours of the soil were more varied, the colours of the butterfly varied also. Here we have variation in a single species, which has become specialized in certain areas to harmonize with the colour of the soil f . But in the Transvaal this butterfly never settles on the ground with closed wings, and the only example sent from Durban by Colonel Bowker to Mr. Trimen was described as " settled on a footpath with wings expanded " $. I saw and captured a large number of specimens, and always found them resting with wings expanded, and nearly always on greyish-coloured rocks or slaty-hued paths, with which the colour of the upper surface of their wings wonderfully assimilated. Large tracts of bare ground of a reddish-brown colour exist with which the under surface of the wings would be in perfect * ' The Naturalist on the Amazons.' t ' Darwinism,' p. 207. t ' South African Butterflies,' vol. i. p. 310. 42 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. unison; but though I watched for months to see a specimen thus situated, and with its wings vertically closed, I never succeeded in doing so. Thus, if the reports as to its habits in Senegambia, Calabar, and Cameroons are correct, we have not only a change of habit with difference of latitude, but also what I have elsewhere ventured to describe as an instance of " Compound Protective Kesemblance " *. For we see that while in Senegambia, Calabar, and Cameroons, where (according to report) the butterfly always settles with wings vertically closed, and which " so closely resemble the soil of the district, that it can with difficulty be seen, and the colour varies with the soil in different localities," in the Transvaal and Natal it rests with horizontally-expanded wings f , by which its protection is almost equally insured by the assimilative colour of the same to the rocks and paths on which it is usually found. My friend Mr. Trimen, with whom I discussed this matter, suggested that I should observe whether the upperside might be protective in the wet season, and the underside in the dry ; but what- ever may be the case elsewhere, I saw that its habits were uniform in the Transvaal in both the dry and wet seasons. I was afforded a good opportunity of watching the gradual approach of spring and summer, with their transforming effects in the production of plant and insect life, as business weekly compelled me to drive some 15 miles out from Pretoria to a Boer farm, on the hills of which grew a tree capable of supplying bark for tanning-purposes. This was called the " sugar-tree ;" but the bark was coarse and possessed little strength. The best and strongest tanning-material in the Transvaal appears to be the leaf of a tree (Colpoon compressum)$, * ' Nature,' vol. xlii. p. 390. t Although as a general rule the species of Nymphalidee, to which family this butterfly belongs, do rest with vertically closed wings, the species of the tropical American genus Ageronia have a similar habit to H, dcedalus as observed in the Transvaal. | For the exact identification of this species, I am indebted to the Curator of the Durban Botanic Gardens. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 43 called by the Boers " Berg has." It is found scattered about in the woody portions of the country, but grows most plentifully at least it was there from whence we obtained our largest supplies on the hills of the Waterberg district. The sugar-bark was obtained on the farm I have mentioned, which was situated in what was known as " Ward Crocodile River," and at no equal distance from Pretoria could a greater diversity of scenery be found. I drove in a " spider " drawn by what appeared to be two sorry nags ; but in this country it is such looking animals which show an endurance and aptitude for the peculiar " roads," not to be equalled by better horses at home. The first part of the journey was along the somewhat good road which crosses the level veld towards the Crocodile River; but after an hour's drive we turned off, and leaving the plain, struck across country for the mountains or kopjes on the left. At this spot, on a clear day, these ranges could be seen rising one above another in the distance, the farthest only seen in greyish outline, and a blue sky and fresh air prompted that joyous feeling that moun- tain slopes produce under similar circumstances in all parts of the world. The shadows of these bare hills are thrown one upon another in an almost artificial manner, sometimes in colour nearly black, and in shape fre- quently an almost perfect parallelogram, as though the slopes were a screen on which a solar lantern threw its magic shapes. The road now becomes much worse, and large rocky stones are freely strewn about the track over which we drive. Trees are more plentiful, but are principally long-spined acacias and " iron " and other hard-wooded species. These trees are the silent witnesses of what was once the head-quarters of the ruminant mammalia, now practically exterminated or driven back by the incessant warfare waged against them by the Boer farmers, and by the opening up of the country to a mining and mercantile civilization. There was a time when a deadly struggle went on between the plants and trees of this region and the vast herds of herbivorous animals that swarmed over it. 44 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. These long-spined acacias and hard-wooded trees alone possessed an adequate resistance to such attacks, and their survival proclaims that they were the fittest in the long struggle for existence which in that phase has now passed away. To-day their danger is from the grass-fires of the Boer or in their capacity for supplying fuel. We meet the river which in its serpentine course has twice to be crossed the first time at the base of a quartzite cliff which affords a dwelling-place for a small colony of baboons *, one of which, that has been late in returning from his nightly excursions, I have sometimes surprised early in the day. It was at this spot also where one could meet and secure a specimen of the migrant " European Bee-eater " (Merops apiaster), a bird of the gayest plumage to be found in the neigh- bourhood ; whilst it was here and beyond my reach that I have watched the wild and majestic flight of a Charades butterfly, a species I was never able to secure. This river, so clear and shallow during the dry season, was sometimes found impassable during the rains. Our way becomes more tortuous as we ascend and descend the ridges of the higher ground till we reach about the roughest piece of road that man ever drove over, or that can be surpassed in South-African driving. A hill with a surface of broken rock and bearing a few trees has to be crossed ; the road, if it can be called one, rises steeply up one side, crosses the crest, and abruptly descends the other extremity. The whole way is one mass of broken quartzite jumbled together in titanic undulation, and one hardly knew at which to be most thankful for having driven up one side, or safely travelled down the other. A narrow road ensues, with trees overhead, a river beneath on one side, and the quartzite hills rising high and rough-hewn around us. Great blocks of rock strewn here and there, now peace- fully surrounded by herbage, tell the story of the wild crash in which at some bygone time, they have broken away from the parent block above and plunged head- * These kill the young sheep, and are therefore assiduously shot by the farmers. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 45 long. It was on these rocky cliffs that I made my first acquaintance with the EuphorMce and Aloes, so typical of the South- African flora. The farm is soon reached in all its simplicity. Twenty thousand acres, including hills, is not a bad stretch of country for one man to own ; and when it is considered that nearly the whole of this tract is in the same con- dition as it was when first allotted at the time of the early Boer settlement, with the exception that all the large game, including lions and leopards, are now slaughtered or driven back, a peculiar feature of the Transvaal problem is apparent. Sitting on one of the hills which surround this homestead, and looking at the lonely grandeur of the scene, one wonders why these Boers, under the laws of the average of genius, have not produced a Robert Burns or the founder of some new religion. It was on these hills that our Kafirs felled the trees and stripped the bark, and looked forward to my weekly visit with their wages, as " one day further on " their return to their kraal with the cash sufficient to negotiate the arrangement for another wife. Towards the end of August the nights became decidedly warmer, though no rain fell. Dragonflies somewhat suddenly appeared hovering over small ponds, of which Crocothemis erythrcea and the giant Anax mauricianus were the most common, two oak trees growing near the Church Square were approaching fair leaf, and the universal peach-bloom gave a warm colour to the whole scene. Small patches of Sedum, sp.?, were blooming on the adamantine veld, and the representa- tives of butterfly life were increased by the appearance of some species of Acrcea and of Papilio demoleiis. A few bugs ( Lygceidce) could now be obtained by sweeping ; but the rains were still absent, and the full spring was not yet, though small water-beetles (Aidonogyms abdominalis] in the noonday sun skimmed the surface of the clear brooks, on the shady banks of which quantities of the Maiden- hair Fern (Adiantum, sp.)were now growing luxuriantly. During this dry cool season of the year many strange 46 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. insects are found in a semi-torpid condition under stones. In these situations I have found Carabida, Staphylinidce, Paussidce, Curculionidoe, Chrysomelidce, Gallerucidce, and Coccinellidce among beetles, and Pen- tatomidce and Pyrrhocoridce among Hemiptera, but few in numbers, and at this season the Pretorian province of the Transvaal is most uninviting to the entomologist. The weather is still like spring at home, the nights and mornings quite cold, and it is difficult to believe that one is living in Southern Africa. With the advent of September the thorny acacias were found to be thickly covering with leaves, and the long white thorns being thus hidden, their striking protection was scarcely visible. It is only when these trees are bare of leaf that it can be clearly appreciated what impregnable objects they are to any herbivorous animal. The grass-tires were now being pushed on by the Boers, and I frequently noticed that blackened areas of some miles in extent, often embracing several hills, replaced what quite recently resembled in colour a field of ripe oats. The veld has thus three aspects the dull ochraceous hue of the dry season, the blackened tint following the spring fires, and the green coloration of the summer. Numbers of insects in their immature stages, as well as small reptiles, must be destroyed by these fires, and, as remarked before, small seedling trees have little chance of reaching that stage of growth and hardihood necessary to survive the conflagration. During September some of the acacias bloomed, con- sequent upon the undoubtedly higher temperature, and these flowers were visited by swarms of Diptera; but still scarcely a beetle was to be seen, excepting a few Scarabceidce. The butterfly list was increased by Hypanis ilithyia, Precis cloantha, and Catopsilia florella, whilst Anoplocnemis curvipes, on the wing, gave promise that Hemiptera would soon be seen, though represen- tatives of various families of this order, as well as of Coleoptera, could still be found, but only under stones. On Sept. 25th a heavy shower at midnight gave hopes of the advent of the rains ; but it did not last long, and PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 47 in the morning scarcely a sign of wet was to be seen. It was not till October 4th that the rainy season really commenced. All day the weather had been close and oppressive, and those who suffered from weak chests had found much inconvenience. In the afternoon occurred our first Dust-storm, and that of unusual severity. No rain had fallen for five months, and the consequent accumulation of dust in the town and on the neighbouring roads can be easily imagined. It was under these circumstances that a heavy south-westerly gale broke upon us, and a vast and majestic cloud of tons of dust and small stones rose high in the air, and rapidly reaching the centre of Pretoria, soon cleared the streets both of passenger and vehicular traffic *. Rain fell for about an hour, vivid lightning subsequently illumined a particularly dark night, and nature pro- claimed that the long-continued drought was broken up. It was on the day following this storm that I visited some rocky debris lying under an acacia-tree on the open veld. To my surprise I found under these stones thousands of two small species of beetles (Eutelidce) belonging to the genus Adoretus (A. luteipes and an unidentified sp.), in a perfectly dormant condition, though the light and warmth of the sun soon aroused them, and they made for fresh shelter. Three weeks previously, and again a week later, I examined this spot and turned over the same stones, but the beetles were on both of these occasions only represented by a few specimens, and not by the prodigious quantities which I have described. It appears that this vast aggrega- tion was preparatory to their segregation and dispersal over the surrounding area, as subsequently during the evenings these Adoreti, like moths, flew into rooms, attracted by the light. Showers of rain fell on the days that immediately succeeded the storm, and the wind shifting to the east blew a gale and was bitterly cold. In the evening the * In Johannesburg houses were unroofed. 48 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. streets were nearly empty a fire indoors would have been comfortable, and a heavy ulster was found none too warm. At night thunder rolled, and the rain falling with a rattle on our roof of corrugated iron effectually banished sleep. In a few days reports came in from all sides of the Transvaal detailing the severity of the weather. From Barberton we learned that the intense heat prevailing there for some time had broken up, and a furious gale had ensued, followed by heavy rain and intense cold, the surrounding mountains being snow- capped. From Ermelo news came of a heavy snow-storm and anticipations of severe losses in live stock. In the Klip River country the snow also fell, and one farmer lost four hundred sheep and twenty horses within twenty-four hours. At Lydenburg snow fell in some instances two inches deep, though this weather was pronounced to be an unusual phenomenon. Between Pretoria and Barberton, on the high veld, I was assured that thousands of sheep and oxen were lying killed by the cold acting on their present half-fed and poor con- dition. All the month of October was wet and usually cold ; the veld had become perfectly saturated, and we now only anticipated a clear sky to enable the increasing strength of the solar rays to act as the magician's wand in the transformation scene of Nature. During one of these rainy October days the air was filled about noon with numbers of a small winged form of the Termite, or White Ant (Termes, sp.), which pursued a slow flight through the drenching rain. I found them emerging in continuous columns through small holes on the level veld, which scarcely allowed for the passage of more than one, or at most two, at a time, when they immediately took wing and hovered around. They were, however, being devoured by the large and handsome frog (Rana adspersa), which I had not seen before, and which also issued from holes on the veld. These frogs stationed themselves near the holes from which the termites emerged, and literally gorged them- selves to repletion. A smaller and duller-coloured toad (Bufo regularis) and a handsome green and spotted frog PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 49 also assisted at the banquet. The termites began to issue about noon, and were still flying, though in less numbers, at sunset ; but none were seen the following morning, and the toads and frogs had likewise disappeared, though it was still cloudy and wet. I caught many of these termites, but, though I put them in a strong cyanide bottle at once, they almost Bufo reyularis. Rana adspersa. BATBACHIANS DEVOUBING TEBMITES. invariably dispossessed themselves of their wings before death. About a month afterwards (in November) a much larger species (Termes angustatus] as suddenly and in equal quantity appeared. This time they were largely destroyed by the Cape Wagtails (Motacilla capensis)., which, however, fortunately for the termites, were in far less numbers than formerly, as they appeared 50 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. to have left for their breeding-grounds. A small terrier dog in our possession also played havoc with the ants, which it not only caught, but eat in large numbers. After a fortnight's intermittent rain, the weather became sufficiently favourable, or rather the roads were once more passable, for another visit to my Kafirs at the Bark farm. A new world of animal life now met the view as I drove along the roads, which in many places were composed of marshy mud, where on my last visit I raised clouds of dust. In Coleoptera giant Anthias (Anthia thoracica and A. maxillosa) were seen foraging about, and the huge Manticora tuber culata was very abundant, whilst Polyhirma macilenta ran about the roads where the surface was sandy and gritty. In this way I frequently stopped and obtained some fine species. In the wooded tracts I found Cetonias on the wing, many adhering to the leaves of trees, and one (Diplognatha helrcea) even on the long stalks of last season's dried but now damp grasses. In the wet but scant herbage Blue Cranes (Anthropoides paradisea), usually in pairs, searched for the orthopterous insects which now almost daily became more plentiful, whilst the Widow-bird (Cher a progne) had now again deve- loped its long tail-feathers for the breeding-season, and frequented the long sedgy grasses that grew on the marshy portions of the veld. These long tail-feathers appear to offer a direct hindrance to flight, and the birds always seemed to proceed with difficulty and great encumbrance, like a Court Lady dragging a heavy train. Nature frequently reminds mankind of her forces, and she did so with these heavy rains : small spruits became torrents, and insignificant rivers raging floods. As usual, accounts slowly came into Pretoria for it is the press which allows civilized man to rise above tradition and hearsay, and newspapers give to prosaic life the romance of current history. The "Six-mile Spruit," a stream through which the coaches drive, and at a distance from Pretoria which its name specifies, came down with a suddenness that has made it famous among the streams E2 PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 53 of the Transvaal. It came down with such force, with a quantity of water so enormous, and so swiftly, that upwards of a hundred oxen that were feeding on the banks of the river were swept away and drowned. Carcasses, which were estimated at about 150, were found when the waters subsided, either w r ashed out on the banks or stuck in trees at the turns of the river, so that the Kafirs and vultures had an opportunity for high banquet. But besides oxen numerous Kafirs, mostly cattle-herds, were swept away by the flood ; bodies were seen floating down the stream, and others were found on the banks. A buck- wagon with a span of eight mules and two horses arrived at the spruit towards evening. No sooner did the wagon reach the middle of the stream than it was completely turned upside down and swept away, and the bodies of the mules and horses were found the following day entangled in the harness. A heavy hailstorm passed along the valley of the river, and the hail floated down in such quantity that large blocks of ice, several feet in thickness, were carried down the stream. One day, in the early part of November, I was able to appreciate the sudden rising of these Transvaalian streams. Behind our w r orks, and crossing the veld, was a narrow deeply waterworn river-bed, at the bottom of which usually flowed a shallow streamlet of not more than a few inches deep, and which I easily strode across in the morning. By 3 P.M. this was a roaring rushing current some ten feet deep. This was caused by two very heavy falls of rain, the first one continuing from about 12 to 12.45 P.M., the second and heaviest lasting from about 2 to 3 P.M. The roads were flooded, the water poured down the sides of the hills in streams, and a roaring noise could be heard some distance from what was only a few hours previously a shallow brook. The water, which w T as of a deep reddish clayey hue, boiled, whirled, and tore down its bed, the many bends of which caused whirlpools and some nasty backAvaters. Nowhere wider than 20 feet, and generally narrower, it would have been certain death to have fallen therein. By 54 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 4 P.M. the principal rush of water had drained down, and, though the river was still full, it was now silent, and by the next morning it had almost resumed its ordinary obscurity. Thus sudden and dangerous are the results of these heavy rains. . Insects in numbers must have been carried away, and some were found in a wet and exhausted condition clinging to low shrubs, and I thus obtained an orthopterous insect (Pycnodictya adustum) and the rare Dragonfly (Tramea basilaris), neither of which I ever found again. It was interesting to observe the different sculpture in many parts of the banks after this visitation, and one could now under- stand how it was that the usually shallow brook flowed at the bottom of so deeply an excavated river-bed. As November advanced flowers and insects became more plentiful, and the most abundant beetle was the large heteromerous red-striped Psammodes striatus. These beetles, when they first appeared, were most abundant on the roads which crossed the veld, and, though globular and ungainly in shape, yet actively ran on their high legs, but were so numerous that we crushed many under the wheels and horses' hoofs as we drove along. I believe that these form a considerable portion of the prey of the different species of Anthia, and also of the Manticorce, which actively patrol these spots ; and in the dry season I had often been puzzled to explain the number of empty shells of the Psammodes which I found strewn about. Beautifully marked Longicorn beetles enlivened the scene, and about this time I was much struck with the numbers of two species of Weevils (Polyclaeis cquestris and P.^inereis), that literally covered the acacia and other shrubs to be found on the veld. These two species were always found together, and it was only because the sexes of each could be found, and often in cop., that my doubts as to their being one species were dispelled. When we first arrived and saw the long white spines of the acacias, I involuntarily wondered why no signs were seen of the larder of the Shrikes, of which there are a fair number of species in the Transvaal. I at PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 55 length came upon their haunts, and, strange to say, a frog was the first animal seen impaled. I afterwards found that' small lizards were very common victims, and the black-and-white shrike (Lanim collaHs), the most abundant species in our neighbourhood, was as fearless as it was predatory. I once followed one of these birds amongst some trees to see what it held in its beak, and approached close to the shrike before it took flight, when, after impaling a large mole-cricket close before my eyes, it flew away to another tree in the vicinity. But nature is "red in tooth and claw"; the small clump of shrubs that bore these impaled lizards were visited by numbers of the previously mentioned weevils, many of which fell victims to the numerous spiders that inhabited cocoon-like structures and. spread their webs across the ends of the small branches. Accidents also happen to all living things alike. I once saw a weevil (Polyclaeis cinereis), when suddenly alighting from flight on the stems of an acacia, run a spine through one of its underwings and hang suspended. I liberated this unfortunate after watching its ineffectual struggles for some time, and if it had eventually extricated itself from the thorn, it could only have done so at the expense of a mutilated wing. On a subsequent occasion I saw a migratory locust strike in its flight the barbed wire used in fencing, and impale itself by driving a spike through the front part of its head. These un- toward events occur much more frequently than we suppose; man has not a monopoly of the miseries of life. Amongst the Vertebrata, if the sportsman or naturalist examined the skeletons of his prizes, he would occasionally find the traces of past fractures and dislocations ; and even amongst insects this can be discerned, but usually, or most clearly, in the large Orthoptera, whose long limbs are particularly liable to the accidents of field and flood, and the size of which renders the marks of these misadventures more visible than is the case among smaller insects. Many birds of prey visit the immediate neighbourhood of Pretoria, and are a considerable danger to young 56 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. poultry reared in open situations. The most common of these depredators is the Rufous Buzzard (Buteo deser- torum) and an occasional Yellow-billed Kite (Milvus (pqyptius). These birds, especially the former, were par- JSuteo desertomm. Post of Observation. ticularly numerous about the month of December, and were a great source of trouble to the small squatters on the veld, who erect their shanties (for no other word will adequately express the poverty of these dwellings) PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 57 on the outskirts of the town. Most of these people kept a few poultry, and their young chickens and ducklings too often served as food for the active and rapacious birds. I skinned several specimens that were shot about this time, and they were lined with layers of yellow fat, similar to what is found in an over- fed Christmas goose. These buzzards were particularly fond of sitting on the telegraph-poles that crossed the veld, or using the tops of ant-hills as a post of obser- vation, and were a terror to all the domestic birds of the neighbourhood. The dread of impending evil sits as heavily on the minds of these ducks and fowls as the fear of poverty chills the heart of so many men ; and I once witnessed this instinctive or inherited terror, in the wild alarm shown by a brood of young ducklings at the shadow and sudden appearance of a tame pigeon just above them. This poor pigeon unwittingly caused a Buzzard panic, and proved unmistakably the frequency of a real danger, though giving at the time a false alarm. DENDEITIC MARKINGS IN QUARTZITE. CHAPTER IV. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA (continued). Geological features. Dendritic markings. The highlands and the sea. Heavy rains and floods. A protected butterfly and its enemy. Mimicry. Cicadas. Species found both in England and the Transvaal. The Secretary-bird. Vultures. Locust-swarm. The Paauw and other Bustards. The Monitor. Partridges. Evolution and struggle for existence. THE geological feature of the country surrounding Pre- toria is quartzite, through which the granites frequently outcrop, as may be best observed by following some of the spruits and smaller watercourses. This quartzite also largely contributes to the rocky mass of the Maga- liesberg mountains, which form so considerable a shelter to Pretoria, as I had a good opportunity of observing during the blasting-operations by which a carriage road was made through the rocky defile called the Daas Poort. Dynamite was the agent used to rend the stratified quartzite, and in the blocks thus detached and broken up dendritic or arborescent markings abounded. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 59 These results of the infiltration of oxide of manganese so strikingly resemble the impressions of ferns as to make one believe, on seeing them for the first time, that veritable fossils had been found. On one after- noon, whilst entomologizing in a river-bed just beneath the field of these operations and unaware that a number of mines were just ready for explosion, we were only observed and warned just in time to enable us to retreat in a shower of small rocky debris, and thus to fulfil the parts of spectators and not victims. Some surface auriferous deposits may be found around Pretoria ; but these extend to no depth, and gold is practically absent as a mining industry, though thirty- five miles south is found the celebrated Main reef which has created Johannesburg. Pretoria must, in a mining sense, rely on its argentiferous copper and lead, with which is also found antimony. No observer who stands upon or looks at the mass of the Transvaalian quartzose matter can help speculating on its origin. That it was due to the erosion and disintegration of some former vast accumulation of granitic rocks is plain geological interpretation ; but where were these granitic masses situate I * There is a charm in life on this high tableland six thousand feet above the sea and which really forms the heart of the Transvaal ; but to all it does not convey the same impression. A recent lady traveller has remarked, " to me it seems quite natural that the centre of a con- tinent is its healthiest point, for one is furthest away from the detestable moisture of our vaunted sea-breezes. Of course we praise sea and sea-breezes here because we cannot get away from them " f. But clever sayings are not always of universal application. It is easy to under- stand the physical basis of thought, and how a particular constitution may be vigorous in the Carpathians and depressed by the sea ; but in the Transvaal the recurrent hills and plains of the tableland only seem to accentuate * Mr. C. J. Alford has recently remarked : " Certainly the land-surface from which these materials are derived has long ages ago been obliterated from the surface of the earth." (' Geological Features of the Transvaal,' p. 14). t Miss Dowie, British Association, 1890. 60 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. the loss of the sea that we have left behind. I have frequently driven over the grandest undulating scenery in the most clear and faultless weather ; but the feeling always was that behind yonder headland must be the sea. A long residence in England impresses its particular features of physiography upon the mind, and I found I was apt to read nature with a similar insular bias as that with which one studies foreign politics or observes the different arrangements in family life of other branches of humanity. I know it is usual to overpraise the sea, to feel the despair of a long voyage when left alone with it, to curse the monotony of the view from the seaside lodging when we have ceased to curb our im- patience of quiet ; but still our thoughts travel back to our first love, and the rough health wafted from the ocean is not altogether replaced by the invigorating at- mosphere of the hills. Beside which there is a stillness appertaining to the " everlasting " hills compared with the troubled waters of the ocean. Experience a night at sea with a night on the veld. The stars shine above both, there is the same silence, the same quiet ; but there is a rigidity of thought amidst the solitude of the plains and hills compared with the poetic buoyancy produced by the sea. Amidst the solitude of the first our mind reverts to the genesis of creeds ; on the water we breathe sonnets and listen to old Pagan music. The summer of 1890-91 was remarkable for the heaviest rains that had occurred for many years. As we read in the papers of the phenomenal winter at home, so we were assured that the continuous summer down- pour we experienced was equally unusual in South Africa. Towards the end of January the rivers were frequently flooded and dangerous, the roads in many places almost impassable, our homeward mails frequently missed the steamer at Cape Town, and our mails from home were uncertain of delivery. It was in this month that three Dutch anglers, who were sleeping in their wagons on the banks of the Pienaars Kiver, within five yards of the stream, were swept away by a sudden flood or "coming down" of the stream, and the papers frequently PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 61 recorded other fatalities from all sides. In February the bridge at the Six-mile Spruit was washed away, and all that month and during March fatalities to life and loss of property were of intermittent record. Outside the Re- public the weather was equally bad; from Natal we heard that at Umbilo many Indian huts were destroyed and the Indians had to take refuge in trees, whilst in Durban itself we learned that at the end of one week in March for forty-eight hours there had been an exceptionally heavy fall of rain, the heaviest for twenty years. On the Sunday the people were practically weather-bound. There were no services in the churches in the morning, the streets and tram-lines were seriously damaged and the Berea tram-traffic was partly stopped. Perhaps the most vivid illustration of the effects of these river-floods in South Africa was obtained from Uitenhage, where one noon, whilst the Sunday river was rushing down with terrific force, the spectators on the bank observed in midstream a cart with two horses harnessed to it, dead, and dragging behind, as if fastened to the conveyance, was the body of a white man, which none could recog- nize as the ghastly flotsam sped swiftly to the sea. The last fall of rain before the dry season commenced occurred at Pretoria on May 12. Flying all the year round is the ubiquitous butterfly Danais chrysippus, which is found over the whole of Africa, in South-eastern Europe, and generally dis- tributed throughout Asia. 1). chrysippus is also possessed of distasteful qualities which render it un- palatable to the usual insectivorous enemies, and thus affords an instance of a thoroughly "protected" butterfly. Its bright colour and slow flight show that it is subject to no fear of attack, or in the struggle for existence to which all living things have been and are, in a less degree, still engaged, this appearance and habit would have proved positive dangers to its long survival. It is not attacked by birds or other insectivorous animals, and is absolutely refused by them as food when kept in captivity. It is wonderfully tenacious of life, and specimens, after being pinched and pinned, have been seen, on the pins being withdrawn, to fly off in a 62 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL, nonchalant manner. Even when a dried and neglected museum-specimen, mites have avoided this butterfly, while they have destroyed other insects in the same box or cabinet-drawer. Its caterpillar feeds on a genus of Asclepiadacese (Gomphocarpus) which is everywhere abundant and also possesses distasteful qualities, so that its whole existence seems to be environed by natural chevaux de frise. How is it, then, that this insect does not positively swarm 1 is the question I frequently asked myself when watching the numbers which everywhere pursued this highly protected life. There must evidently be some great check at work, or the propagation of the species must result in pro- digious flights, which would surpass anything to be seen in the whole Rhopalocerous order. I am inclined to think that these highly protected butterflies, which experience an immunity from attack on account of distasteful qualities or resemblance to some inanimate object or other protected insect, may have some inherent weakness or danger which produces great mortality in their early stages and that the wonderful protections we observe thus only enable them to escape extinction. This view would help to explain how it is that the extra- ordinary guises by which natural selection has enabled so many insects to escape the attacks of their enemies have not led to an enormous increase in their numbers. It is the weak that require protection, and like consumptive patients who live by escaping the rigors of a northern winter by visiting a warmer clime, but still possess the inherent weakness of their system, so nature grants these insects immunity from one danger, which allows them a possibility of surviving another. We know by the great gaps between the continuity of some species in the same genus how many must have reached oblivion in the struggle for existence, and I look on these " protected " insects as surviving by such means some incipient mortality of which we are at present ignorant, or their numbers must indefinitely increase. I carefully watched the Danais in the endeavour to find some danger to its life and the means by which its Hemisaga pradatoria, n. sp. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 65 increase was curtailed ; but though generally unsuccessful, I did discover what I believe up to the present to be its only recorded enemy. This is a moderately large or- thopterous insect (Hemisaga prcedatoria, n. sp.), which I found lurking among the tops of tall flowering grasses, to which it has a considerable assimilative resemblance and which in this case enables it to secure its prey. The Danais hovers about, or partly settles on, the flowers and is then secured by the Hemisaga, which, in one instance, I found dismembering a freshly-caught speci- men *. It is just possible, during the dry season, when insect-life is very scarce, that some insectivorous birds may, in a somewhat famished condition, make an experimental dash at a Danais. At that season I captured a specimen which was certainly mutilated as though by the bill of a bird, for the wings were not bitten symmetrically, as is the case when the attack takes place by a lizard or mantis, whilst the butterfly is reposing with its wings vertically closed f . As is well known, the female of Ilypolimnas misippits is a wonderful mimic of this butterfly. To an expe- rienced eye the Ilypolimnas may be distinguished from the Danais by its flight ; but this is scarcely noticed without both species are known to be present and attention is thus directed. So close is the resemblance that well knowing both insects, I was not aw y are of the female Ilypolimnas being present with the Danaids till I observed one in copula with its dark blue male. A purely English lepidopterist, not knowing these facts in mimicry could cross the veld and merely observe that D. clirysippus was very abundant. But these mimicking resemblances, by which the female IJypolimn as has found protection by being mistaken for the uneatable Danais and avoided accordingly, are even still more complicated. D. chrysippus has two varietal forms, alcippus. Cram., and dori-ppus, Klug, both of which occur in South Africa and both of which I found in the Transvaal. * When in Natal that old lepidopterological veteran, Col. Bowker, informed me that he had frequently observed the Mantidee to prey on butterflies. t I am bound to affirm that this view, formerly advocated by my friend Prof. Meldola, was at the time contested by myself. F 66 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. These varieties are very scarce, but both are also mimicked elsewhere by the female Hypolimnas. The same thing occurs in India, where, however, the mimicker of the var. dorippus is somewhat abundant, while the mimicked form is very seldom seen. Thus we have a butterfly mimicking a form which is almost extinct, and to a superficial observer weakening the theory which explains these anomalies. But it is necessary in all these cases to carry the mind back to the time when the butter- flies, like all other living forms, were slowly establishing themselves by those qualities and appearances which, under the law of natural selection, enabled them to survive the struggle for existence. It was then that what we call " mimicry " which is only one of a multi- tude of laws which govern the coloration of animals first arose, and butterflies which slightly resembled uneatable species, or had somewhat the appearance of inanimate objects, would escape perils common to their kind, and these would thus become the dominant breed of the species, and be continually under the same selective process, till the disguise was almost perfect. If, then, we now find the present scarce form of the species so largely mimicked, it seems absolutely certain by the sur- vival of the mimicry that it must have been once the dominant form of the species at least in India and has since, in the recurrent changes of nature, been almost replaced by the present form we so well know *. The food-plant of this butterfly (Gomplwcarpus, sp.), which grows and blooms upon the most dry and barren parts of the veld as well as where moisture is found, is universally distributed in patches or small groups and is one of the earliest plants to spring up and bloom when the cold nights of the dry season become less severe. Its flowers are visited by many insects. From them I have collected some half-dozen species of Cetoma and some showy representatives of the Heteromera, as well as Gallerucidre and Coccinellidee. Many Diptera and Hymenoptera visit the bloom, * For these views regarding the evolution of the species in India, I am largely indebted to Colonel Swinhoe, the well-known Indian lepidopterist. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 67 and among Hemiptera a species of Lygceus is particularly abundant. At about the end of November the shrill cry of the Cicadas was constantly heard from the willow and peach- trees in Pretoria, but principally from the first. The dominant species was Platypleura divisa, and I was surprised to find that it was captured and eaten by spiders. On once hearing a particularly loud chorus from a peach-tree, I visited the same to capture specimens, and found that spiders had industriously spread their webs between the branches, and remains of the Platypleurce were suspended in a more or less de- voured condition. I made use of these webs to procure specimens, for when first disturbed the flight of the Platypleurce is wild and headlong, but by getting between them and the meshes of the spiders I was soon enabled to obtain what was required. It is reasonable to believe that these insects pair during their mature stages or breeding-season. We passed daily a small willow tree where I constantly noticed a solitary couple of the species, and this was also known by the fact that we drove them out on walking by and frequently endeavoured to capture them. The male was always tuning, and was probably addressing his mate. At length, unfortunately, the singer allowed us to capture him ; the tree was henceforth mute, and I afterwards felt quite a remorse when my path took me by the then silent Cicadan home, for there was not the consolation of having captured either a new species or one new to my collection. I was surprised to find how many living creatures one had known in Britain were also to be found in the Transvaal. In birds the European Bee-eater (Merops apiaster) and Montagu's Harrier (Circus pygargus) were not at all uncommon, whilst in insects one was continually meeting with some old friend. A List is appended to this volume of all these comrades one finds across the sea, or rather near the extremity of another continent ; but with fixed ideas of geographical distribution, and our natural conception of an Ethiopian region, it was . F2 68 ^ NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. somewhat surprising to find that man alone was not the only migrant. My earliest English schoolboy days were recalled when I caught the Convolvulus Hawk-Moth (Protoparce convolvuli), bred the Death's-head Moth (Acherontia atropos), or gazed upon the numbers of the Painted Lady (Pyrameis cardui) ; whilst an earlier friend than all appeared with the summer rains. The Crim- soned-speckled Moth (Deiopeia pulchella) was a very old acquaintance. 1 had caught it in Surrey, met with it again in the Malay Peninsula, received it from Mogador, and now at the other end of Africa found it somewhat an abundant insect. The time of its appear- ance in the Transvaal is very protracted. I first cap- tured it at the end of September, and found it still active on leaving the country in the following July. Flying in the strong sunlight, I have often mistaken it for a large Lyccenid, as the pale azure-blue of the poste- rior wings is wonderfully reflected, and the red and black spots of the anterior wings are, during flight, scarcely, if at all, visible. Its flight is short and it is easily captured. It was very soon after my arrival that I first saw the Secretary-bird (Serpentarius secretarius), that well-known African snake-eater of which we have all read. It is generally believed, and I was assured as a fact, that a 50 fine was inflicted for killing one of these birds ; but in the Transvaal, as elsewhere, I soon found that the " vox populi " must be taken " cum grano salis" I enquired of several well-informed men, including a newspaper editor, who stated that such was the fact ; but at last I induced a friend on whom I could rely to make proper enquiries at headquarters, and after consi- derable trouble he discovered that there was no fine whatever on the statutes, but that a healthy and deter- rent legend only existed *. Another legend appertaining to this bird and copied in popular books on ornithology is that its legs are so long and brittle that they will * For this and much other reliable inforniatiou I am indebted to my friend Meinheer J. H. E. Bal, of Pretoria, who has long been a resident in the country. PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 69 snap if suddenly started into a quick run. My man, Donovan, who accompanied me to the Transvaal, and, imbibing the zoological furore., assiduously spent his Sundays in shooting birds, procured me a very fine specimen of the species. By a long shot he broke its wing, when it made off at a terrific pace across the veld, followed by a spider and pair of horses as hard as they could go. Eventually it was come up with, and on the Kafir boy endeavouring to secure it, the bird showed fight, beat him off, and again started running across the uneven ground. My man now outspanned one of the horses and on its back galloped after the creature, which had obtained a long start. For more than three miles did this chase continue over the veld interspersed with ant-hills, and eventually it required the contents of two more barrels (buck-shot) to stop and secure it. This fact effectually disposes of its reported incapacity for violent running, as the hunt was over a long stretch of country of the most uneven surface. The crop of this bird was full of the remains of orthopterous insects *. But the bird of the open treeless veld is the Vulture ( Gyps tolbii), and in places like the outskirts of Pretoria, where dead oxen and horses in some seasons plentifully strew the plain, these birds act the part of a sanitary board. A specimen I obtained weighed in the flesh 32 Ibs., and as it was a full-grown example and a large bird, I think this may be accepted as the maximum weight. On days when none are apparently to be seen, if one carefully looks upwards towards the clear sky and scans the expanse, the diminished form of one of these huge griffons is sure to be made out, as from its lofty vantage it surveys a large tract of country. Should a bird be seen to alight, it is not long before others arrive from all sides and hover about the spot. There can be little doubt that high in the air these sentinels are always on * Dr. Sclater informs me, however, that the le^s of specimens confined in the Gardens of the Zoological Society are very brittle and liable to accident. The range of this bird is somewhat restricted. Emin Pasha did not meet with it on the East-African steppes, though he believed it existed there (' Ernin Pasha in Central Africa,' p. 402). 70 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. the look out, so that the whole level country is thus under constant supervision, and when a bird is seen to descend or to be making off, that act serves as notice of probable quarry for miles around, like the early signal of the beacon-fire flashed from hill to hill. The usual sailing motion of the hovering bird is at once changed for a direct route, and its flight then, as far as I ob- served, was always four or five strong flaps of the huge wings, succeeded by a short straight motionless forward movement caused by the impetus thus obtained, to be followed by another four or five flaps as soon as the former motive power was exhausted. Usually shy, when gorged with food their habits are quite modified and they are easily approached. I once came across more than a hundred settled about two dead oxen. On each carcass were ten or twelve vultures at work, whilst the others in listless and gorged apathy rested around. The naturalist who has skinned a full- grown and full-fed vulture will not easily forget the operation. Now that the vast herds of game which once roamed over the veld are practically exterminated, the vulture becomes more dependent for its provender on the deceased domestic oxen bred by man, and the body of an ox is much preferred to that of a horse. Their food around Pretoria may become scarcer, as a movement was on foot to form a commercial company for gathering up these carcasses to boil down for soap. About the town gardens a bird almost as common as the sparrow in England is the Cape Wagtail (Motacilla capensis), but which by^ its tameness and partiality for the habitations of man\reminded me of our robin, and, like that bird, is as little molested, save by boys, the natural enemies of all birds. Many entomologists have recorded the fact that they have never seen a butterfly attacked by a bird ; but I not only obtained an Arctiid moth (Binna madagafyariensis}., which I surprised one of these birds in the act of killing, but also saw another actually pursuing a butterfly belonging to the genus , which is generally exempt from these attacks. After an interval of some fifteen years Pretoria was PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 71 visited early in the month of May by a prodigious swarm of locusts (Pachytylus migratoroides) *. Travellers from the coast had passed through these devastating insect hordes, which apparently were working their way up from the Cape Colony. On the morning of May llth our attention had been directed to myriads of locusts flying near the hills, and some few stragglers were LOCUST-SWARM IN PRETORIA. found in the town ; but shortly after noon the air was darkened, as swarms only to be computed by billions came with a rushing sound over our heads and across * The traveller Mohr met with similar swarms of probably the same locust on the banks of the Vaal River in 1869 (< To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi,' p. 94). 72 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. our path. The light was obscured as with clouds of dust, whilst to walk through the flitting insects re- minded one of the driving snow-flakes at home, as the pale hyaline wings and not the dark tegmina are ob- servable during flight*. Stragglers continually fell out of the ranks, and we heard them drop on the iron roof of our dwelling. The flight was directed at different angles of one common direction, and stragglers constantly kept up a small counter-stream to the main body. The ground was thickly covered, and at sunset most of the flight had probably settled for the night. The heaviest portion of the main body, which might be described as the centre of the army, crossed us in about half an hour, but the flight continued long after and before. Their extraordinary numbers could be appreciated by the non-observable effect of their immense losses. Myriads were trodden under foot, our Kafir workmen collected them for food f , the poultry of Pretoria gorged themselves on their bodies. Two Crowned Guinea-fowls (Numida coronata) which I kept in confinement, and were always supplied with food, devoured so many of the locusts that I feared that they must die of repletion J; a large " Gom Paauw " (Otis kori) that we shot shortly afterwards had its crop crammed with the bodies of these invaders, but the great cloud seemed to suffer no diminution. On the next morning the ground was thickly strewn with the locusts ; but they took wing as the sunlight became * Carl Lumholtz was also reminded of a snow-storm whilst standing among 1 a swarm of locusts in Queensland (' Among Cannibals,' p. 186). t Holub, after eating these insects, felt he " could recommend a few locusts to any gourmand who, surfeited with other delicacies, requires a dish of peculiar piquancy ; in flavour I should consider them not unlike a dried and strongly-salted Italian anchovy " (' Seven Years in South Africa,' vol. i. According to Livingstone, "locusts are often roasted and pounded into meal, when they will keep for months. Boiled they are disagreeable, but when roasted I much prefer them to shrimps, though I would avoid both if possible " ('Popular Account of Missionary Travels and Eesearches in S. Africa,' new ed. p. 31). I Mohr's ostriches " ate locusts from morning till night, and four of them soon afterwards died of dyspepsia " (' To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi,' p. 201). PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. To stronger, and by the afternoon we were moderately free. On May 25th we were again invaded, and again from the same direction. We had learned from travellers of the preceding day that another locust army was ap- proaching, and a " transport rider " assured me that his oxen had refused to go on against the dense moving mass. This time the living cloud broke upon Pretoria about 10 A.M., and had virtually passed from us by 3 P.M. * This swarm was afterwards reported from Waterberg and Zoutpansberg, showing that its flight was in a northerly direction. In the early part of June, in crossing the Magaliesberg hills, I found them somewhat plentiful in a defile on the summit. This small colony were evidently stragglers from the higher portion of the flight and had thus ceased to form part of the main body, which was now some hundreds of miles in advance. News was brought down to Pieters- burg from the Spelonken that the locusts had been so numerous as to prevent the informant driving a cart and four horses against them f . On the journey to the Cape in July I met with a considerable number near the boundary of the Republic, a larger swarm the following day about 50 miles beyond Kimberley, and another swarm about 40 miles further south. All these were flying northward, and would probably pursue the same routes as their precursors. This was my last experience of Pachytylus migrator oides. The year 1891 might be styled by entomologists a " locust year," for Southern Africa was not the only region invaded, and almost simultaneous reports were received from Egypt and India J. As the colder and dry season commences the natura- * Of this swarm a correspondent of the ' Transvaal Mining Argus ' calcu- lated that he passed through a cloud of locusts 25 miles long, about a mile and a half broad, and something under half a mile thick, giving about 12 cubic miles of locusts. Taking a low estimate he reckoned there would be about 2000 locusts to every cubic yard (an estimate much too low), and altogether he calculated that he must have passed over 130,842,144,000,000 locusts. t ' Zoutpansberg Review.' j ' Zoologist,' vol. xv. p. 221. 74 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. list can obtain many good specimens on the Pretoria market, for the Boers are then able to bring their game in for sale, which is impossible in the damp hot weather. The farmers are fond of shooting, but are equally glad to find a market for the game, which with forage, fire- wood, and other articles are sold by auction off the wagons before breakfast by the market auctioneer. Amongst birds, the Paauw (Otis kori) may often be bought, and I have known a heavy bird to fetch as much as 2 10s., for its flesh is very rich and highly flavoured, and I cannot agree with Mr. Ayres that the flesh " is too coarse and oily to be good eating " *. My ' man secured me a fine 20-lb. specimen, which he killed with No. 6 shot a few miles out from Pretoria. Its crop, as I have remarked before, was full of locusts, and it was certainly the fattest bird I ever skinned, my hands being saturated with grease by the time I had finished the operation. The bird does not seem at Pretoria to reach the great weight it does in other parts of South Africa. The proprietor of the hotel at which I boarded told me that the largest specimen he ever bought weighed 28 Ibs., and a friend who had been an energetic sportsman for many years had only once bagged a Paauw that reached 32 Ibs. On the other hand, I met a gentleman at Potchefstroom who said he had shot a specimen that weighed 41 Ibs., and this was the largest he had ever seen or heard of in that neighbourhood. This I believe is about the maximum weight of which we have any authentic record, and I am somewhat sceptical as to the existence of the reported 50-lb. or 60-lb. Paauws f. The smaller Bustards, Otis ccerulescens and Otis afroides, are not at all difficult to obtain on the market, and the Spur-winged Goose (Plectropterus gambensis) is * Layard's < Birds of South Africa,' Sharpe's edit. p. 633. t Mohr states that he has shot specimens weighing thirty-five pounds ('To the Victoria Falls.' p. 33). Mr. Ayres, though he had often heard of 40-lb. Bustards heing shot, never saw one of anything like the weight, though one of 40 Ibs. was reported as shot by Mr. Buxton (Layard's ' Birds of Africa,' Sharpe's edit. pp. 632-3). Burchell describes his typical specimen as measuring in extent of wing not less than seven feet (' Travels,' i. p. 393). PHASES OF NATURE AROUND PRETORIA. 75 rarely absent when game is brought in. Bucks of various species, the "jumping hare " (Pedetes capensis), the Monitor ( Varanus niloticus), and skins of Leopards and the smaller cats I have also seen for sale. It is rare, however, to find a bird in good condition, as they are usually badly shot and with the plumage ruined. It is somewhat strange that the Boer farmers dp not show more energy in bringing game to the Pretorian market, for it is certainly remunerative. During my stay a resident went on a shooting-expedition to the wood-bush about 90 miles from Pretoria, and on his return sold the game to a butcher for 27. Amongst the spoil were two bucks, two small paauws, ducks, partridges, and blue bustards, which at this price averaged 5s. per head all round. They were then retailed, blue bustards at 6s. each, partridges and ducks 6s. per brace, paauws from 30s. to 2. From this man I secured a very fine specimen of Otis ccendescens. All specimens, both living and dead, fetch fair prices in Pretoria, and a pair of healthy young Quaggas (Equus quag go] were brought in and sold during my stay for 55. We occasionally obtained good sport among the so- called Partridges (Francolins), when the grass had died down in the early part of winter. The commonest species met with in the neighbourhood of Pretoria was Francolinus levaillantii^ sometimes in good coveys, but never far away from water. These birds lie uncommonly close and can be easily passed. A Kafir boy once pointed out a grassy spot, not more than a yard or two square, where he assured us he had seen a bird settle down. We thoroughly, as we thought, threshed this spot, walking apparently over it again and again, and yet, subsequently, the boy with more perseverance and a desire to prove himself right, turned it up from under a tuft of tall dried grass that we had just missed treading down. Later in the afternoon of the same day, a single member of a covey which I had disturbed squatted in a small hole in the path about 80 yards in front of me, and depressing its back level with the earth, exhibited a good instance of the protection 76 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. obtained by assimilative coloration. So perfect was the illusion, that partly owing to the diminishing light I failed to add it to my bag by a charge of shot. The longer I observed living nature in South Africa the deeper became my impression that the colours and habits of the animals and plants around me were, like the geological contour of the country, a story of a by- gone time. The colour of every feather, the appearance of every seed-capsule, is due to causes which in many cases are now almost inoperative. But it was then in the dire struggle for existence, subsequent to the last great geological change in the surface condition of the earth, that those varieties of plants and animals only survived which could in some way pass the severity of a competitive examination by natural selection. Hence we must not always expect to find a philosophical explanation of the bizarre colours of animals and plants by simply considering their present conditions of life. If it is difficult to trace the evolution of a civilized community of mankind, with its customs and superstitions, to its primordial elements, many of which belong to a pre- historic period, how gigantic is the task to attempt to go behind the very evolution of man himself! and yet it was at that time when the small birds and insignificant insects obtained the maximum of their colour-markings, not to add to the beauty of the scene, but to enable them to survive an eliminating process which took place in the great struggle for existence. Many of these gorgeous living forms are to my mind fossils, of a past epoch which we cannot read. THE MONITOR ( Varanus nilviicus). CHAPTER V. THROUGH WATERBERG. Scarcity of timber iu tbe Transvaal. Leave Pretoria for Waterberg. Waterless region of the Flats. The Warm Baths. lieautiful scenery. Euphorbias and their poisonous qualities. Fever districts. The Massacre at Makapan's Poort. Sanguinary retribution at Makapan's Cave. A fine orthopterous insect. The Prospector. Reptiles. Ravages of the "Australian Bug." Majuba day. Mimicking insects. EARLY in the month of February I made a journey through the Waterberg district, to procure a supply and estimate the quantity that could be obtained of the best tanning-material of the country, the leaf of the tree I have already referred to (Colpoon compression). As the industry of the Transvaal progresses, an investigation of its tanning-products will doubtless be undertaken, for it can scarcely be credited that the few vegetable materials now only known as available for a trade that must have a future adequately represent its wealth in this matter. A process of tanning in small quantity for household wants has long been understood and 78 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. practised by the Boer farmers, who, I am informed, use the leaves of other trees than the C. comprest>um for the purpose ; and when the government really takes up the necessary question of forestry, a most important one for the country, the preservation and planting of these trees, upon which will depend the success of a Transvaal leather manufacturing trade, must be seriously dealt with*. At present the Transvaal may almost be described as timberless, so far as building-operations can be carried on. Even the wagon-builders have no local material, or at least none that can be obtained in any quantity, and it is absolutely cheaper to import wagons from the British Colonies, where there is an official Inspector of Forestry, than to manufacture them in the heart of the Transvaal. Vast quantities of deals and other European and American woods are brought up from Durban with all the incidental cost of rail and ox- wagon f ; and when at last the railway is allowed to give to the development of the country its natural and much-desired impetus, the sleepers for the lines will have to be imported. At present the great drawback to all local industries is that articles, despite duties, and in the face of monopolizing concessions, can be imported as cheap or cheaper than they can be manu- factured on the spot. The wealth of the Transvaal has hitherto only been sought beneath the ground ; it must now be cultivated on its surface. I started just after a period of heavy rains, and as the coach passed through the Wonderboom Poort, signs of the recent floods could be observed by the vegetable * This has been thoroughly done in Australia, and Mr. Maiden, in his ' Useful Native Plants of Australia,' has described over thirty species of " Wattles " and about half as many Eucalypts which have been tested for tanning-material. In all eighty-seven Australian species have been under examination. Burchell found that the Hottentots used the bark of the Karro-thorn for tanning sheepskins, and amongst other plants used for the same purpose were a kind of Finis and Mesembryanthemum coriarium, B. (' Travels in Interior of Southern Africa,' vol. i. p. 243). t In October 1890 the following quotations were obtained : Deals. 3x9, Is. 5d. per foot ; flooring, f X6, 4c?. per foot. THROUGH WATERBERG. 79 debris left stranded in the tops of trees growing by the banks of the river; many of the trees were at least fifteen feet high, and one could thus realize the dan- gerous and relentless force of these flooded streams. After leaving this mountain pass, short scrubby trees become plentiful, and the soil is loose and sandy. As the journey is advanced, the country is found to be much more wooded and is in pleasant and strong con- trast to the monotony of the bare veld which marks the higher lands. To drive along a narrow road through thick woods was, indeed, a novel experience, and we reached the banks of the Pienaars River about 4 P.M., and shortly afterwards commenced the longest and most severe stage of our journey. The "Waterberg Flats " occupy a waterless region of some twenty-five miles in width, where there are no stages, and the mules have at least a four hours' stretch ; but on this occasion, owing to the state of the road, in which the wet rutty ground had dried just sufficient to be bad for the feet of the mules, we were five hours in transit. During the last hour one could not help sympathizing with the poor jaded beasts, and the shouts of the driver and the crack of the whip were constant sounds. Pas- sengers and mules will probably soon be spared this unbroken stage, as an enterprising American was then sinking a well, already 108 feet deep, through the rocky ground at his own expense. When he reached water, and had completed the well, he proposed building a store and stables, and as the spot is about midway across the Flats, his enterprise should be repaid. It was 9 P.M. when we reached the hotel which bears the name of the Warm Baths. The warm water rises from a mass of peat and reeds in the neighbourhood, and is conveyed to the hotel by pipes. After the dust and fatigue of the road these baths are most refreshing, and now that the property is leased and managed by a small British company in Pretoria, the spot bids fair to be the retreat and sanitarium of the capital. The Boers visit this spot and use the waters ; but in their case a hole is made in the ground, into which the water 80 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. flo\vs. In this rude and muddy bath, covered with a tent or other screen, the farmer will remain for hours. A real night's rest is quite an unknown quantity to the coach-passenger; this journey was, of course, no exception to the rule, and we were aroused at 2.30 A.M. to resume our route. By 7 A.M. we had reached Nyl- stroom, a forlorn spot, where the imposing appearance of a post-office and lancldrost's court, unsurrounded by any apparent business life, give it the appearance of a still-born township. But fever has been the retarding cause of Nylstroom's future, and its character for un- healthiness will long survive, though the natural beauty of the surrounding country, and its little-disturbed con- dition, should make it a district beloved of sportsmen. As the traveller leaves this spot it is difficult to believe that one is still in the Transvaal, after an experience only of the country between Pretoria and the Cape and Natal frontiers. Woods, park-like tracts, undulating country, from which views could be obtained of endless and varied landscape, tall, w r ooded, isolated hills, and ranges of mountains with forest slopes, alternately meet the eye. Scattered Euphorbias quite transformed the appearance of the flora, and broke, as it were, the sameness of the short forest growth. The irritant properties of the milky juice obtained from these plants is well known * ; but the bloom possesses the same attributes, and honey is unfit for use that has been made by bees which have visited the flowers. A resident friend once purchased some honey from Kafirs, and this, when used by himself and companions, caused an intense burning sensation in the throat ; they then made careful enquiries as to its origin, and traced it to a Euphorbian source. New birds were observed in the trees such as never appeared at Pretoria. A hornbill was common, but more abundant still was the pretty Lilac-breasted Roller (Coracias can data). At intervals on the tops of trees perched Buzzards, that seemed by their numbers to have the whole neighbourhood under * Used by some of the tribes of South Africa for poisoning water to obtain game (Parker Gillmore, ' Days and Nights by the Desert/ p. 61). THROUGH WATERBERG. 81 observation, and yet when I traversed the country again about two months subsequently, scarcely one of these birds was to be seen. A large portion of the avifauna is migratory in a local sense, and the Buzzards follow their prey. We now approached localities which will always be remembered in Boer history and recall the days of the Boer and Kafir struggle for supremacy. Potgieter's Rust is associated with a name attached to a tragedy about to be related. The place had been an improving hamlet, and had enjoyed a healthy reputation till the year 1870, when fever in a most violent form broke out among its inhabitants. By April of that year eighty- one out of the ninety-three settlers had died or were prostrated, and in May the locality was deserted. It is now again inhabited, and may in time become a town- ship. A spot, however, which is still called Makapan's Poort, is the central point of one of those wild deeds which so often give a lurid glare to the struggle be- tween native races and white settlers. At Makapan's Poort, in the year 1854, a particularly diabolical murder was perpetrated by a clan of Kafirs under a chief named Makapan upon a party of hunting Boers. The hunting party consisted of thirteen men and ten women and children, and were under the head of a Field-cornet, Hermanus Potgieter. Potgieter had visited Makapan to trade for ivory, although the volksraad had passed laws prohibiting this manner of barter, with the view of preventing the danger of disputes and quarrels arising between the black and white people. Whatever the provocation may have been in the demeanour of the Boer, if provocation there was, as has been currently reported at the time and since, it remains that these unfortunate people were barbarously murdered, women and children sharing the same fate, and Potgieter himself flayed alive, his skin being afterwards pre- pared for a kaross. Blood once being shed and the die cast, the Kafirs commenced to pillage the surrounding neighbourhood. Needless to say the fiercest passions for retribution 82 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. were now aroused among the Boers, and a sense of danger demanded a swift reprisal ; no homestead was safe if this Kafir attack was allowed to develop, every farmer instinctively apprehended the emergency, and soon upwards of four hundred armed burghers had arrived at the scene of the tragedy determined on vengeance deep and terrible. The Kafirs fled to a huge cavern some two thousand feet in length and four or five hundred in width, which was closely blockaded by the Boers. Now commenced that wild revenge which is common to man's nature under similar circumstances; it has been practised by the French in Algeria, and by ourselves during the Sepoy revolt in India. Frantic with thirst the imprisoned Kafirs sought at night to reach the water that flows near the cave, but were shot down in the attempt ; quarter was a word unknown, and after twenty-five days' blockade, the cavern was entered and its horrors seen. According to Commandant Pretorius who would have no interest in exaggerating the figures nine hundred Kafirs had been killed outside the cavern, and more than double that number had died of thirst within it *. Makapan himself is reported to have perished by poison introduced in water, but the true story of the wild vengeance will probably never be told. It was during the blockade that the present President Kriiger exhibited an act of that bravery which he has else- where displayed. A Boer commander was shot when standing near the mouth of the cavern, and Mr. Kriiger volunteered to bring away the body, which he did. This man was afterwards buried on his farm, and I have visited the grave ; it was silent and alone, as befitted the last rest of an old voortrekker. Some eight hours were at my disposal before the return coach could convey me back to Pretoria, and I seized the opportunity to visit the cavern, guided by one who knew the neighbourhood and had once been * The South-African historian, G. McCall Theal, who is cautious and not biassed against the Boer, adopts these figures (' History of South Africa. 1854-72,' p. 30). THROUGH WATERBERG. S3 an English soldier. The weather was clear and hot, we crossed large fields of maize grown by Kafirs, who are here the only agriculturists, and as we walked Clonia wahlbergi. through these high and nourishing plants one was reminded of the fields of young sugar-cane in the East. It was in these fields that I first captured the fine orthopterous insect, Clonia wahlbergi, and experienced G2 84 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. the severity of its bite. I had previously sustained the pincer-like grip of the beetle Manticora tuberculata, which was much less painful than that of this Ortho- pteron, the mark of which on my finger was carried for several days. An hour's walk brought us to the first cave, which the Kafirs visited before proceeding to the second and larger one, where they sustained the blockade and in which most of them perished. Tt was very hot, and when we reached the abrupt rocky side of the hill up which we had to climb, for the cavern is situate some distance from the base *, we were glad to quench our thirst at the small stream of cold clear water that flows along the valley at its foot. It was this stream that the thirst-maddened Kafirs sought to reach at night, when, however, the Boer bullet was usually received. Inside the gloomy pre- cincts of the cavern skulls were strewn in profusion, but generally without the lower jaws, and many have been taken away by visitors : the dung of the sheep and goats possessed by the imprisoned Kafirs was still intact on the dry floor, and handles of axes, grinding- stones for corn, baskets, &c., bore their witness to the retributive slaughter of 1854. We could not penetrate into the recesses of the cavern, as we had not brought candles ; but it was an uncanny scene, and a large dog that accompanied us seemed very ill at ease and kept near the entrance. I was able to select six very fair crania f, both juvenile and adult, which I brought away, and we retraced our steps, glad to reach the " hotel " once more and drink a bottle of English ale, which, however, in this part is priced four shillings and sixpence J. All the way, both coming and going, we saw the * Mr. Alford describes these caves, of which there are a number in the neighbourhood, as " large water- worn cavities in the stratification of the quartzites, formed by the removal of portions of the softer beds " (' Geolo- gical Features of the Transvaal,' p. 4U). t These crania are now incorporated in the fine craniological collection belonging to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; and are fully described by Professor Stewart in the Appendix to this book (see p. 157). J In the Spelonken I once paid 5s. 6d., which may be taken as the high- water price for our English beverage. THROUGH WATERBERG. 85 commencement of the Mashonaland trek. Wagons, drawn principally by donkeys, well equipped, were bearing young and enterprising spirits to Rhodes' new country and England's new Protectorate. Prospectors were hastening to find and peg-out claims which con- tained the precious reef, and though much fever and more hardship will be encountered in the early days, it will probably be the South- African land for the future colonist and will remain under the old flag. It is bound to absorb some of the capital of investors which might have otherwise reached the Transvaal, and though Boer and Hollander may sometimes think the Republic can do without the English, it will still miss the influx of English money. When a man has once gone prospecting he finds a charm in the life which he seldom deserts. Of course I am speaking of those free spirits who are no use in business, have a moral law unto themselves, and love the solitude of nature, diversified by an occasional carouse in a large town. Such a one we carried in our coach on the up-journey. He was bound for Mashona- land, and had purchased the wagon and oxen to carry the party, his friends having contributed the other necessaries. The wagon, however, had gone on without him, as he informed us he had indulged in such a " paralatic drunk " that his friends had become tired of waiting, and he was now endeavouring to overtake his party. Another member of the staff had still to follow. Four times had this susceptible man driven to the Poort where the wagon waited to start, and each time accompanied by a " lady " friend to see him off, but on each occasion his will failed and he returned to town with his fair companion. These men when they do get out and settle down mil be sober slaves, but they are like sailors on shore when a town is reached. My com- panion was a lump of good-nature, of strong build and constitution, and in all my experience at home and abroad I never saw a man drink so much and show the effects so little. Consequently what the nature of the banquet was which prevented his joining the wagon, can be more easily imagined than described. 86 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. The rain again commenced on our return, and we found Pretoria once more a scene of mud, with the usual results of detained mails and an almost impossibility of heavy transport. The arrival of the weekly mail is to the European exile an event of the first importance. Seven days' intellectual stagnation, in which the only recorded events are found in the dismal swamp of Boer politics, Church squabbles, and mining reports, render the new home journals most attractive, though the con- trast apart from purely literary studies is the record of the same motives being applied to a larger and more complex field. The same elements that compose the social and political fabric of Boerland are found at the root of our own national institutions ; but in Europe the stage is larger, the principal parts are acted with more dignity, and the scenery and decorations more im- pressive. The subject matter is the same, but the oratory has been more developed at home ; the " Oom Paul " of the Boer and the " People's William " amongst our- selves represent only a difference in degree and not of type. So it is with the civilization of Pretoria, which has reached a gaol and permanent gallows, but not yet acquired a workhouse ; it has recognized crime, as ours has, but still lacks the accompanying abject poverty of our own more developed towns and cities. Thus our home papers recorded the acting of a great national tragedy or superb social comedy, whilst the Transvaal existence has only yet advanced in politics to an ordi- nary drama, and in social distinctions to a farce. Midas may arise and does appear in the Boer republic, but he has not the potentiality for display which the plutocrat possesses in Europe, and appears ridiculous where our own creations are sometimes only offensive ; it is the difference between the processionary splendours of a travelling circus and the more gorgeous vulgarity of a Lord Mayor's Show. Thus a long and late night with the London papers was always a weekly treat compared with the uninteresting records of Transvaal communities ; but how different the impression became when leaving the townships one once more visited the solitudes of THROUGH WATER-BERG. 87 South-African nature, and then the petty aims and sordid cares of our boasted development appear like an agony or a nightmare. The young Briton without family ties at home who has once roamed over these wild plains, and lived the free life, will visit, but pro- bably never die, in the old country. The anomalies of our so-called civilization are seldom really experienced or so clearly seen as from the vantage-ground of Nature's solitudes, and we there learn a lesson which we never forget, and acquire habits which last for a lifetime. Reptiles are not abundant in the neighbourhood of Pretoria. . Lizards (Mabuia trivittata), w r hich live in holes on the banks and hillocks of the veld, may be often seen in fine weather curled up at the entrance to their abodes apparently enjoying the air ; they then ar- range their bodies in a circular manner, their legs falling flat by their sides, and thus have all the appearance of snakes. They were difficult to capture without shooting, and I frequently dug them out, when they were always found living in the company of Toads. A Monitor ( Varanus niloticus) was not uncommon about the banks of the spruits which here and there intersect the veld ; in the stomach of one I found the remains of two freshly- devoured rats and a frog. Among the different car- casses brought to the morning market by Boers for sale maybe frequently found the body of one of these animals. One Lizard (Agama hispida) is not at all uncommon, and I have secured three or four specimens from under one stone. Snakes are certainly few in number, and no Irishman need fear meeting too many specimens of his pet abhorrence near Pretoria. The Python is scarce ; I heard reports of solitary examples having been seen in widely separated spots, but was unable to obtain a specimen. One of the most mythical animals is the Crocodile, which is often reported as inhabiting streams which certainly do not possess a single individual. This was particularly the case in the Spelonken, where I was prevented from bathing in the deepest and best pools of the river by reports of these Saurians, of whom none of my informants had ever seen a specimen at the spot. 88 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. As the untutored mind is apt to people the air with ghosts and goblins, so the Kafir loves to imagine the waters of the dark stream as inhabited by river gods and great reptiles. Even sailors find it difficult to believe that the vast silent ocean is not peopled by huge sea-serpents and other monsters; but, alas! all things, and even fancies, die a natural death, and the sea-serpent has now nearly followed the mermaid. Zoological science has made it impossible to " Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea ; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." The dangers of these rivers are not from their in- habitants, but from their swollen and sudden rush during the heavy rains. We once narrowly escaped in driving through one of these augmented streams. The water rose over the floor of the spider, which floated, and for a few moments the horses lost their foothold ; but I shouted to the Kafir boy to use the whip, and we got through. The Boer farmer I visited would scarcely believe we had driven through the stream (which was certainly due to ignorance and not courage on my part), and on our return he sent two of his sons to the river to help in an emergency, or to witness a foolhardy Britisher have at least a dangerous ducking. Of course under such a challenge the thing had to be again attempted, and we succeeded in accomplishing our purpose, though with an unexpressed resolution to try no such experiments again. The Kafir boy showed no fear, nor did he on another occasion^ when the horses breaking from con- trol took fright in going down a rocky hill and bolted, while for several moments I was asking myself whether it was to be broken limbs or broken neck ! Although, as before remarked, the high veld is an almost treeless region, and Pretoria by planting has been made an exception to the somewhat general rule, its arboriculture is in danger by the arrival of the Coccid, or so-called " Australian Bug" (leery a purchasi), which has ruined many trees and shrubs. Already a formidable pest in Australia, New Zealand, and North THROUGH WATEREERG. 89 America, it was first observed in the Botanic Gardens at Cape Town in 1873, and has since spread over nearly all South Africa, this scale-insect being now too frequently seen in the Transvaal. It specially attacks the orange-tree, which in the high Transvaal is the only really eatable fruit to be obtained, and hence its arrival and depredations are the more to be regretted. This Coccid* in time may prove as serious a trouble to the arboriculturist as the prevalent lung-disease already is to the cattle-farmer and the horse-keeper. Man's development of this country is a long struggle with the different forces and agents of Nature ; if his cattle survive the sickness in the Transvaal they will not conquer the little Tsetse-fly (Glossina morsitans) of the interior ; heavy rains and floods destroy his crops, and the scale-insect attacks his trees ; in the rich low- lands, where the most luxuriant crops can be produced, malarial fever dwells ; in the townships of the healthy highlands defective drainage is attended by malignant typhoid epidemic. Man's greatest happiness is living in conformity with Nature's laws, his greatest intel- lectual achievement has been in conquering and utilizing her forces. Dynamite is a progressive power in the Transvaal, and is an invincible force in hewing the railway-track through the quartzite rocks, constructing roads across adamantine defiles, or blasting the gold- bearing reefs. The boom of its explosion is a sound often heard, always denoting industrial enterprise ; and the word dynamite had a strange significance in my ears in this land as I observed its destructive force utilized for constructive purposes, and remembered its felonious notoriety in London a few years previously. * To those who would consult the literature relating to this insect, its may ba Ento- to Agriculture in New Zealand. The Scale Insects (Coccididte),' by W. M. Marshall, 1887 ; Report by Mr. Roland Trimr-n Government Notice (Blue Book) No. 113, 1877 ; au'd lastly, the excellent resum6 on the subject by Miss Eleanor A. Ormerod in her ' Inj urious Farm and Fruit Insects of South Africa.' 90 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. February 27th, or Majuba day, is rightly remembered by Boers as a general holiday. Englishmen can accept a defeat, but need not necessarily celebrate its anniver- sary, and with my nephew and man, who had accom- panied me from England, I started on the previous even- ing for the small quantity of " wood-bush " that may be found in the Pretoria district on the Waterberg Road. An old colonist, who had reached Natal as a child, and wandered about South Africa ever since, often deserted but never quite forsaken by fortune, who seemed to have never failed and never prospered, and who, with- out any great financial reputation, was content in dis- position and seemed independent in character, invited us to spend the night at a small farm he rented in the neighbourhood. We reached the abode late, for the way was long, the roads heavy, and the night dark, and here in this small domicile on the vast veld, dwelling in all the plainness of the most primitive farm at home, was a colonist family who only just preserved in the parents' early life the slightest touch with home. And yet it is with these good people that the distrust of the Boer is most strongly felt. The wealthy colonial or British merchant thrives with the Boer and respects his customer, but with men of small means and plain living the difference is most pronounced. The soldier accepts and forgets his defeat, but these humble and industrious Scotch and English, who were scattered over the country with farm or store at the time of the war, and went through much danger, and, what was worse, had to put up with much rudeness, have, doubt- less, forgiven but certainly not forgotten. Our sleeping accommodation was at least primitive : a straw pail- lasse stretched on the earthern floor of an empty cowshed, which, nicely ventilated by holes in the walls and roof, and agreeably perfumed by strings of onions suspended from the rafters, afforded us, in the absence of rain, excellent shelter. I was informed here of a sudden cessation to a bird pest. A small Finch had swarmed on the farm to the great destruction of certain crops, and all attempts to destroy them or thin their numbers THROUGH WATERBERG. 91 had failed. These birds roosted at night on the reeds growing in a small river-bed or vley, and one night, shortly before my arrival, and after particularly heavy rain, the waters suddenly rose and covered the reeds to the almost total destruction of the birds, for my host said he had seen scarcely any since. We frequently see swarms of insects swept away by floods, but I had not hitherto heard of a wholesale destruction of birds by the same means. The wood-bush we visited was only a few miles in extent and thin in appearance, and yet contained almost another zoological world to the bare veld which adjoined it. Birds of many species not seen before were now met with, and many new skins secured for the collection. In insects the fine day-flying Moth (Xanthospilopteryx superba) flew amidst the shade of the acacias, and in Butterflies Herpcenia eriphia and Teracolus en's and T, evenina were captured by myself for the first time. The fine Ant-lion (Palpares coffer) was abundant round the outskirts of the trees, and large and gaudily-marked Spiders (Nephila transvaalica)* occupied in family groups or industrial communities the immense webs that stretched from tree to tree. In the ardour and pleasure of collecting we had aimlessly wandered among the trees, with the inevitable result that about noon we found we had not only lost our- selves, but all held different ideas as to the direction we should pursue. It is at such times that the mind grasps the full benefit of both savagedom and civilization, for we possessed neither the wood-lore nor path-finding capacity of the first, nor did we carry the pocket com- pass of the latter. Of course we went miles out of our way, and after hard walking for hours under a broiling sun we at last reached our spider again, and arrived late in Pretoria on the evening of Majuba day. Since January our Coleopterous visitants had in- cluded the fine and showy Buprestid Sternocera orissa. The first time I saw this grand beetle for in the Transvaal the Beetles, as a rule, are neither large nor * A new species, described in the Appendix by Mr. Pocock (Tab. V. fig. 4). 92 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. showy it was resting in some numbers on the still leafless branches of a solitary acacia on the bare veld. Being far beyond our reach we threw large pieces of quartzite against the branches, and the concussion, as a rule, brought the insects to the ground, when they were secured before they could take wing. This species was always found on the branches of an acacia. Beetles are, however, difficult to obtain ; they are plentiful for a short time at the commencement of the rains, then become scarcer as the summer season advances, and are almost totally absent during the long dry season. Although the hedges were a mass of roses constantly in bloom during the summer, I was surprised to see how little they were visited by floral beetles. Certainly myriads of the Cetoniid Pachnoda flaviventris could generally be seen, and also the large Cantharid Mylabris ophthalmica, but the majority of all these flower-visiting Coleoptera confined themselves to the small and obscure bloom found on the veld. A new tree would burst into bloom, its flowers lasting but a short time, during which frequently a species of the Cetoniidee not hitherto seen would visit in quantity this fugitive blossom and again quickly disappear with it. From long observation in the field and of the contents in my cabinets at home, I had become convinced of the phenomena and the truth of the theory of mimicry* in the insect world, by which under the law of natural selec- tion edible species showing any resemblance to inedible ones, have gradually been preserved by the protection thus afforded, and the same selective process going on among their progeny for long periods of time has re- sulted in those wonderful resemblances which we now find among distinct orders of insects. So strongly was this always in my mind that I frequently was stung by real Hymenoptera, when I expected too much and thought I might be handling an imitator. But the tables were quite turned when I first captured a female of the longicorn Amphidesmus analis, which on a leaf has a surprising resemblance to a female of the genus * Long since enunciated and proved by my friend Mr. H. W. Bates. THROUGH WATERBERG. 93 Lycus belonging to a totally different Coleopterous family, and I was completely deceived till I held the insect in my hand. The objections urged against the theory of mimicry are generally based on a total mis- understanding of the theory itself. One frequently listens to arguments against a hypothetical assumption that an insect of its own volition, for protective pur- poses, copies the garb and appearance of an inedible species. Such a wild proposition would require no objection, for it could obtain no support. It is only when one has realized the struggle for existence in all animal life including man himself, has recognized the unbending, inexorable, and universal application of natural laws, appreciated that benevolence is an ac- quired product of the human heart and not of natural life, and observed that all life exists in an iron-bound environment, where strength reigns supreme and the strong taketh by force it is only then one under- stands what Herbert Spencer has so well called the " survival of the fittest," and what Darwin had enabled him thus to see by his enunciation of " Natural Selec- tion." With these facts before us we can comprehend how this " breed " of the persecuted beetle, ever tending by the attacks of its enemies a form of natural selec- tion to perpetuate its race by its more favoured repre- sentatives who were mistaken for inedible species, in the course of time reached in scanty numbers, it may be its zenith in simulative appearance and escaped extinction. These mimicking species are the shadow of a past, when there was a great need and a great danger. 1)4 NATIVE HUT, SPELONKEN. CHAPTER VI. ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. Start for the Spelonken in Zoutpansberg. Horse-sickness. Pietersburg. A fine Convolvulus. A castellated residence in the Wilds. Night in a wagon. Kafir traders. Kafirs on the tramp. Polygamy. The Magwambas, their customs acd institutions. An ox feast and dance. The Makatese. The Mavendas and their iron- work. Birds' food largely orthopterous. Good entomological spots. Zoutspansberg with its natural riches still undeveloped. I HAD for some time intended to undertake a journey through the Zoutpansberg district, and was engaged in making enquiries as to the best mode of conveyance to be engaged at the termination of the coach service at Pietersburg, when I was introduced to Mr. G. D. Gill, a Spelonken trader, who kindly invited me to share his wagon on his return journey, and to accept his hospi- tality during my stay in his neighbourhood. We started for Pietersburg on a cold April morning, and although the coach was timed to leave at 5 A.M., it was not before ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 95 another hour had elapsed that our black driver appeared upon the scene, when to the repeated and somewhat energetic remonstrances of the coach proprietor he merely returned the soft answer : " No, Baas, it cannot be six o'clock, I am sure." The horse-sickness was now prevalent ; a few days previously, when travelling to Johannesburg, we had to unharness a horse and leave it on the veld ; on this occasion we soon had to dispose of one of our mules in the same manner. The number of animals lost by the coach proprietors owing to this epidemic was something enor- mous. Within the few weeks previous to my journey, the small regiment of State artillery had lost twenty-five " salted " horses, and the detachment of ten men which escorted the President to Natal were deprived of four animals between Pretoria and the Transvaal border. At present there is little or no cure known for this disease, which is a serious matter for the welfare of the Republic. The journey through Waterberg has already been described in the previous chapter, and soon after leaving Eyting's " hotel " the country once more resumes its treeless and uninteresting appearance. We reached Pietersburg about 10 P.M., on the second day after leaving Pretoria, calling at Smitsdorp and Mara- bastad on our way. Pietersburg is a township now in course of development; it is planned out with sites reserved for Market and Church Squares, as in Pretoria and the other Transvaal towns. Already three churches were either quite or nearly completed ; it also possesses a Landdrost,has an exceedingly healthy and open situation, is the market town of Zoutpansberg, and as Mashona- land prospers, Pietersburg must grow, for it is the last Mart on one of the principal roads to Rhodes' eldorado. Its principal inhabitants are Germans, its stores trust to a Boer trade ; and though the first prosperity of Pietersburg had received a check at the time of my visit, the township has a future. Erven, or plots, that could have been purchased a few years since for 14, are now worth from 200 to 300. We stayed a day here waiting for our wagon, and time passed very 96 ^ NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. slowly ; there is nothing to be seen or done in Pieters- burg but business, and at the time of my visit very little of that was acknowledged. The scenery around is bare plain and mountain, and health may here be restored at the cost of much ennui. It was difficult to realize that this was once a great game country, and living Boers can still remember the time when not only bucks and antelopes abounded on the now silent and lifeless veld, but even giraffes, lions, and elephants were to be found. Animal life was now almost alone represented by large numbers of the White-bellied Crow (Corvus scapulatus), which were more numerous here than in any other part of the Transvaal I visited, and the scanty flora was made memorable by a cultivated Convolvulus with blooms twice the size of the ordinary Convolvulus major ', which was also most abundant in gardens. I saw this fine flower again in the Spelonken, and obtained seed from it, but I have as yet been unable to effect its germination in England. After a day passed in Pietersburg, we started in a small wagon drawn by eight oxen for the Spelonken area of the Zoutpansberg district. The first day's trek was over bare veld, and towards evening we passed one of the most incongruous sights I saw in South Africa. Here in the desert plain suddenly appeared an effigy of an old feudal castle, reminding one more of a stage effect than of an antiquated building. This extra- ordinary structure has been built by a retired native commissioner, Capt. Dahl, and here he proposes to dwell and, I believe, end his days. I never fully realized before the true horrors of false taste; here where a bungalow with flowered trellis and garden rich in native flora would have harmonized with the natural features of the scene, we found a second-rate representation of what was most hateful in architecture and inconsistent with its surroundings. We rested at sunset near the base of a range of hills and then trekked on till about 11 P.M., when we again outspanned the oxen and passed the night on the outskirts of a field of Kafir maize. The first night passed in a wagon has all the charm of ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 97 novelty ; as one gazed through the opening behind at the clear starry sky, and realized the quiet of solitude, it seemed as though life was at last free, and social exist- ence deprived of its fetters. With the second day's trek CASTELLATED KESIDENCE IN ZOUTPANSBERG. the scenery altogether changed, the country was more or less thickly wooded, especially after fording the Dwaas River, which we reached about noon. A few hours from this spot we crossed a plain studded with granitic hillocks, which rose like rocks and islands from a shallow sea ; viewed from above, the whole scene reminded one of some portions of the coast of Brittany at low water, and it was difficult to overcome the impression that we were gazing on an old ocean-bed. Most of these elevated masses of granite were quite bare, with their surfaces highly heated by the rays of the sun. The only Europeans we met on our road up the Spelonken were the traders, who keep Kafir stores. They all seem to succeed, and some are moderately in- dependent after years of patience, industry, and solitude, for their life is a lonely one, especially when they are, 98 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. as in many cases, unmarried. The living is bare and but little diversified, home comforts are in some instances of the fewest number, whilst in the small flower-garden near the house may frequently be seen the tomb of some loved one, who has lived and died with them in these African solitudes, and whose remains now really conse- crate the ground. Then, again, there is much leisure time, for the Kafirs come to purchase in a sporadic manner, and hours pass without the visit of a customer ; consequently these hermit merchants are glad to have a chat with any passer by, and I found them very hos- pitable to me on my journey. An old Matabele trader named Cooksley, whom Mohr mentions in his Travels, has now settled here and has the best establishment on the road. The beauty of the spot is its flower-garden and orchard, both of which are due to the horticultural taste and industry of Mrs. Cooksley, who kindly supplied me with a stock of fine oranges on both upward and return journey ; it is such cultivated spots and well-kept homes that are required to be distributed among the districts inhabited by the Boer farmers, for nothing but a healthy emulation can arouse that lethargic stock. These traders altogether depend upon their native customers, and in return are able to afford them considerable pro- tection, particularly if they happen to be in the hands of unscrupulous and oppressive native commissioners. I heard many reports of savage floggings and impositions when I was in Zoutpansberg ; and the government should remember that officials do not become valuable only as they collect native taxes, for it is possible at the same time to drive Kafirs from their locations, and thus not only destroy a source of revenue, but also depress a very valuable branch of trade in the country *. All along the road we passed small bodies of Kafirs tramping home after working at Kimberley, Johannes- burg, or Pretoria, where they usually remain for a * The government quite recently instituted an enquiry into these charges, which could not be substantiated. It was admitted, "however, that the Commissioner had flogged a native servant girl with a riding-whip for u frequent acts of immorality," but her subsequent death was decided to be due to other causes. ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 99 period not longer than three to five months. By that time they have saved a few pounds, purchased blankets, and other commodities, and commence their long walk to their kraals or location, in the warmer and more beautiful Zoutpansberg district, while some even cross the Limpopo River. The distance they travel is fre- quently over six hundred miles, and three or four hundred miles is a common journey. When on one of these long tramps they will often average eighteen miles daily, but a frequent rest for a few days at other kraals they may pass reduces the average of their daily pedestrian record. To see them toiling along with their heavy loads on head and back, frequently foot-sore and weary, but encouraged and sustained with the prospect of home once more, showed that these men had reached the elements of civilization. The labour ques- tion to them is not a matter of life-long servitude, and the few months spent working in the towns or delving in the mines is exchanged for an equal or far longer period of rustication among their own people. Some die on the road, especially in wet and cold weather, and we saw several who seemed to be thoroughly leg-weary and worn out. The money they have earned enables them to pay their yearly tax, but more particularly to find the purchase or " custom " money for another wife. Polygamy among these Kafirs is not necessarily a sensual institution. To women is deputed the whole manual work, both household and agricultural, and a wife will try and induce her husband to earn the means by which he can obtain another wife and thus lighten her own domestic duties. As is well known, oxen or money must be given to the father-in-law before his daughter can be obtained ; but the heavy outlay thus incurred is an investment, and will be well repaid if the husband becomes the father of female children and so in turn be- comes capitalist himself. In a savage or semi-savage community, women derive protection from such a custom. Female infanticide is unknown, the woman secures a safe and valued position in the tribe, and marriage thus having a financial value, any rampant immorality is discouraged and becomes an offence to the community. H2 100 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Of course, some amount of immorality exists, as in the most puritanical districts at home, but at least a stand is made for the sanctity of marriage among these Kafirs by the prohibition of unmarried girls bearing children. It is very questionable whether these men lead more sensual lives with their few wives than they would do if they practised monogamy, and there are many occasions when the woman is avoided altogether, especially for some time after child-birth. At the stage of culture to which the Kafir has at present arrived, polygamy is a useful institution ; it is a protection to the women, and an incentive to the industry and enter- prise of the men. We are too apt to judge other social arrangements, especially when belonging to what we are pleased to call inferior races, by our own standard of civilization, which is often simply the subordination of the greatest good to the fewest number. Certainly, among these Magwamba Kafirs, woman only holds the place of a valued chattel (the women always kneel when handing anything to a man) ; but even then her lot is not worse, but probably better, than that of the well- abused drudge and slave of our own brickfields. The Magwambas, or "knob-noses," so-called from having their noses originally ornamented with notches or scars, were the tribe or clan of the Bantu race with which I was principally thrown in contact. They entered Zoutpansberg about twenty years previously from the other side of the Limpopo, under the control or chieftainship of a Portuguese named Joan Albasini, and they still style themselves " path openers." They are mostly refugees from Umzila's country, since joined by other refugees from the surrounding districts, and are now the most orderly and law-abiding inhabitants of the Spelonken. At the death of Albasini they looked to the Transvaal Government as their head, and afterwards elected the government native commissioner as their chief, a proceeding they probably now regard in the same light as the early Jews did their insistance on having a king. At the time of my visit to the Spelonken these ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 101 Magwamba Kafirs numbered, I was told, about twenty thousand. They do not live together in large numbers, but have small scattered kraals consisting of a few huts. A favourite dress of the men is a tiger-cat skin in front and often another one behind, and the women wear a short petticoat. MAGWAMBA WOMAN CRUSHING MEAL. There was a small kraal a little behind the store at which I stayed, from which lamentation had ascended for the last three weeks and still continued to resound across the wooded veld. The head man of this village, who started to work at Kimberley, had died on the 102 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. road, and now funeral dances and loud songs of woe were still of frequent occurrence. An Induna who accompanied me to see these rites exhibited what is called the " scepticism of the better classes," and quietly remarked with a smile, as he handed me some Kafir beer, " it will not bring him back." . All these men love strong liquor, and those who can obtain it show little moderation whilst the supply remains unfinished. Two Indunas visited the store daily, and patiently waited about during my visit, knowing that I had some whiskey, and by friendly smiles solicited the favour of being asked to take a drink. To look at these two men, there could be little doubt as to how they acquired their position. Good health, a stalwart and imposing appearance, the signs of mental capacity far beyond their fellows, a general air of good-natured cunning, and an absence of what might be called "morbid conscientiousness," made up the qualities that not only created success in a kraal, but with education would have made good men of business, who could have promoted Companies and held their own on a stock exchange. These are the attributes which for ever make impossible dreams as to the perfect " equality of man." With these two Indunas we arranged the prelimi- naries for a great dance on the basis of my host pro- viding an ox to be slaughtered and eaten on the occasion. On the morning of the dance troops of Magwambas, ornamented with their most showy if scanty wearing- apparel and singing their songs or rather dirges, gathered in from all sides. Several Indunas were arrayed in war-like attire, and the whole scene reminded one of a public holiday at Hampstead or Kiddlesdown at home, but without both the drunkenness and vul- garity. The only vulgar-looking Kafir was an individual in European costume, who had just returned from working at the diamond-fields. He was dressed in a suit of cords, his waistcoat was ornamented with three distinct brass watch-guards, he also possessed boots and necktie and wore a round hat ; but, compared with his [To face p. 102. ARTS AND INDUSTRIES IN THE SPELONKEN. 1 & 2. Magwamba necklaces. 4. Mavenda pick or hoe. 3. Magwamba snuff-box. 6. Magwamba ladle. 6, 7, 8, 9. Magwamba head-rests. ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMSAS. 103 less clothed but more artistically attired brethren, he looked like an East-end rough at home. Oh! nine- teenth-century civilization, you have polluted the fairest spots with smoke and hideous erections, from which the factory bell tolls like a Newgate summons to the MAGWAMBA WAB-AXES. condemned labourers ; now in the Spelonken you send us such a vulgarized, if civilized, wretch as this ! He dances not, he smiles not, he only looks on, but in a short time he will dispense with these hideous robes and once more dance and eat his mealies with his happy friends. The dances might be described as of a " program " nature, and represented phases and events of Kafir life, such as " bearding a lion in his den," &c. ; they com- menced at about 11 A.M. and continued almost uninter- ruptedly till about 4 P.M. The men and boys formed a wide outer circle, inside which in two close phalanxes were the married women and unmarried girls. A Kafir really dances he acts the dance, he enjoys it, he lives his part in it ; to him a dance is a lamentation or a rejoicing, the glory of a fight or the story retold 104 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. of a homely reminiscence : no wonder the labourer gladly tramps back from the large towns, where his existence is a compound of work and restriction, to the family life of the kraal. There freedom is com- bined with gaiety and excitement, wants are few, and their food simple and to hand. But the cry frequently heard from Europeans is that the government " should make the niggers work," and this by imposing heavy taxation. The advocates of this doctrine are often speculators, who believe that civilization consists in acquiring gold, and that the Kafir race should become one huge corps of miners to enable them to carry out the operation. For myself I often envied the simple wants and few troubles of these happy Magwambas. During the dance, the unfortunate ox that was doomed " to make a Kafir holiday " stood a quiet spec- tator of the scene, but was assegaied as the afternoon progressed, and the process of flaying was commenced before the animal was quite dead. Kafirs have no regard for animal suffering; they carefully tend their oxen while alive, but when once it is decided to slaughter an animal, all consideration for the beast vanishes and the same individual can be as cruel a butcher as he was formerly a kind and attentive shepherd. The meat was quickly stripped from the carcass, numerous small fires were made, and the ox was soon a thing of the past. It is during such feasts that savage instincts are really seen, and we recognize that self-restraint and gentle manners after all are the true marks of civilization. The authenticity of many travellers' accounts of the religious beliefs and origins of customs among so-called savage races have been long doubted, and on this journey I found the utmost difficulty in extracting any reliable or exact information from the Magwambas. I could only be told by one what was too often contradicted by another, and this, not because of their untruthfulness, but simply owing to our mutual ignorance of each other's meaning. Nor was it due to a want of knowledge of their language, as my host was a MAGWAMBA ASSEGAIS AND SHIELD. ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAGWAMBAS. 107 thorough linguist, and, what was more, remained on the most friendly and trusted relations with them. One must live for some time with the Magwambas, and as a Magwamba, before any true insight can be obtained into their real speculative opinions, and then very few of them have clear notions on these points. It would be the same if a learned and anthropological Magwamba was pos- sible, who should visit England and in a short time endeavour to study the origin and meaning of much theological and philosophical reasoning found in our midst. If he mixed only with our lower classes he would find little opinion at all; our middle classes would give him varied and often erroneous definitions ; whilst among those of leisure he would find Galileos who cared for none of these things. So it is, in a more moderate degree, among native races, where are also found the totally ignorant, the thoroughly mis- taken, and the supremely indifferent, as elsewhere. The Magwambas are not the only tribe of Bantu Kafirs living in the Spelonken. The Makatese, originally fugitives from the Basuto and Bechuana countries and taking their name from the supposition that they were all subjects of Ma Ntatisi*, are now the most numerous in Zoutpansberg, and, under the chief Magato, are located on a long mountain range which exhibits one of the glories of the landscape. The Makatese, I was informed, now number upwards of thirty thousand. The Mavenda Kafirs are a branch of the Makatese, and closely allied to the Basutos, and amongst these people iron-smelting and manufactured iron-work in a rough way is carried on. My friend arranged that I should witness the making of a "pick" or agri- cultural hoe, the principal article fabricated, and the head Mavenda sent me his pony on which to ride to his home on the summit of a hill, where I was received by himself and assistants under a thatched roof where the primitive forge was erected. The fire was soon * G. McCall Theal, ' History of the Boers,' p. 63. 108 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. lighted, charcoal being used, and a small calabash con- taining iron (the ore procured from an iron mountain in the vicinity and previously smelted) was produced, the contents of which were thrown on the fire when sufficiently heated. When the metal was fused it was laid on a large block of stone and beaten into shape by another heavy stone wielded with great force by a stalwart and adept assistant, and it was interesting to watch how, with these rough implements, the pick slowly but surely grew into shape. It was taken from the forge by a rough pair of tongs held by the head man, who always whistled during the time he thus held it on the stone anvil, and his assistant with a grunt brought down his heavy weight on the exact spot indicated by his chief. During the whole time two men took it in turn to blow the bellows made of buck or goat skin, with the hollow horns of antelopes for the funnel, whilst several visitors squatted round and watched the operation. It was living in the iron age, and thought travelled back to the bygone times in human progress. These picks are greatly valued by Kafir agriculturists, always maintaining a value of about five shillings, and are greatly preferred to those made in Birmingham, which can be imported and sold for less money. The manufacture of the pick forms thus a true native industry, and in this region is almost confined to the Mavendas, amongst whom, I was assured, there was a recognized compact that none should be sold under a certain price. The Mavendas by their industrial arts are thus more advanced in material progress than the Magwambas, with whom they live in contact, though the Magwamba women always wear a petticoat, and the female Mavendas have simply the ordinary waist- bandage. But though much less clothed, the Mavenda women are better-looking and exhibit the signs of more intellect than the Magwambas possess. Material progress and clothing certainly do not always go together. I considerably added to my natural history collection during the ten days I spent at the Spelonken, awaiting ZO UTPANSBER G AND THE MA G WAMBAS. Ill the wagon for my return journey, and in this I was greatly assisted by the Magwamba boys, who, on finding that there was really a market, set thoroughly to work in procuring specimens. Birds were mostly brought alive, as the lads were adepts at trapping, or when killed they were generally in perfect condition, as the blunted wooden, arrow-head was used. At first some of the men would bring a small bird pierced by a bullet shot from an old " Brown Bess " ; but they soon knew the requirements better, and a good ornitholo- gical collection could have been obtained had I possessed leisure to remain longer on the spot. The great trouble was to prevent them bringing the same thing over and over again, and to make them under- stand that insects were valueless when crushed; but they really experienced pleasure in trapping and shooting birds, and would attentively watch the process of skinning. As the lads brought in my prizes, I recalled the same arrangement made years before with the Nicobarians in the Bay of Bengal and the Malays of Province Wellesley. Animal life was, however, scarce, the dry season had just commenced and birds had generally left the neighbourhood. The only predatory beast was the Jackal (Canis mesomelas], whose shrill cries or screams had broken our rest and disturbed the deep stillness of the night as we journeyed up in the wagon. On our arrival at the store we heard that these animals had been prowling around and had dragged away a dried hide a few nights previously. Buck were very scarce, one species only, the Duyker (Cephaloloplms grimmii\ being obtained during my stay. No quantity of big game can now exist near a Kafir location since the intro- duction of firearms, and the natives have learned to use a gun with much greater precision than in their early fights with the Boers, when they frequently shut both eyes before firing. The dry veld now no longer contained its rich variety and myriad numbers of orthopterous insects, and this, I believe, was the cause of the almost utter absence of 112 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. birds in the spots where they were previously so abundant. In the Transvaal I found that almost all birds fed on this rich banquet of the rainy season, and I have even seen the crops of Kestrels (Cerchneis tinnunculoides and amurensis) crammed with the remains of these insects; the Short-eared Owl (Asio capensis) also feeds on large Coleoptera, the crop of one specimen I procured containing nothing else. As soon as the dry season recommences there is an absolute dearth of insect-life on the veld, and birds must then seek other areas in quest of food. The most showy bird in the Spelonken was the Roller (Coracias caudata\ and the curious cry of the Grey Plantain-eater (Schizorhis concolor) was generally to be heard when one rambled among the trees ; whilst in Francolins, Francolimts subtorquatus and F. yariepensis replaced the Francolinus levaillantii which I had recently found so plentiful in Pretoria. Here also I observed and obtained the great Jackal Buzzard (Ruteo jaJcal), which I never met with in the Pretoria district. The best entomological spot found in Zoutpansberg was on the banks of the Dwaas River near the ford which forms part of the high road ; on the damp sandy banks hovered clusters of small yellow butter- flies (Terias brigitta and T. zoe\ like constellations of primrose-blooms, and in the same spots the dragonfly (Trithemis sanguinolenta) literally swarmed; besides these species I procured, during a half-hour's stay, the pretty Teracolus siibfasciatus, besides several other species of the same genus, and on the wing captured different species of Buprestidce and Longicornia. As this was at the end of the summer, it should prove a good locality at the right season for a travelling collector. I could have pleasantly passed the day on these wooded and sandy banks, but the oxen were once more inspanned and my friend was anxious to resume his journey home. Species of Teracolus abounded all along the road, and I often walked behind the wagon net in hand with the best results; it was thus that I ZOUTPANSBERG AND THE MAOWAMBAS. 113 captured the only specimen of Teracolus vesta I found in the Transvaal. Zoutpansberg is one of the richest districts of the Transvaal, if not the very richest, so far as fertility of soil is concerned ; its auriferous deposits are highly spoken of ; its scenery is in many places superb and in strong contrast to the melancholy monotony of the high veld. To leave Pretoria and in two or three days reach the natural beauties of Zoutpansberg, after necessarily traversing the pleasant Waterberg district, is like exchanging a wilderness for fairyland. That high tableland of treeless veld, with its everlasting monotony of plain and kopje, is fit abode for the quiet and unimaginative Boer ; its very sameness reminds him, or, rather, appeals to his fancy, of the plains of Palestine, of which he reads so much and understands so little ; solitude not nature appeals to his mind, and Words- worth in these w-orthy folk would have found a people who had given their hearts away from nature without the excuse of the world being too much with them. But when we descend to the lower lands of Zout- pansberg, with its warmer air, its rich vegetation, and its happy Kafir population, our touch with Nature seems to be once more resumed. However, Zout- pansberg is not alone destined for the dreams of a Rousseau, it may yet prove the gem of the Transvaal. Give a rail connecting it with Pretoria and from thence to the sea, and this fertile land would produce the richest farms on the face of the globe. What incentive is there now to struggle for an agricultural produce that could find no market ? this long and costly trans- port would prove the ruin of the farmer who culti- vated this life-giving land. Take maize alone and compare its vplue in Zoutpansberg with its price in Pretoria, and still the much lower figure is more profitable to the grower than the higher obtainable in the capital, for the cost of carriage would entail a loss, and the time employed for the same would prove the destruction of all fresh goods that demand early consumption. A rail would also develop its I 114 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. mining capacities, and had these lines been earlier constructed Pretoria might have become the terminus for Central Africa. As I returned the dry season proclaimed its advent by the frequency of grass-fires, and the few residents one met affirmed that the rains were over for the season ; so certain were they on this score that my wagon was not even provided with its sail-covering in case of wet, an omission that might have caused much discomfort, as a storm went before us to Pietersburg and exceed- ingly heavy rain fell there on May 2nd, the day before we arrived. At Pietersburg we met men going up to and coming down from Mashonaland; and though much doubt still exists, we shall see whether British enterprise in that new Protectorate is not as capable of producing a country, from a " geographical expression," as successfully as other influences have created the Transvaal, thanks to its auriferous deposits and its attendant European settlers. U MAG^.VAMBA CARVINOS. ( 115 Pfogiorrkma Packnoda favlieiitri APPLE-DESTROYKBS IN NATAL. CHAPTER VII. A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. Acacia molllssima. Heavy cost on imports to the Transvaal. Johannes- burg and its Hotels. Heidelberg. A Priest of Islam. Across the Ingogo heights to Newcastle. Durban. Colonel Bowker. Best collecting-grounds around Durban. Flowers, fruit, and insects. Peculiarities in railway construction. Model Natal farms. Insect-pests to gardens. Difficulties in coaching after heavy rains. The store- and rai: teen-keeper of the veld. IN December 1890 I journeyed to Natal for the pur- poses of visiting the farms where the Wattle (Acacia mollissima) was cultivated, from which is stripped i2 116 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. the " Mimosa-bark," that now supplies a large quantity of tanning-material for export to England. I may here at once state, and the fact will explain the difficulties and expense of transport to the Transvaal, that I found this bark could be absolutely delivered at 2 per ton less in London than at Pretoria. The culti- vation of these "Wattles" is largely on the increase, and will considerably add to the exports from Durban. Christmas had passed without pleasure, for, even stripped of the pagan accessories of holly and mistletoe, it will always be to Englishmen a time of family reunion, and my thoughts were with my family away in snow-covered Surrey. On " boxing-day " I left by the coach for Johannesburg, and once more began to retrace my steps towards the sea. It soon commenced to rain, and we subsequently drove through a white mist or damp fog, such as I had not seen since leaving home, and which seemed little in keeping with what one anticipates in South-east Africa. Johannesburg, which we reached about 7 P.M., is the veritable Chicago of South Africa. The Rand is high, healthy, and cool, and the atmosphere quite invigorating after the close and still air of sheltered Pretoria. The surrounding country looks bare and desolate in the extreme, there are scarcely any trees to be seen, there is nothing picturesque, but there is Johannesburg and the site of the finest gold-producing reef in the country. It is here that the real pulse of the Transvaal is felt, though the heart may beat at Pretoria. Young trees are being planted in considerable numbers, and by the time these have grown and added sylvan beauty to the spot, may commercial prosperity also have returned to a town that holds so many of our countrymen and con- tains so much capital belonging to English investors. Gold is the main strength of the Transvaal, but its quest by unscrupulous company promoters has been its curse. It was a great relief at Johannesburg to once more stay in a comfortable hotel, especially with single-bedded rooms. To occupy a double-bedded room without A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 117 having seen the other guest, who may turn in very late, and perhaps not sober, is what 1 once or twice experienced during my stay in the country, but which I gladly relinquished when possible. The Grand National Hotel was built at the time of the greatest prosperity of Johannesburg, and the cashier assured me that the takings then averaged 200 daily ; but at the time of my visit the receipts only amounted to about a fourth of that sum. Some of the smaller hotels were vir- tually closed, and fires had become somewhat frequent. I remember years ago travelling with an American who praised in no half-hearted way his native Chicago. Some considerable conflagrations having recently occurred there, I ventured to remark that fires sometimes took place. That is nothing, replied my companion : " when a business man in Chicago is going to fail, he burns his place down." I left Johannesburg at 5 A.M. on a fine Sunday morning for the long coach-drive to Newcastle. The journey was scarcely different to what I had formerly experienced, save that the coach was less crowded and the veld was now green in its summer dress, whereas it was in winter brown when I crossed before. But the sky was now clouded, frequent showers of rain occurred, and one missed the lovely warm umber tints of the veld and hills as seen under the clear winter sky. We reached Heidelberg about 10 A.M., a small and early established town, but, like the rest, suffering from the present depression. It has a considerable "coolie" or Indian population, and a priest of Islam, who had been travelling through the South-African diocese, joined the coach. He was certainly one of the most handsome men I had ever met. Tall and of graceful stature, he possessed a perfectly formed and chiselled mouth, such as one seldom sees in man, but is found principally in women of the classical type of beauty ; and with an aquiline nose was also combined the dark soft spiritual eyes which mark the true type of the visionary priest of all creeds. This man was evidently of good birth, as proved by the ease, confidence, and 118 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. repose of his manners ; he was seen into the coach with great respect by his native friends, and was in like manner received when he arrived at Standerton, for this peripatetic theologian was evidently entertained like a minister visiting a conference at home. At one of the stages, where we changed horses, there was a Boer's house, where tea was supplied to travellers at sixpence per cup. I and my other British travelling companion entered a small room to partake of this soothing beverage ; the Mussulman followed, but was indignantly warned away by the Boer woman to take his tea outside. The good-natured ease and polish expressed in a wave of the hand, by which he declined this form of entertainment, was in strong contrast to the dull features marked by stolid ignorance or stupidity belonging to the female dweller on the plains, in whose eyes this man was simply a common " coolie," no more than a Kafir entitled to enter her humble abode, or associate with her white customers. It was the meeting of ignorance with education, but with power in the hands of the first. The roads were very heavy, and the hard iron paths, over which we had previously travelled on our way out, were now often replaced by miles of soft mud, through which the coach progressed with the greatest difficulty. We reached Standerton about 8 P.M. to dine and sleep, with instructions to be ready to start at 3 A.M. the next morning. This was carried out punctually, and as the proprietor of this " Hotel " only provided early coffee, when there were not too few passengers to make it financially worth his while, and, as there were only two on this occasion, we started at break of dawn, and drove 16 miles before reaching a small and lone canteen then surrounded by a sea of mud. Here the welcome coffee was obtained. By noon we arrived at the confines of the Transvaal, entered Natal, and were once more under the old flag. We now changed coaches and started for Newcastle, traversing again the spot where Briton and Boer met in deadly and unnecessary conflict. The hill at Laings Nek was in a very bad condition, owing to the late A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 119 rains, and the oxen drawing the transport wagons were terribly distressed as they drew their heavy loads up the steep ascent and through the deep mire. From this part to near Newcastle the road was one of the worst I had ever travelled over. We had exchanged the ponderous coach for a light kind of wagonette, which was better able to traverse the yielding soil ; heavy rain descended and came through the canvas roof and side coverings of the vehicle ; water poured down the steep hill-roads in rivulets, and the scene arid surroundings were desolate in the extreme, especially when we crossed the Ingogo heights, where monument and cross denote the burial-place of so many British soldiers. Our driver was a Cape boy, our conductor a half-bred Indian, whose father, he told me, had been an English- man. Both exhibited an inclination to make merry of England and her soldiers on a basis of Boer supremacy. As a delicate piece of sarcasm the driver at length asked me if we grew pine-apples in England. Certainly, I replied, in glass houses at home, and plentifully in the open air in that part of Britain called Natal. But you would not call me an Englishman 1 he asked, in startled surprise. Certainly, I replied, if you were born and are living under the British nag, under British law, and prepared to maintain British rule. Ah! but, he remarked, all Englishmen don't say that, most of them call Natal "Kafir-land.'* I cannot help that, I responded, I call Natal England as much as I do Scotland, and one day, 1 hope, Ireland. We reached Newcastle about 6.30. This town is rapidly becoming a prosperous one ; it possesses abun- dance of coal in the neighbourhood, but the Transvaal Government have placed a prohibitive duty on that article being imported into the Republic, which is thus prevented from becoming a customer. Probably, how- ever, Newcastle has reached its zenith, and the railway will not only pass it by, but carry a considerable portion of its trade to the terminus at the frontier. Since my visit, the railway, in April of this year 1891, has been completed and opened to Charles- 120 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. town, thus bringing the line to the Transvaal frontier and under the shadow of Majuba Hill. Thus far it has come from the sea at Durban ; its continuance depends upon the sanction of the Boer Government. The pro- gress of this line has been slow but continuous. The first instalment was made in 1860, with a short section connecting the point with Durban. It was not till 1873 that a further move was made, when powers were obtained for pushing on the line to the Drakensberg. Pinetown was reached in 1878, and the capital (Maritz- burg) two years later ; Howick, 1884 ; Ladysmith, 1886 ; Elands Laagte, 1888; Biggarsberg, 1889; Newcastle, 1890 ; and now Charlestown and the frontier, 1891. The great engineering feat of this last extension is the tunnel through Laings Nek, which was bored through a hill 3200 feet wide (the actual tunnel is 2213 ft. 6 in. long), consisting of the hardest indurated shale, with the addition of three dykes of whinstone. It was completed in October of this year 1891, after having occupied an average of 430 coloured and 60 white men upwards of two years in its construction. About 85,000 tons of slate and whinstone have been excavated, and upwards of 8000 tons of masonry have been required for the purposes of lining ; there have also been used over 40,000 Ibs. of dynamite, 4000 Ibs. of powder, 70,000 yards of fuse, and 50,000 detonators in the necessary blasting-operations. Thus Laings Nek may now be associated with a monument of our colonial enterprise, and its painful military memories be forgotten. Already, when I passed down, the neighbourhood of Charlestown was being covered with the iron-roofed huts of the advance guard of commerce, and soon many of the spots celebrated only for a useless carnage will be almost obliterated by the dwellings of a trading community. The train left Newcastle at 7.15 P.M., and thus the night was passed in traversing a region which I had seen by day on my journey out. Political divisions do not alter the physical aspects of a region, and after passing the grand mountainous scenery between Charlestown and Newcastle, the country once more resumes the flat A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 121 and uninteresting appearance of the Transvaalian veld. This is gradually transformed after leaving Ladysrnith, but does not altogether improve till we approach the neighbourhood of Maritzburg. Then lovely valleys, grand mountain-gorges, stretches of hills rolling far away and fading on the sky-line, beautiful verdure, and (what was even more to the wearied Transvaal eyes) forest appeared, interspersed occasionally by small rivers or spruits. Halfway between Maritzburg and Durban we are reminded of greater warmth and another aspect of vegetation. Tree-ferns and bamboos are now seen, and lower down fields of bananas and pine-apples, with patches of sugar-cane, recalled old days lived in the tropics. It was raining at Durban when I arrived, and there was a mist over the sea ; but what a pleasure the sight of the ocean is after living on the dry and almost water- less tableland of the Transvaal ! Of course the usual " Currie " and " Union " steamers were seen at anchor, and these, with other steam lines, have now as effec- tually superseded the sailing passenger-vessels that for- merly journeyed to Natal as though they had rammed and sank them. The Museum, which occupies a well-lighted and lofty apartment above the Town Hall, is in course of evolu- tion. It is poor in mammals, but is beginning to obtain a good collection of birds, well set up and in cases that contain much available room for additions. In insects the strongest element is butterflies, a fine collection properly arranged and named, as might be expected in a town possessing as resident such an old lepidopterist as Colonel Bowker. I was glad to meet the Colonel, the best field entomologist in South Africa, who has invented a net he wears on his hat like a puggaree, and which is ready to be affixed to the stick he carries in his hand for instant use when a desired specimen is seen, whilst an original pocket collecting-box has also been devised by this active lepidopterological brain. I spent New Year's day with him at his bungalow at Malvern, a suburb of Durban, a lovely spot, embracing on one side 122 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. an extensive sea- view, and behind a vast extent of undulating scenery such as Natal can so lavishly exhibit. It is such a subtropical spot as a naturalist might choose in which to happily live and cheerfully die. Col. Bowker is now endeavouring, by cultivating the old Natal plants and flowers, to prevent many of them being practically relegated to oblivion, and I was par- ticularly pleased to see, entangling a bushy tree, an old friend of my greenhouse at home, the Jamaica Passion-flower (Passiflora quadrangularis}. Durban holds, high holiday at the advent of the new year, for here Scottish blood flows thick, and the old days of Scotland are ne'er forgot. I could thus for some days pursue none of the business for which I had visited the port, and was able to pay some attention to its entomological attractions. As soon as I arrived I saw I was in a rich spot of insect-life, and one possessing a different facies to that of the Transvaal. Around the trees in the town flew a handsome moth (Egybolia millantina), whilst at evening, in the smoking-room at the hotel facing the sea, the fine Saturniid moth Urota sinope paid occasional visits attracted by the light, accompanied by lamellicorn beetles of the genus Adoretus, and other insects. A stroll in front of the hotel before breakfast resulted in the capture of the pretty longicorn beetle Rhaphidopsis zonaria, the morning after my arrival, whilst butterflies swarmed over the scrub that covers the back beach. There are three good spots for the collector in Durban, and each easily approached. The first and probably the best is the " Bluff," the headland at the harbour mouth, and on which the lighthouse stands. It is backed by an extensively wooded district, and a somewhat representative collection of Natal insects might be made during a season's work at the spot. The second best-ground is about the Berea, the high land overlooking the town, where the principal residences are also found ; here the entomologist should seek the site of the old windmill, approached from the Toll Bar on A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 123 the Tram Line. The third hunting-ground is in the "Wood" or "Bush" that runs continuous to the beach, and to one whose time and opportunities were limited its proximity to the hotel rendered it available for an other- wise busy man. Here butterflies haunt the narrow paths, cicadas (at the time of my visit Platypleura punctigera was the dominant species) utter their shrill cries, and beetles are probably abundant at the com- mencement of the wet summer season. I found here, as at the Transvaal, that after rains, when the leaves were damp, more beetles could be found on them than in dry weather, when Coleoptera are to a greater extent on the wing. It was a delightful sensation to be roaming in these thickly wooded glades, though in Durban summer heat. Butterflies abounded, of which the most common were Acrcea natalica and Planema esebria, high up amongst the trees flew Salamis anacardii, ever and anon down the narrow paths came the sulphur-and-red Eronia leda ; Papilio morania and P. demoleus were not uncommon, whilst Teracolus of many species enlivened the scene. In moths the gaily-marked Euchromia africana, by the rapid vibration of its wings in flight, would cause con- siderable doubt as to what insect was observed, and, till I became acquainted with its peculiar habits, I frequently mistook it for a species belonging to another order of insects ; the modest Leptosoma apicalis was found in shady nooks, and Aphelia apolinaris took long and high flight in the clear light of noon-day. The showy Neuropteron Palpopleura lucia flitted about, and on blooming plants I not only found the handsome beetle Popillia bipunctata, but a variety of Cetoniids such as Coptomia itmbrosa, Elaphinis irrorata and late- costata, Trichostetha placida, and the curious Telephorid Lycus bremei. For a naturalist, especially an entomologist, intending to study the fauna of South-eastern Africa, Durban is the best introduction to the country. A month spent at this port collecting and observing would give a thorough introduction to the southern portion of the 124 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Ethiopian fauna. Subtropical Durban could thus become a tropical training-ground for the exploring naturalist, who would be able to develop that simplicity in requirements and acquire that amplitude and method in observation which are so often more laboriously learned at the cost of missed opportunities when he reaches the interior. There is a lore in collecting natural objects which can only be acquired by practice, for until the habits and haunts of animals are understood they will not be searched for in the right spots, and necessarily will not therefore be found. A traveller often passes over a rich and unexplored zoological region which he only samples through having had no preparatory training as might for Southern Africa be obtained at Durban. But, of far more importance, the power of observation is quickened by an early appreciation of what and how to observe, so that the capture of an animal will soon become of less importance than a knowledge of its relation to its environment. I could not help contrasting the diiferent mental conceptions which dominated me when collecting in the Malay Peninsula twenty-two years previously and those which now occupied my mind in a similar quest at Durban. Then almost the sole aim was the discovery of new species ; now the constant wish was to make some small discovery to add to the ever-increasing knowledge of how animals derived their present shape and coloration in the struggle for existence. These pleasant Durban glades, where insect- life so freely exhibited itself, were now no longer only emporiums to supply museum drawers with specimens, but were full of nature's records of the past like hiero- glyphic writings, but unlike them, most at present we cannot read. It was now the cult of Darwin that seemed wafted in the air, and I felt like an eclectic Pagan finding a shrine to philosophy amidst these African groves. It was on a Christmas day that Vasco da Gama reached and named Natal, at the height of summer and amidst the glories of a vegetation as I now saw it. Although four hundred years have elapsed since that A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 125 discovery, Natal has only been colonized in quite recent times, and its flora, save by introduced plants, has had insufficient time to be radically altered. The gardens were gay at the time of my visit with the flowers of several vaiieties of Hibiscus, aloes exhibited their huge flowering-spikes, and lovely creepers in full bloom were quite common. The fruit-market rejoiced with pine- apples, mangoes, bananas, and other vegetable products of a subtropical nature, which add a charm to Durban, and, apart from its summer heat, I would more willingly live and die at that port than in any other part of Southern Africa. The beach in front of the hotel at which I stayed had, however, other characteristics beside its beauty. One suicide and two dead bodies washed up during my stay of five days was rather a ghastly, though, I believe, unusual spectacle. One body was described to me by a " morgue " enthusiast as particularly curious from the fact that only the face and boots were perfect, and he seemed somewhat chagrined that I did not allow him to guide me to this gruesome sight before lunch, for which he said " there was just time." I left Durban by the morning train for the north, intending to visit the bark farms of the interior. Perhaps few railways exhibit more singular freaks of construction and engineering skill than this Natal line. When mountains cannot be avoided, the rails run round them in serpentine arrangement, and to avoid these elevations, when possible, the line takes such a devious course as to frequently give the impression that one is returning to the spot only just previously left, while the curves are so sudden that you can often see both ends of the train at the same time. A story is told of an engine-driver who pulled up in obedience to the danger-light belonging to the rear guard's break of his own train, which, in the intricacies of the curves, had become placed in front of him. Owing to the steep gradients, a single line of rails, and the number of small stations, progress is very slow, and my retnrn journey did not average 126 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. much more than twelve miles per hour. I was much mistaken in the character of a fellow passenger who joined the train at Lady smith. On asking if he smoked, I received such a determined answer in the negative, with an assurance that he had never done so, that I took him for somewhat of a Puritan. He soon, however, produced a bottle of whiskey, which, by assiduity and perseverance, he quickly emptied and then lay full length and speechless on the seat before me. I broke my journey through Natal at Richmond Road, and had the pleasure of being entertained at a home of comfort on a model African farm. Here was a well- built residence furnished with taste, containing all the comforts of a home, and a library sufficient to prove that a farmer can be a gentleman and cultivate his mind as w r ell as the soil. What a contrast to the Boer farmers of the Transvaal ! I do not speak dis- paragingly, but comparatively. Men cannot for ever trek on into the wilds and live solitary lives with their families without losing most qualities of domestic refinement, even though acquiring personal inde- pendence. In pursuit of game or on a hunting expe- dition let me be allowed to accompany the Boer and share his wagon ; but the tie snaps when the time comes for the pleasures of personal intercourse and home life. In the fine garden attached to this Natal residence I was shown the difficulties attending the labours of the horticulturist owing to the ravages of injurious insects. The roses were literally covered and devastated by a Cantharid beetle (Mylabris transversals) and his apples were being completely eaten by two other beetles belonging to the family Cetoniidse (Plcesiorrliina plana and Pachnodafavivcntris). His principal enemies which occasioned his heaviest losses were the ticks (Acaridce), which attacked his live-stock with the most disastrous results ; clearly there is room for a state-paid economic naturalist in Natal. I was interested to learn that even in this colony, as in the Transvaal, material and A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 127 industrial progress had been much retarded by the presence of the financial agent and company-promoter, of whom I was assured there were quite a colony in Maritzburg, and who my host described as " Hebrew Lilies, who toiled not neither did they spin." I left his house to catch the night train, driven in a Mylnbrit transversalis on Rose. Cape cart drawn by a pair of spirited horses guided by a native boy. The night was pitch dark, the roads bad, with a river to drive through, and yet we went at full 128 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. speed without a single sign of hesitation on the part of the boy who held the reins. As the train sped along, and for thirty miles before we reached Newcastle, we constantly disturbed small flocks of the South- African Kestrel (Cerchneis rupicola). These birds were usually found two or three together and often on the ant-hills which bordered the line, taking flight as the train approached ; but I saw very few birds during this journey, and a fine pair of Paauw ( Otis kori), walking on the open veld near the Ingogo heights, w r ere the most interesting of our ornithological observations. At Newcastle I once more joined the coach for Volks- rust, the first stage in Transvaal territory, and found as a travelling companion an Englishman who had been through the Boer war, and one of whose duties was now to see that the graves on the summit of Majuba were properly preserved. Again I listened to a truthful account by an eye-witness of the disaster for I had previously travelled with the war-correspondent of a London daily paper, and also of a carrier of despatches during the war, and again was the problem intensified as to the cause of all our disasters. He told me he had guided many travelling British officers up the mountain since the war and they always returned dispirited and perplexed. The disaster of Majuba has yet received no rational explanation, and it is said of General Joubert, that when the subject is mentioned he usually raises his hat and says the God of Battles fought for the Boers on that day. I have been on the spot three times, I have conversed on the subject with three eye- witnesses, I have heard a score of different theories about the fight from men of different nationalities whom I have met in the Transvaal, and I confess I do not understand it, and thought I knew more about it before I left England. Twelve days' heavy and continuous rain is sufficient to incommode the inner communications of any country ; but in a land like the Transvaal, where the rivers have few or no bridges and the roads are self-worn by A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 129 coaches and wagons across an endless veld, the way becomes stopped and communication almost ceases. On reaching Volksrust in the rain and dark after a terrible journey across the flooded heights, we found no coach had been able to pass for three days, and the passengers had thus accumulated in the small wayside rest that passes by the name of hotel. The cause of the delay was the swollen and impassable condition of the spruit we had to cross a short distance further on, which had been daily approached but never attempted. We retired to rest four beds in the room, the latch of the door out of order and the rain pouring outside, and rose again at 3 A.M. to once more try and force the passage of the stream. When we reached it daylight had well broken, but there were ominous murmurs that the water was as " high as ever." A Kafir was sent across as a preliminary plummet : the stream reached his shoulders at the deepest part and carried him off his feet where the current ran strongest. It was, however, decided to risk the passage, by unharnessing the horses and letting the coach be pulled through by our Kafir friends, who now mustered somewhat strongly. Several of the passengers undressed and preferred swimming the stream to the danger of being overturned and washed away in the coach ; but I chose the latter alternative with a prospect of being able to keep warm and comfortable ; nor was I mistaken, for the coach, after threatening for about sixty seconds in the rush of the stream to end its present career of use- fulness, eventually passed soberly through and gained the other side. Our passengers now again dressed, the horses were swam through, and after having chased a runaway, that broke loose and enjoyed his liberty for half an hour, we resumed our journey. The Waterfal river was reached about sunset, and in place of the small and fordable stream we had crossed without difficulty some twelve days previously, there now flowed a wide and, in the centre, deep current not to be ventured by coach or horse. We crossed in a punt, and leaving our coach, transferred K 130 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. ourselves and baggage to a heavy wagonette that was waiting for us on the other side, and then travelled in the dark for there was no moon till about 10 P.M., when a stage was reached where we could sleep for the night. Most, if not all, these sleeping and feeding stages are kept by men who combine the trade of store- and canteen-keeper with that of "hotel proprietor." These stores are small shops, which, however, contain everything that the Boer customers (for the farmers ride long distances to these depots) require, from grocery to saddlery, including cheesemongery, drapery, bread and spirits, boots and crockery, ironmongery and tobacco, in fact all the requirements of a somewhat rude existence may be purchased at these unpretending shanties. Strange to say, the prices do not appear to be very high, and taking into consideration that all the stock, is bought at second-hand, with a heavy transport added, the profits must be only moderate. However, these merchants are frugal, and their household expenses are necessarily light, so a moderate profit with a small turnover is yet something that produces a balance at the end of the year ; but the life must be dreary and monotonous, the arrival of the coach the only communi- cation with the outside world, and a few Boer customers the only other visitants, to break the ever present silence of the vast surrounding veld. Before daybreak we had again driven on, crossed the next river on a small raft floated by casks a driver of another coach was drowned here later in the same day and eventually reached Johannesburg at 9 P.M., instead of 1 P.M. the proper time. As we drove through the streets the canteens seemed to be the only places open, and I was told that at the time of the boom there were 280 of these establishments in the town ; now the trade has de- creased, there is little money for a carouse, and bad spirits are more difficult to sell. The details of this return journey will give some conception of how the development of the Transvaal is retarded by the want of railway communication with Natal and the sea. This is the road to be pursued and A JOURNEY TO DURBAN. 131 these the rivers to be driven through by the ox- wagons which bring up the supplies of the country. Along this route travels the coach with the mails, and all the other main arteries of the Transvaal are of a similar nature and in a like condition. How can commercial prosperity be established under such con- ditions 1 But, on the other hand, did the farmers who trekked from the south and acquired this country desire the establishment of a commercial community and a network of railway communication'? The answer is clearly in the negative; it is the "Uitlander" who has been the pioneer and is still the support of commerce in the Transvaal ; and though the intelligence of the Boer community sees clearly that it is in its exports and imports that the prosperity of the country will largely depend, one can still sympathize with the majority of the farmers, who love the silence of their farms with the quiet existence and few wants, and enjoy that independence of life and character which is not usually attendant on trade, with all its other advantages. K 2 ( 132 ) KAFIR SHEPHERD. CHAPTER VIII. THE MEN OF PRETORIA. The inhabitants of Pretoria. Auriferous wealth alone the present cause of Transvaal development. Uneducated condition of the Boers. Liquor traffic with the Kafirs. The British colonist in the Transvaal. The Hebrew in Pretoria. Commercial morality. The name of Mr. Gladstone execrated in the Transvaal. The Kafir and his value as a labourer. Sanitary condition of Pretoria. Vital statistics. After- effects of the boom. Attachment of Colonists to their adopted country. WHO are the men of Pretoria? We have already spoken of the Boers, who are farmers and burghers, and not what are understood as merchants and citizens ; and in dealing with the population of the capital of the Transvaal a question more for the sociologist than the THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 133 anthropologist the Boer may be treated as a non- resident factor altogether. Although Pretoria is the seat of government which is Boer, and the residence of the President who is a Boer, and the principal church in the principal square of the town is a Boer church, yet the Boer is still an emigrant, country-born Dutch farmer from the colony, who has to rely for judges, clergy, and civic administrators on the educated Dutch of the colony, or, what is worse, imported Hollanders who have neither the independence of the South-African spirit nor the necessary knowledge of local customs and insti- tutions. The Boer is a farmer pure and simple; the commercial prosperity of the Transvaal is a thing which he has not created, and which it is just possible he does not desire. The auriferous quartz of the Republic, worked by emigrants from all parts of the world, but principally by British, have filled the coffers of the Boer Treasury, made the large towns of the Transvaal, and brought the country to a position from which it must either advance or retire. Had it not been for the mineral wealth of the Republic, its exports must have princi- pally consisted of wool, hides, and skins, and it would have remained more of a large farming community than an industrial and political organization. But the dream of the early voortrckkers for a modern Palestine has not been realized ; in a land of mineral wealth it could not be ; they have many of them acquired wealth, but it must in the end prove their political extinction ; their only chance of permanency is to form one of the units or component parts of a United South- African Con- federacy, which in a hundred years they might influence, but less govern than Cromwell's puritans do the England of to-day. The Boer has only one chance to prevent his relegation to oblivion in a country of which he literally possessed himself, and which he secured only by rough living and hard fighting. That last chance is to immediately have his children properly educated ; and, from what I observed, that course is not likely to be pursued. What he won by the gun will be lost by the pen, and the trade and actual government of the 134 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. country will be in the hands of the colonists from whom he trekked, the British whom he not unnaturally dislikes, and the Hollander, who in his heart he distrusts and hates. The present inhabitants of Pretoria, ignoring the few Boers for the reasons just given, are Colonials that is, descendants of colonists who have settled near the Cape or at Natal and even Australians, the Briton, the Hollander, the German, and Jews of various nationalities. Some of the largest stores belong to old British Colonists, who have come up to the Transvaal and now form a nucleus of the most reliable residents in the state. Many of these men are wealthy, their property is inseparably connected with the Transvaal, and having a large stake in the country, they do all they can to preserve its integrity, to develop its resources, and to improve the social condition of the towns in which they live. In the earlier days, before the influx of the mining migrants, their trade was principally carried on with Boers ; and though they now do a larger trade with the different nationalities who have made the Transvaal their home, they have not forgotten their earlier and still constant customers, and are true in their allegiance to the Republic. Fortunately some of these merchants do also a large Kafir trade, and the aborigines thus procure advocates whose interest it is to see that they are neither driven from the country nor prevented from earning a just wage, some of which must find its way to the store. Though undoubtedly large quantities of alcohol do pass from their hands and through their agents to the native races, to the utter demoralization and physical deterioration of the Kafir, who cannot drink in moderation when liquor is to be procured, the injury thus done is somewhat compensated by the interest these traders bestow in seeing that the Kafirs are not unduly oppressed by some native Commissioners, whose policy can only be improved by the utmost publicity that can be given to it. The British South-African Colonist is still destined to play a large part in the fortunes of the Transvaal. He is the merchant of to-day, and will THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 135 be the merchant of the future. He knows the wants and interests of the region, and understands both the Boer and the Kafir. He has not the prejudices of the Englishman fresh from home, and he appreciates and is better able to deal with the prejudices of those with whom he is thrown in contact. What we call middle- class social life is also largely supported by the colonial merchants, and they are the backbone of the noncon- formist bodies in the Transvaal, of which the Wesleyans are far and aw r ay the strongest, and the Baptists making a beginning. Both in Natal and the Cape Colony, Boers were once numerous and are still found ; so that the colonist has really never quite lost touch with the people who now only inhabit a country which resembles and adjoins his. own. The youth of our two colonies are capable of supplying all the commercial clerks that may be needed for the commerce of the^Transvaal ; and if the Boers really understood their own interests, and were free from the domination of the Hollander, they would rely more on colonial friendship, and trouble themselves less with the idiosyncrasies of Downing Street. Common interests must produce fusion ; im- perialism perished with the disaster of Majuba ; a confederation of South- African States already exists in men's hearts, it will soon reach their minds, and even- tually be proclaimed by their mouths. Already, in the Transvaal, clear-headed men see that even commercial companies can neither be properly managed nor guided by a Board of Directors sitting in London ; how little, then, can we expect to prevent the inevitable South- African Confederacy, which will be mainly composed of English-speaking people 1. The Hebrew race is largely represented in the Trans- vaal, especially by those whose former home was in eastern Europe, and the Jew is destined to play a con- siderable and very influential part in the fortunes of the country. In a few years the Transvaal from being a purely geographical expression, inhabited by a pastoral community, has, by the utilization of its mineral wealth become a financial factor in the dealings of the Stock 136 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Exchange at home, and an often regretted part in the income-earning capital of private families. On this bare South- African tableland fortunes have been made by those who had nothing, and others have lost what they had previously acquired elsewhere. Commercial and mining companies were once of daily formation, as though the whole country was one vast gold-reef, and the Transvaal was to redress the financial balance of Europe. The Jews have long possessed a genius for dealing with precious stones and for being the best financiers in the world. Diamonds brought them to Kimberley, the discovery of gold-bearing reefs proved at once a magnetic attraction to the Transvaal ; they largely created Johannesburg and its stock exchange now so silent, and their element has proved a consider- ably constructive one in the formation of a commercial community, many branches of which are now almost entirely their own. With the untiring energy and industry of the race, they have explored the whole country in search of subjects for financial speculations, and their knowledge of the Transvaal I estimate as far higher than that of the Boers, who may, and doubtless do, excel them in the possession of geographical details, but do not approach their profound appreciation of the present and future commercial capacity of the state. The Jew, again, has a racial, but no particular political, nationality, and thus can prosper with less suspicion and friction amongst the burghers, who are naturally proud of the development they see going on around them, yet know it is not their work, and feel mistrust as to their future independence in a purely Boer condition. And yet in other respects the two races have little in common. No one can deny that the Boer in his religion is a narrow bigot, and not only in his heart dislikes unbelievers, but would probably deny the right of a Jew or any pro- nounced heretic to hold an administrative part in the Republic. On the other hand the Boer is a natural sportsman, a pleasure which the Jew little appreciates, who is at home in shop or counting-house, for which the Boer has neither aptitude nor predilection. The THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 137 Jew also by his very cosmopolitanism becomes a good citizen, and some of the largest industries are being founded by him. His natural gaiety leavens the solemn national lump of Boer respectability. His literary abilities have largely contributed to .the success of the Press, and in the Transvaal he is always " en evidence." I am speaking of the intelligent Jew, and not the scum of Houndsditch, which may also too plentifully be found, but which no more represents the race than numerous drunken ruffians who hail from Britain are to be taken as typical Englishmen. Like the travelling Christian, the migratory Jew does not let the rules of his creed sit very heavily on his shoulders ; both eat at the same table of the same food, and there seems no particular restriction as to meat. Both creeds also afforded unique representatives. A Polish Jew who sat at my hotel table, and proved a very amusing companion, belonged to the most orthodox Hebrew sect ; he was fairly learned in the Bible and Talmud, was of extreme and often violent orthodox-bigotry, but plainly admitted that his views had no claim on him in Pretoria, as Jews were only there to make money, and he certainly did not seek to remove that impression. I also knew a Hollander, who passed as a devout Christian, and who often told me that the Bible he read every day was the best of all books, and the New Testament his special delight. He also informed me of the different stages by which he was endeavouring to obtain a government appointment, in which the salary could be increased, not by bribes, but by what he more euphoniously called " additions that fell between the quay and the ship." But I regret to say that both of these acquaintances, the Jew and the Christian, had considerable doubts as to my orthodoxy, and regarded me with all the suspicion of " odium theologicum." Commercial morality is a matter of constant evolu- tion, subject to the stage of surrounding public opinion in which it exists. Some fortunes held in the Transvaal were mainly begun by the profit of buying diamonds from Kafirs who did not state the means by which 138 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. they were obtained. Kafir robberies at the diamond- mines in time approached such large dimensions, that repressive penal acts were passed and enforced against these indiscriminative purchases. Consequently now on Cape Town breakwater may be seen convicts who arrived in the country too late for illicit diamond buying to be considered as one of the arts of a clever speculator. In a few years, even if it is not now the case, it will be considered bad taste to introduce the topic of amateur diamond purchases in some large, wealthy, and highly respectable South- African establishments. The " illicit diamond-buyer " is to-day the " company promoter," and public opinion, as soon as the law awakes, will equally approve of some professors of " notation " joining their diamond-buying predecessors in undignified seclusion. Our own countrymen form no inconsiderable portion of the Transvaal population ; but the descendants of many will be of South-African birth, for there is an old and true proverb, "he who has once lived in South Africa will return to it again." When once the Transvaal is crossed by railways, the British farmer who is willing to permanently leave his old country and settle in what ought to be one of the finest farming regions of the world, will find a land worthy of his adoption. To the present time the resources of the Transvaal have only been sought beneath its surface, which remains practically untilled and untouched. The Boer farmer is simply a possessor of flocks and herds, and will probably remain so ; the only hope of his being aroused from this deadly apathy, which keeps back the hands which register development on the clock of his country, is to encourage other farmers to settle in his midst, and show him what may be made of this wilderness. But the farmer must wait for the railway, and the railway will largely depend on the produce of the farmer. Johannesburg to-day is the most English town in the Transvaal; Pietersburg the most German; Pretoria the most cosmopolitan. One of the strangest features amongst the English is to find THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 139 so many who would do equally well, if not b.etter, at home. Many young fellows come out full of hope, who have had no other training but that most hopeless vocation of commercial clerk. Of course, some have succeeded in obtaining good positions, but others have almost patrolled the country, sometimes a schoolmaster in a Boer's family, or the keeper of a small road-side store, seeking fortune as an inexperienced prospector, or even temporarily engaged as a waiter in an hotel ; but you still hear no grumbling, but relief expressed that they have at least escaped the restrictions on life at home, breathe fresh air, and have less worry. It certainly is a fact that no one seems to starve in the Transvaal ; and it is equally true that men whose circumstances after a long stay in the country have become hopeless, if not desperate, still describe it as the finest and most improving land on earth. Whether it is that the knowledge of increased age and long absence from home have made return impossible, owing to precariousness of the livelihood they might expect to find, or whether it is the more free and untrammeled life led in Boerland, and the easy way by which men still, by some means or another, subsist, however bad their pecuniary resources may be, are questions that may perhaps be both answered in the affirmative. It is usual at some hotels to let the needy speculators and adventurers live on as boarders till better times arrive ; and an acquaintance who once had a sleeping-share in an hotel told me that the consideration was not alway financially wrong. Whilst these indigent guests lived free, they advertised and recommended the hotel ; the food was not missed when a large number of visitors had to be provided for, and in the changing fortunes of the country these derelicts frequently became once more able to pay their arrears. My experience was that every man obtained his subsistence by some means, though his affairs were in the blackest condition ; even the " loafers " do not starve in South Africa. As I was told by an old trader who had traversed the country : No one starves, for if such a thing did occur, it could 140 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. only mean that the victim was either " a very bad lot " or of a very sensitive disposition. In the one case help might be withheld ; in the other it is neither sought nor accepted. It would be difficult for even the most fanatic oppo- nent of Mr. Gladstone to imagine the deep, heartfelt, scornful detestation of his very name among many old British residents of this Republic. It is now but a decade since the Boer war a war largely brought about by the arrogance and lost by the imbecility of many to whom British interests were then confided. I constantly met men who had risked life, fortune, and every hope in the cause of their old country, and who in the darkest day were prepared to go on, who, badly led, repined not, badly defeated were yet not beaten, but who have never forgiven what they call the infamy of the Gladstone surrender. I have found old English settlers, who took part and were ruined in the war, reviling the very name of their country ; others who professing detestation of the Boers would yet help them so they say to fight against any renewed attempt at British supremacy ; and all this not partial, not isolated, but common talk, which every traveller may hear who cares to mix with the people and listen to their views. I found it useless to argue ; I had not the facts for defence. I recalled the old sugar-planting days of Malacca more than twenty years before, when my Scotch friends who managed the estates, and who were as a rule Tory and Jacobite to the bone, would angrily tell me they would travel twenty miles to see John Bright hanged. The Kafir represents the labouring class of the Trans- vaal. Wherever manual unskilled work is required it is the Kafir who supplies it. He is the bricklayer's labourer, the porter, the miner, the farm hand, the shepherd, the scavenger, and even the common police- man. He promenades Pretoria in the most wonderful attire, for in the large towns he is not allowed to indulge in his primitive costume. His greatest glory is in the possession of an old soldier's tunic numbers of which THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 141 are imported from England for the Kafir trade; his most economic suit is a sack, through the bottom of which be makes three holes for the insertion of his head and arms. In the towns he is not allowed to DATIVE POLICEMAN. walk upon the paths, but must keep to the roads, and he is also required to retire from the streets and public thoroughfares when the Kafir bell is rung about 9 P.M. Our black brother may be despised, but the manual labour of the Transvaal at present depends upon him, and his labour is cheap and easily trained. His average wage is ten shillings per week and his " mealie"( ground 142 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. maize) ; he is a cheerful worker, very apt to learn, and after my experience of Coolie labour in the East I have a great respect for the Kafir. He is fairly industrious, cheerful, frugal, and saving, for he has only travelled down to the white man's mart in order that he may in a few months have sufficient money to return and enjoy himself in the Kafir paradise. He does not understand the white man, who is always working to make money and philosophically he is right; the European too often only looks upon him as a brute when, philoso- phically, he is wrong. The two are old relations, who parted ages ago from the ancestral progenitors and who now meet each other again with a different colour of the skin but the same bodily structure ; with a differen- tiation of ideas and development of brain, but with common animal instincts ; and the Kafir from his heart believes his white brother to be the rich relation. The Kafir relies principally upon meal for his food, but only too gladly partakes of meat when he can obtain it. On these occasions his culinary arrangements are best unseen. The head of a slaughtered ox is a great treat, so also is that of a sheep, which is cooked whole with wool, horns, and eyes included. As labourers they are distinctly clannish, and all my men once struck work because I proposed engaging some extra hands who belonged to a tribe who did not practice circum- cision, so strong a hold does this rite have upon their social intercourse. They spend little of the wage- money they earn in the towns where they labour, but carry most of it back to their kraals and locations, and it has recently been estimated by one well-informed burgher that at least half a million of gold coinage, in sovereigns and half-sovereigns, are annually taken away by them, and thus by implication a large sum is with- drawn from circulation. The greater part of this money, however, eventually passes into the hands of the exclu- sively Kafir traders, who reside in their principal neigh- bourhoods, and thus again returns to the commercial heart of the Transvaal. Most of the Kafirs who labour in Pretoria and Johannesburg come down from the THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 143 Zoutpansberg district, and though I believe they would never be induced to fight for the Boers, they would still make excellent soldiers if properly trained, armed, and led by white officers. They could thus be led to storm a redoubt, though they would never prove material for forming Waterloo squares as targets for French cannon. The future development of the Transvaal depends greatly upon the Kafir, for in him centres the " labour question." Many undertakings already achieved would have been impossible had it not been for the cheapness with which unskilled labour could be obtained, and all calculations for large buildings or railway cuttings are greatly dependent on this factor, for the natural fea- tures of the wild country he has known so long will eventually be transformed by his hands. The drainage and sanitary arrangements of Pretoria, when I visited it, would have been a disgrace to a country village at home, but great difficulties have been overcome and improvements are being made. It was somewhat singular to be strongly advised by all medical men not to drink any water, even if mixed with alcohol, without the same had been first strongly boiled and then filtered, for the water supplied to the town in open sluits was the most dangerous disseminator of typhoid malaria, the real danger of Pretoria and Johannesburg. No Good Templar ever more longed for a glass of pure water than I frequently did myself in a land where the smallest bottle of English ale is charged two shillings, and this, again, the doctors advised us not to drink, or at least seldom. The Boer has long since become one of the greatest coffee-drinkers on the face of the earth, and has found there is nothing better to be taken on his long wagon journeys ; for those who use stimulants the coolest and mildest drink is a mix- ture of Cape hock and seltzer water ; for the spirit- drinker, whiskey diluted with water. A company, how- ever, has now supplied Pretoria with pure water, and drinking-fountains are erected in the town. There are. three dangers to health in the Transvaal which may easily be avoided want of cleanliness, intemperance, 144 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. and the neglect of wearing warmer clothing after sunset, for weak lungs are liable to suffer from the sudden change of temperature that then ensues. But, on the other hand, the possessors of weak chests and mode- rately diseased lungs, to whom a European winter is a positive danger, may with a modicum of care live in physical ease and comfort breathing the glorious air of this high Transvaalian tableland. It was to the want of proper sanitary arrangements that the epidemic of 1889-1890 was doubtless due. This took the form of typhoid fever, with a frequent complication of pneu- monia which attacked both lungs at the same time. Two judges, two doctors, and a large number of Euro- peans were quickly carried off, and the mortality was greater at Johannesburg than in Pretoria. At present the vital statistics are anything but satisfactory; the following figures, taken from a compilation made by Dr. Stroud, and published in the ' Press ' newspaper, refer to the precincts of Pretoria alone : 1882 to 1887 1888. 1889. 1890. inclusive. Total deaths . . 162 123 169 171 Of the 171 deaths which occurred during 1890, 71 were men, 19 were women, and 81 were under 20 years of age. Of the men 23 died between the ages of 20 and 30 23 30 40 Of the women 6 20 30 7 30 40 Of the 81 who died under 20 years of age, 7 died between the ages of 2 and 20. The remaining 74 died before the age of 2 years. What the average of life amongst the Boer farmers may be I have no means of ascertaining, but I never saw many very aged individuals. In Pretoria, as in Johannesburg, one met the queerest of social characters, and they comprised the army of company promoters, prospectors, financial agents, mining THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 145 experts, and members of the various professions which enable money to be made on the credit of auriferous quartz being found in sufficient quantity to enable the formation of a limited liability company. But all these good people had one story to tell they had all lost their money. Ask whom you would, converse anywhere with high and low alike, the knowing and unwary, the sharp and the dupe, all had lost and suffered at the collapse of the great bubble. The tale of the Johannes- burg boom was all one heard ; it was as though a mighty financial storm had raged and the shore was strewn with the bodies of these unhappy and disappointed speculators. It was a golden period, this era of the boom ; anything served to float a company, and the price of shares rose daily. On all sides men purchased scrip, or held the shares they obtained by the process of flotation. At length a fall took place, owners still held, thinking the check temporary and that recovery must take place ; but the collapse became sudden and severe and nothing could be saved of the fortunes so rapidly made they existed on paper, and as paper they now remain. Cautious workmen who had saved a few hundred pounds were drawn into the vortex and lost their little all. A young baker once travelled with me in a coach who had managed to acquire by his business in the Transvaal some 8000, with which he returned to England. The echo of the boom brought him once more to the Transvaal with his money, every penny of which he lost, and he was when I met him working as a journeyman baker once more. The most extraordinary story of the vicissitudes of fortune in the Transvaal that I ever heard, related to two worthies who possessed together about 200 in cash and a wagon and oxen. They arrived at a canteen many of which are a curse to the country and abso- lutely drank and gambled away the whole of their money ; they then sold the wagon and oxen for the same purpose and with a like result. They were soon penniless, and appealing to the keeper of the canteen where they had ruined themselves, induced that indivi- L 146 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. dual to help them, which he did with the donation of a sovereign, a bottle of spirit, and a loaf of bread, with which they started on an aimless tramp. The first day they swallowed the contents of the bottle to prevent as described to me the trouble of carrying it, the sovereign was soon spent, and their condition rapidly became desperate. At this moment they actually walked over an undiscovered gold-bearing reef near one of the mining centres of the country. They repaired to that town with samples of the quartz, borrowed suffi- cient of a financial agent to purchase the claim and secure the ground ; a company was formed, and they returned home with 30,000 between them. I believe this story to be absolutely authentic. In a small community like Pretoria the competition for social distinction is naturally very observable, and many seem to travel some thousands of miles from home to plant the arrows of outrageous respectability in African soil. Amongst other peculiarities is the adoption of our high-crowned white hat, which is only worn by doctors and lawyers, and is almost considered the exclu- sive privilege of those two professions. Thus a hat that was once considered to denote a somewhat sporting character in England, now marks the climax of legal and medical respectability in Pretoria. The President also considers it incumbent to wear a high-crowned black hat, but the other inhabitants have practically discarded the abomination. I was much surprised to find so few well-kept gardens in a town which possessed so many Dutch inhabitants, and who might have been expected to have brought their flowering bulbs and love of gardening from their old country. I looked in vain for hyacinths or tulips, I scarcely ever saw a crocus, and never observed cultivated narcissi. These plants may possibly be found in the grounds of the richer inhabitants, but I certainly never found them in the gardens belonging to the houses of the more middle-class Dutch residents. The Hollander does not always carry his love of gardening to South Africa. The Briton is more apt to copy the THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 147 old English home-scenes in the land of his adoption, and flowers spring up around his African home; his presence in the Transvaal is also denoted by the cricket- ground, and in the large towns by the race-course and grand stand, which seem to be inseparable signs of an English settlement in every part of the world I have visited. As time passes, and mutual antagonism and misunderstanding between Boer and Briton become more and more reduced, the British element in the Transvaal will be very considerable, and its descendants will form true colonials with little wish to return to their native land. Such men become good citizens, especially when they meet with a prosperity which was denied to them at home. I once met a thriving Scotchman in Natal who gave me the history of his career in the colony. Twenty- seven years previously he had left a northern Scottish town, where he supported a wife and two children on a weekly wage of nineteen shillings. As he related the tale, " there were forty of us where I was employed and I was the best of the lot, but nineteen shillings a week was the most I could get." After his regular labour he worked at another occupation from 7 to 11 in the evening, and thus increased his small income. But at last he struck, he felt it was neither just nor honest he should always work like a slave in the mere effort of sustaining life, and he came to Natal as a government emigrant. The first day of his arrival he looked about, the second he obtained work and earned a sovereign, which he took home and justifying himself said: " There, wife, in one day in this country as much as I could earn in a week in Scotland ! " Now he is a wealthy and prosperous man, and has been home for a trip to see the old land, where he cares not to live though he could now afford to do so. " No," as he remarked to me, " this is my country and my home ; Natal has been so kind to me, and Scotland so different and so hard." This is the true spirit of the colonist there is a gratitude and love for his adopted land, and a stern resolve to protect her interests even if jeopardized by the mismanagement of L2 148 A NATURALIST IN TILE TRANSVAAL. the country that gave him birth. Each colony might have two representatives in the British parliament, to watch and explain purely colonial interests, whilst having the full privileges of ordinary members, and this could be made to in no way interfere with the present system of colonial government. "Whether these sturdy and life-long British colonists can be obtained for the Transvaal, to till its waste lands, increase its population, and develop its industries, or whether the Republic is still to be only a pastoral com- munity, dependent on its auriferous quartz for an influx of foreigners with an uncertainty of speculative revenue, is for the Boer and Hollander to decide. APPENDIX. APPENDIX. ENUMEBATION AND DESCRIPTION ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND ZOOLOGICAL OBJECTS COLLECTED BY THE AUTHOR WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY ERNEST E. AUSTEN, Zool. Dept. Brit. Rev. H. S. GORHAM, F.Z.S. Mus. MARTIN JACOBY, F.E.S. G. A. BOULENGER, Zool. Dept. Brit. R. I. POCOCK, Zool. Dept. Brit. Mus., F.Z.S. Mus. JULES BOURGEOIS, M.E.Soc.Fr. H. DE SAUSSURE, Socius hon. Soc. J. H. DURRANT, F.E.S. ent. Lond. Rossic. Belg. &c. &c. C. J. GAHAN, M. A., Zool. Dept. Brit. Prof. C. STEWART, Pres.Linn.Soc. Mus. &c. &c. And the AUTHOR. THE following pages are devoted to an enumeration of the zoological objects collected by myself in the Transvaal, and I have not added the names of any species described or recorded by other naturalists or travellers as from that country. The intention has been to avoid any approach to compilation, which can only be useful when much more material has been acquired and greater work done in different parts of the Transvaal. The fauna is distinctly South African, and has but very few elements of that belonging to the Eastern Tropical Region, and fewer still of that appertaining to the Western Tropics a proof of which may be seen in the proportion of new species discovered, nearly all the others having previously been described from specimens collected much further south in the continent. 152 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. When the locality Pretoria is used as a habitat for a species, the town itself is not necessarily designated, but the district in which the town is situated, and this bears a similar relation to what the county of Yorkshire does to the city of York. I have also included the species procured in Natal, but this locality is always distinguished by italics. It must also be distinctly understood that the localities given are not intended to convey the impression that the species are not found elsewhere in the Transvaal, but only that at those spots I made my captures. Many of the species have a very wide distribution, and I was surprised to meet with some old English friends, of which a list is added, though doubtless it could be considerably enlarged by further experience. Species found in England and also by the Author in the Transvaal. Mus rattus. MAMMALIA. Common Rat. Circus pygargus. Merops apiaster. AVES. Montagu's Harrier. European Bee-eater. COLEOPTERA. Philonthus varians. Dermestes vulpinus. Aphodius lividus. Corynetes rufipes. Corynetes ruficollis. Black Staphylinid. Destructive Beetle to hides and furs. Dung-Beetle. Beetle frequenting bones and horns. Beetle frequenting bones and horns. Exochomus niyromaculatus. " Ladybird " Beetle. APPENDIX. 153 LEPIDOPTERA. Pyrameis car dm. Acherontia atropos. Protoparce convolvuli. Deiopeia pulchella. Sterrha sacraria. Nomophila noctuella. Pyralis farinalis. " Painted-Lady Butterfly." " Death's-head Moth." " Convolvulus Hawk-Moth. J " Crimson-speckled Moth/' " Vestal Moth/' "PyralMoth." ' Pyral Moth." Labidura riparia. Phyllodromia germanica. Ectobia ericetorum. ORTHOPTERA. Earwig. Cockroach. Cockroach. MAMMALIA. ( 157 ) MAMMALIA. THE vast herds of ruminants that once gave the Mammalian fauna of the Transvaal such a distinctive feature have now passed away, owing to ruthless and unrelenting destruction on the part of man, and the Carnivora will soon share the same fate. The lion is almost if not entirely confined to Zoutpansberg, and is becoming scarcer every year, while a good leopard-skin is much more difficult to obtain than was the case a few years ago. I procured the perfect skin and skull of a very fine young male lion, which was purchased in the Pretoria Market, but as its exact locality is doubtful, I have not included it in my list; and the same silence has been maintained as to several other skins purchased, but which may have belonged to animals killed by hunting-parties beyond the confines of the Eepublic. I paid most attention to the smaller mammals found near the town. Excluding the valuable contribution of Prof. Stewart, the specimens have all been determined by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, and most of them I have placed in the collection of the British Museum. PRIMATES. ON SIX CRANIA, PROBABLY BELONGING TO THE MAKAPAN TRIBE, WATERBERG DISTRICT, TRANSVAAL, SOUTH AFRICA. BY C. STEWART, Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, and Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ; President of the Linnean Society, &c. These six crania were obtained by Mr. W. L. Distant from the Makapan's Cave, in the Waterberg District, Transvaal, and have been kindly presented by him to the Royal College of Surgeons. 158 A NAT UBALIST IN THE TRANS VAAL. Three of the crania are those of adults, and three from young persons, the probable ages of the latter being about 12, 13, and 14 years. All the crania are of the true dolichocephalic type, are platyrhine, except the one numbered 1299 E, and mesognathous except 1299 F. The following gives the measurements of the crania and chief peculiarities. 1299 A. Metopic (persistent mid-frontal suture), showing the outward bulging of the frontal region of the temporal fossa commonly present in this condition, also a shallow depression immediately posterior and parallel to the coronal suture. C 515. L 184. B 129. Bi 701. H 133. Hi 723. BN105. BA105. Ai 1000. Nh47. Nw25. Ni532. Ow37. Oh 34. Oi919. Cal445. 1299 B. On both sides a deep fossa immediately below the inferior orbital foramen. Orbital height unusually great, viz. 38 mm. C 510. L 185. B 128. Bi 692. H 128. Hi 692. BN 98. BA 100. Ai 1020. Nh 52. Nw 28. Ni 538. Ow36. Oh 38. Oi 1056. Ca 1350. 1299 C. C 504. L 182. B 121. Bi 665. H 129. Hi 179. BN 96. BA 95. Ai 990. Nh 43. Nw 26. Ni 605. Ow 37. Oh 32. Oi 865. Ca 1275. 1299 D. Aged about 14 years. C 492. L 178. B 128. Bi 719. H 128. Hi 719. BN 95. BA 94. Ai 989. Nh 38. Nw 22. Ni 579. Ow 38. Oh 30. Oi 789. Ca 1305. 1299 E. Aged about 13 years. Mesorhine. Distance between outer borders of orbits small, viz. 85 mm. C 500. L 181. B 131. Bi 724. H 128. Hi 707. BN 90. BA 91. Ai 1011. Nh 45. Nw 22. Ni 489. Ow 34. Oh 31. Oi 912. Ca 1530. MAMM ALIA. 159 1299 P. Aged about 12 years. Orthognathous. C 485. L 175. B 127. Bi 726. H 126. Hi 720. BN 92. BA 87. Ai 946. Nh 36. Nw 22. Ni 611. Ow 36. Oh 30. Oi 833. Ca 1340. Average indices of the three adult crania : Breadth index (Bi) 686. Height (Hi) 708. Alveolar (Ai) 1003. Nasal (Ni) 558. Orbital (Oi) 948. CARNIVORA. Cynictis penicillata, Cuv. Meer-Kat. Pretoria. INSECTIVORA. Crocidura martensii, Dobs. Large Shrew. Pretoria. Crocidura pilosa, Dobs. Smaller Shrew. Pretoria. RODENTIA. Myoxus murinus, Desm. Dormouse. Pretoria. Musrattus, Linn. Rat. Pretoria. Mm concha, A. Smith. Mouse. Pretoria. Mus (Isomys) pumilio, Sparrm. Striped Mouse. Pretoria. Pedetes capensis, Linn. " Spriag Haas." Pretoria. ARTIODACTYLA. Pelea capreolas, Thunb. Vaal Rehbok. Nanotragus scoparius, Schr. " Oribi." Cephalolophus grimmii, Linn. Duyker. Cervicapra arundinum, Bodd. Rietbok, Pretoria. Pretoria. Spelonken, Zoutpans- berg. Pretoria. A V E S. ( 1C3 ) AVES. I DID not succeed in finding an undescribed bird in the dis- trict of Pretoria, nor did I much expect to do so. The bare plains of the high veld support no rich avifauna, -whilst the neighbouring districts of Lydenburg, Potchefstroom, the road to the Limpopo and the banks of that river had already been worked by those excellent field-ornithologists, Mr. Thomas Ayres * and Mr. F. A. Barratt f. Moreover, the high lands of Natal around Newcastle, which form part of the same area as that which comprises the Southern Transvaal, have been visited by Majors E. A. Butler and H. W. Eeilden and Capt. S. G. ReidJ. Immediately around Pretoria the Accipitres are always en evidence. The Common Vulture, Gyps kolbii, as scavenger, continuously patrols the air, and settles in flocks as the carcass of some dead ox is sighted (see ante, pp. 69, 70) . The Rufous Buzzard (Buteo desertorum) is a terror to the poultry-breeders around the town, and next to the Vulture is the most abundant in this order of birds. Montagu's Harrier (Circus py gar gus] is not at all uncommon, but does not venture, as a rule, within a few miles of the town, and is difficult of approach. The Jackal Buzzard (Buteo jakal) is also very scarce in the district; I only procured it myself among the wooded lowlands of Zout- pansberg. My greatest acquisition was a specimen of Wahl- berg's Eagle (Aquila wahlbergi], obtained a very few miles outside the town of Pretoria, a spot where the Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus caruleus] could be generally seen flying or hovering high in the air, and seldom in reach of the gun. Several species of Kestrels were very abundant, usually fre- * ' Ibis,' 1869, 1871, 1873, 1876-80. t ' Ibis,' 1876. J ' Zoologist,' 1882. if 2 164 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. quenting rocky ground. The favourite food of Cerchneis tinnunculoides appears to be orthopterous insects, and Orthoptera and Coleoptera were found in the stomach of Falco ruficollis. For some facts relating to the Secretary-bird (Serpentarius secretarius) see ante, p. 68. Some species very common in the wooded districts of Water- berg and Zoutpansberg are occasionally seen in the district of Pretoria, such as the Grey Plantain- eater (Schizorhis concolor) and the Yellow-billed Hornbill (Lophoceros leucomelas) , examples of both of which were observed and obtained. Another bird not at all rare around Pretoria is the Golden Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) ; in the stomach of one I found small Coleoptera, in that of another specimen small Orthoptera. Peters' Glossy Starling (Lamprocolius sycobius) and the Cape Glossy Starling (Amydrus morio) are very abundant in wooded rocky spots, and give a colour to the scene ; while after the rains the Common Spreos (Spreo bicolor) assemble inflocks upon the veld, and devour the small Orthoptera there existing in great plenty. Wherever wet places and high reeds are found, the Long- tailed Widow-bird (Chera progne) may usually be observed pursuing its laborious and difficult flight, heavily handicapped by its seasonally- developed tail, and is a good instance where sexual selection is exercised at the expense of protection. Among the tamest of birds may be mentioned the Cape Long- claw (Macronyx capensis), which can frequently be killed when driving by a slash of the whip wielded by an expert Kafir, as a specimen in my collection was thus obtained. But this bird is not usually found around the outskirts of the town, as is that most friendly of visitors, the Cape Wagtail (Motacilla capensis) , many of which fall a prey to small Dutch boys armed with that hideous instrument, the " catapult." I give a list * of my captures, which may be taken to give a fair, but not exhaustive, estimate of the birds to be obtained around the capital of the Transvaal ; and in preparing the same I must express my warmest thanks to Dr. K. Bowdler Sharpe, * I have arranged this list according to the method pursued in Layard and Sharpe's ' Birds of South Africa.' AVES. 165 who examined and identified the Accipitres, and to Capt. G. E. Shelley, who kindly went through and named the rest of the collection, excepting a few species identified by Mr. H. E. Dresser. Order Gyps kolbii, Daud. Serpentarius secretarius, Scop. Circus pygargus, Linn. Asturpolyzonoides, Smith. Buteo jakal, Daud. Buteo desertorum, Daud. Aquila wahlbergi, Sundev. Milvus cegyptius, Gm. Elanus caeruleus, Desf. Pernis apivurus, Linn. Falco ruficollis, Swains. Cerchneis rupicola, Daud. Cerchneis rupicoloides , Smith. Cerchneis tinnunculoides, Temm. Cerchneis amurensis, Radde. Glaucidium perlatum, Vieill. Asio cupensis, Smith. Strix flammea, Linn. ACCIPITRES. S.- African Griffon Pretoria. Vulture. Secretary-bird. Pretoria. Montagu's Harrier. Many - banded Goshawk. Jackal Buzzard. llufous Buzzard (3 vars.). Wahlberg's Eagle. Yellow- billed Kite. Black-shouldered Kite. European Pern. African Rufous- necked Falcon. South - African Kestrel. Large African Kestrel. Lesser Kestrel. Pretoria. Pretoria. Spelonken, Zoutpansberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Eastern Red- Pretoria. footed Kestrel. African Pearl- Pretoria. spotted Owlet. African Short- Pretoria. eared Owl. Barn-Owl. Pretoria. 166 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Order PICARLE. Merops apiaster, Linn. European Bee- eater. Melittophagus meridio- Little Bee-eater. nalis, Sharpe. Coracias caudata, V. Lophoceros leucomelas (Licht.). Upupa africana, Bechst. Lilac - breasted Holler. Yellow - billed Hornbill. South-African Hoopoe. Schizorhis concolor, Smith. Grey Plantain- eater. Chrysococcyx cupreus Golden Cuckoo. (Bodd.). Trachyphonus cafer, Less. Levaillant's Barbet. Dendropicus cardinalis Cardinal Wood- (Gm.). pecker. Pretoria. Pretoria. Spelonken, Zoutpansberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria, Zout- pansberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Order PASSERES. Turdus litsitsirupa, Smith. Pycnonotus layardi, Gurney. Monticolabrevipes, Strickl. & Scl. Cossypha caffra (Linn.) . Myrmecocichlaformicwora, Vieill. Saocicola monticola, Vieill. Saxicolafamiliaris, Steph. Saxicola pileata (Gm.). Pratincola torquata (Linn.) . South-African Spelonken, Thrush. Zoutpansberg. Bulbul. Pretoria. Short - footed Rock-Thrush. Cape Chat-Thrush, Southern Ant- eating Wheatear. Mountain Wheat- ear. Familiar Chat. Capped Wheatear. S. -African Stone- Chat. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. AVES. 167 Nectarinia famosa, Linn. Zosterops virens, Bp. Parus afer, Gm. Hirundo semirufa, Sundev. Hirundo cucullata, Bodd. Lanius collaris, Linn. Lanius collurio, Linn. Urolestes melanoleucus , Jard. & Selby. Laniarius gutturalis (P. L. S. Miill.). Laniarius atrococcineus (Burch.). Telephonus senegalus (Linn.). Nilaus brubru (Lath.). Brady ornis silens (Shaw). Heterocorax capensis (Liclit.) . Corvus scapulatus, Daud. Lamprocolius sycobius, Hartl. Spreo bicolor (Gm.). Amydrus morio (Linn.). Sitagra caffra (Licht.). Hijphantornis velatus, Vieill Plocepasser mahali, Smith. Malachite Sun- Pretoria. bird. Green White-eye. South-African Pretoria. Pretoria. Titmouse. Red - breasted Pretoria. Swallow. Larger Stripe - breasted Swallow Pretoria. Fiskal Shrike. Pretoria. Red - backed Pretoria. Shrike. S. -African Long- tailed Shrike. Pretoria. Bacbakiri Bush- Pretoria. Shrike. Crimson-breasted Pretoria. Bush-Shrike. Common Red- Pretoria. winged Bush- Shrike. Brubru Bush- Pretoria. Shrike. PiedWood-Shrike. Pretoria. African Rook. Pretoria. White - bellied Pretoria. Crow. Peters' Glossy Starling. Common Spreo. Cape Glossy Starling. Weaver-bird. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. 1. Black - fronted Pretoria. Weaver-bird. White -browed Pretoria. Weaver-bird. 168 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Vidua principalis (Linn.). Vidua ardens (Bodd.). Chera progne (Bodd.). Pyromelana oryx (Linn.). Estrelda astrild (Linn.). Passer arcuatus, Gm. Poliospiza tristriata, Riipp. Alaemon nivosa, Swains. Tephrocorys cinerea (Gm.). Macronyx capensis (Linn.) . Motacilla capensis, Linn. Common Widow- Pretoria. bird. Red-collared Pretoria. Widow-bird. Long-tailed Widow-bird. Pretoria. Red Bishop-bird. CommonWaxbill. Pretoria. Pretoria. Cape Sparrow. Three - streaked Pretoria. Pretoria. Grosbeak. Cape Lark. Rufous-capped Lark. Pretoria. Pretoria. Cape Long-claw. Cape Wagtail. Pretoria. Pretoria. Order COLUMB^E. Columba phaonota, Gray. South- African Pretoria. Speckled Pigeon. Turtur senegalensis (Linn.) . Senegal Turtle- Pretoria. Dove. Pterocles gutturalis, Smith. Yellow-throated Pretoria. Sand- Grouse. Order Pternistes swainsoni (Smith). Francolinus levaillantii, Temm. Francolinus gariepensis, Smith. Francolinus subtorquatus , Smith. GALLING. Swainson's Fran- colin. Levaillant's Francolin. Orange River Francolin. Coqui Fran- colin. Pretoria. Pretoria. Spelonken, Zoutpansberg. Pretoria and Spelonken, Zoutpansberg. AVES. 169 Order GERANOMORPILE. Anthropoides paradisea Blue Crane. Pretoria. (Linht.) . Otis kori, Burch. Kori Bustard or Pretoria. " Gom Paauw." Otis caerulescens, Vieill. Blue Bustard. Pretoria. Otis afroides, Smith. White-quilled Pretoria. Bustard. Order LIMICOL^. (Edicnemus capensis, South- African Pretoria and Licht. Thick- knee. Zoutpansberg. Glareola melanoptera, Black - winged Pretoria. Nordm. Pratincole. Cursorius senegalensis, Senegal Courser. Pretoria. Licht. Cursorius chalcopterus, Bronze-winged Pretoria. Temm. Courser. /Egialitis tricollaris Treble- collared Pretoria. (Vieill.). Sand-Plover. ^Effialitis asiaticus (Pall.). Asiatic Dotterel. Pretoria. Chettusia coronata (Temm.). Crowned Lap- Pretoria. wing. Machetes pugnax (Linn.). Ruff. Pretoria. Order HERODIONES. Bubulcus ibis (Linn.). Buff-backed Pretoria. Egret. Scopus umbretta, Gm. " Hammerkop." Pretoria. Order ANSERES. Plectropterus gambensis Spur-winged Pretoria. (Linn.). Goose. Order PYGOPODES. Podiceps capensis, Bp. Little Grebe. Pretoria. REPTILIA AND BATRACHIA. 173 ) EEPTILIA AND BATRACHIA. APART from the Python, of which I only heard accounts, the largest reptile I met in the Transvaal was the Monitor ( Vara- nus niloticus), which was not uncommon on the banks of the spruits (see ante, p. 87). Another very common Lizard was Agama hispida, of which I have found four or five under a single stone ; it runs about the bare veld and is easily caught. The most interesting species is Mabuia trivittata, which in- habits holes in banks in company with Toads, and, as already described, basks in the sun at the entrance to its hole, with its legs arranged close by the side of its body, which is curled up like a Snake, which the Lizard then much resembles (ante, p. 87) . The Puff- Adder (Vipera arietans] I only found twice, and, strange to say, the two specimens were met with, at an interval of a fortnight, on exactly the same spot in a pathway at the foot of a cliff ; on each occasion I nearly trod upon the reptile, which was basking in the dust under the midday sun. In walking through the high grass of the warm lowlands of Zoutpansberg one is frequently warned to be careful of Snakes ; but in these excursions I only saw one individual, which was about six feet long, and sought refuge amidst some large blocks of quartzite before I could obtain a shot at it. As the warm rainy season advances the silence of the veld (wherever accumulations of water are found) is broken by the croakings of Batrachians, and the hoarse bellow of the huge Rana adspersa makes the night hideous to those who live in the vicinity of the haunts of this handsome frog. I have placed my small collection among the treasures in the British Museum, and that excellent authority, Mr. G. A. Boulenger, has contributed the following enumeration and notes, and described a new species of Snake which I found near Pretoria. 174 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. REPTILTA AND BATEACHIA. BY G. A. BOULENGER, F.Z.S. &c. REPTILIA. LACERTILTA. Agama hispida, L. Pretoria. In the adult females the ear-opening is a little larger than the eye-opening, and the head is blackish, all over or on the sides only. One of the males shows a vermilion stripe along each side of the belly, from axilla to groin, and scattered spots of the same colour on the sides of the body and above the shoulder. All the specimens have a yellowish vertebral stripe. Agama atricollis, Smith. Pretoria. Zonurus cordylus, L. Pretoria. Varanus niloticus. Pretoria. Nucras tessellata, Smith. Pretoria. A single young specimen. Black above, Avith three white lines along the back, and two series of round white spots along the sides j sides of head with black and white vertical bars ; tail coralline red. Eremias lineo-ocellata, D. & B. Pretoria. Gerrhosaurus flavigularis, Wiegm. Pretoria. Mubuia trivittata, Cuv. Pretoria, 32 or 34 scales round the middle of the body. Mabuia striata, Ptrs. Pretoria. The single specimen has 40 scales round the middle of the body, and is therefore referable to Peters's M. wahlbergii, which I now regard as not separable from M. striata. Chamaleonparvilobus, Blgr. Pretoria. REPT1LIA AND BATRACH1A. 1V5 OPHIDIA. Glaucoma distantly sp. n. Glauconia distanti. Snout rounded, projecting beyond the mouth, slightly hooked, the preoral portion concave inferiorly ; supraocular present ; rostral shield very large, extending posteriorly far beyond the level of the eyes, its upper portion nearly as broad as long, and covering almost the entire upper surface of the snout and crown ; nasal completely divided into two, the lower part very small ; ocular bordering the lip, between two labials, the anterior of which is very small ; five lower labials. 14 scales round the body. Diameter of body 65 times in the total length, length of tail 12 times. Uniform blackish, the borders of the scales lighter. A single specimen 130 millim. long. Pretoria. 176 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. In %s hooked snoui this species approaches G. macrorhynchus, Jan (Nubia), and G. rostrata, Bocage (Benguela and Angola). It differs from the former in its less slender form and larger rostral shield ; from the latter in its rounded rostral edge and shorter tail. Lamprophis rufuhis, Licht. Pretoria. Leptodira rufescens, Gm. Pretoria. Psammophis sibilans, L. Pretoria. Causus rhombeatus, Licht. Pretoria. Vipera arietans, L. Pretoria. BATRACHIA. Rana natalensis, Smith x . Pretoria. Rana adspersa, Bibr. Pretoria. Bottle-gn^b above, yelhm beneath ; base and inner surface of limbs orange. Rana angolensis, Bocage. Pretoria. Phrynobatrachus natalensis, Smith. Pretoria. JBw/p regularis, Reuss. Pretoria. Bufo carens, Smith. Pretoria. The lateral glandular fold and the larger glands on the sides of the body and 5n the limbs bright red. Tympanum much smaller in the young than in the adult. ARACHNIDA AND MYRIOPODA ( 179 ) ARACHNIDA AND KEYBIOPODA. ALL the species of Acari which I found several of which remain unidentified were taken during the dry season under stones. At this time few animals frequent the dried and parched veld, and it is probable that these parasites then hibernate. Solpuga chelicornis, despite its formidable appearance, is attacked by small birds. I once witnessed the Solpuga trying to escape from the persistent attacks of a bird which appeared to be the Cape Wagtail (Motacilla capensis), and I eventually secured the pursued specimen. The new species Nephila transvaalica, Pocock, is abundant during the rainy season in the wood-bush. It lives in small colonies in gigantic webs (ante, p. 91). The large Myriopod, Spirostreptus transvaalicus, a new species now described by Mr. Pocock, is very rare. I obtained two specimens at Pretoria, and no one to whom I showed them had ever seen such a large species before. ARACHNIDA. BY R. INNES POCOCK, Zool. Dept., Brit. Mus. The following is a list of the Arachnida obtained by Mr. Distant in the Transvaal. ACARI. Of this order several examples of the family Ixodidse were discovered under stones. To only one of these, however, namely Amblyomma hebraum of Koch, I am able to assign a name. The rest appear to be referable to the same genus Amblyomma. SOLPUGA. Solpuga chelicornis, Licht. & Herbst. Pretoria. N2 180 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. ARANE^. Fam. SPARASSID.E. Ocypete megacephala, C. Koch. Pretoria. I provisionally only refer this species to C. Koch's old genus Ocypete. It does not appear to fall within the limits of any of the genera characterized by Mons. Simon in his paper on this family. Fam. Gastracantha, sp. Pretoria. Argiope nigrovittata, Thorell. Pretoria. A widely distributed S. -African species. Nephila transvaalica, sp. n. (Tab. V. fig. 4.) Pretoria. Cephalothorax black, clothed with silver- white hairs ; palpi flavous, with the apical segment fuscous ; first two pairs of legs with coxae, femora, and patellae black ; tibiae adorned with four alternating bands, two flavous, two black, the proximal extre- mity being black, the distal flavous ; tarso-metatarsus black, with only its proximal end narrowly flavo-annulate ; third and fourth pairs of legs mostly black, the proximal three-fourths of the femur, however, flavous ; maxillae and labium black, the inner border of the maxilla and the apex of the labium flavous ; mandibles black ; sternum flavous, except for a very fine black marginal line ; abdomen with a lateral band of silver hairs and marked above with five transverse flavous bands. Cephalothorax furnished with two conspicuous tubercles ; its lateral margins smooth. Sternum cordate, strongly narrowed posteriorly, with a low tubercle at the base of the labium and at the base of each of the two anterior pairs of legs ; also a minute tubercle on each side of the posterior extremity of the sternum. Legs : femora of the first two pairs aciculate ; tibias of these same legs with a tuft of hairs on the black band ; tibia of the fourth pair covered with long hairs throughout; the tarso- metatarsus of the fourth pair hairy at the proximal end. ARACHNID A AND MYRIOPODA. 181 Measurement in millimetres. Length of cephalothorax 9, width 6, width of cephalic portion 5 ; length of abdomen 12, width 8'5 ; length of anterior leg 46, of posterior leg 37. Two dried female examples. This species is closely related to N. annulata of Thorell ; but of this last-named form I have only seen a very brief description. (R. L P.) MYRIOPODA. BY R. INNES POCOCK, Zool. Dept, Brit. Mus. DIPLOPODA. Fam. GLOMERiD.fi. Spharotherium obtusum, C. Koch. Durban, NataL Fam. IULIDJS. Spirostreptus meinerti, Porath. Pretoria. Spirostreptus meinerti, Porath, (Efv.Vet.-Akad. Forhand. 1872, no. 5, p. 37. This species was described originally from Caffraria. Mr. Distant obtained a single female specimen. Spirostreptus transvaalicus, sp. n. Pretoria. Stal. Veterna patula, sp. n. Veterna subrufa, Stal: Caura rufiventris, Germ. Dichelocephala lanceolata, Fabr. Carbula trisignata, Germ. Agonoscelis versicolor, Fabr. Agonoscelis erosa, Hope. Agonoscelis puberula, Stal. Bagrada hilaris, Burm. Nezara viridula, Linn. Nezara capicola, Hope. Antestia transvaalia, sp. n. Pie z odor us pur us, Stal. Subfatn. Aspongopus japetus, Dist. Aspongopus nubilus, Hope. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Waterberg and Pretoria. Pretoria. Subfam. PHYLLOCEPHALIN^:. Gellia angulicollis, Stal. Pretoria. Fam. COREID^S. Subfain. Elasmopoda undata, Ball. Hoploterna valga, Linn. Anoplocnemis curvipes, Fabr. Homceocerus magnicornis , Burm. Homosocerus annulatus, Thunb. Rhyticoris terminalis, Burm. Plinachtus pungens, Thunb. Plinachtus falcatus, sp. n. Cletus ochraceus, Herr.-Schaff. Acanthocoris lugens, Stal. Durban, Natal. Pretoria. Pretoria and Durban. Pretoria. Pretoria. Durban, Natal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Subfam. ALYDINJB. Mirperus jaculus, Thunb. Pretoria. 1NSECTA. 247 Fam. Subfam. Oncopeltus famelicus, Fabr. Pretoria. Lyga-us elegans, Wolff. Pretoria. Lygceus trilineatus, Fabr. Pretoria. Lyg&us planitia, sp. n. Pretoria. Lygaus deeertus, sp. n. Pretoria. Lyg&us rivularis, Germ. Pretoria. Lygaus campestris, sp. n. Pretoria. Lygeeus septus, Germ. Pretoria. Aspilocoryphus fasciativentris , Stal. Pretoria. Lygteosoma villosula, Stal. Pretoria. Transvaalia lugens, gen. et sp. n. Pretoria. Nysius novitius, sp. n. Pretoria. Pamera proximo,, Dall. Pretoria. Pachymerus apicalis, Dall. Pretoria. Dieuches armipes, Fabr. Pretoria. Dieuches patruelis, Stal. Pretoria. Fam. Subfam. PYRRHOCORINJE. Dermantinus limbifer, Stal. Dermantinus lugens^ Stal. Scantius forsteri, Fabr. Zoutpansberg and Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Fam. REDUVIID^E. Subfam. KEDUVIINJE. Pantoleistes princeps, Stal. Reduvius erythrocnemis, Germ. Reduvius pulvisculatus, sp. n. Reduvius sertus, sp. n. Reduvius capitalis, sp. n. Reduvius rapax, Stal. Physorhynchus crux, Thunb. Physorhynchus patricius, Stal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Waterberg and Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. 248 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Subfam. PIBATIN.S:. Pirates lugubris, Stal. Pirates conspurcatus, sp. n. Subfam. ACANTHASPIDIN^:. Edocla quadrisignata, Stal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. HOMOPTERA. Fara. Platy pleura divisa, Germ. Platypleura punctigera, Walk. Tibicen carinatus, Thunb. Tibicen undulatus, Thunb. Fam. CERCOPID^E. Subfam. CERCOPIN.S:. Locris transversa, Thunb. Locris arithmetica, Walk. Subfam. APHHOPHORIN^:. Poophilus actuosus, Stal. Pretoria. Durban, Natal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Durban, Natal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Notes and Descriptions. Cimex figuratus, Germ., var. (Tab. III. fig. 1.) Asopusfiguratus, Germ, in Silb. Rev. Ent. v. p. 185, no. 132 (1837). Bright blue, shining, corium paler and more greenish in hue ; head with the central lobe obscurely marked with luteous; pronotum with the anterior and lateral margins and some scattered spots on anterior half of disk luteous ; corium with base of lateral margin luteous ; scutellum with a small central basal spot and the apical margin very narrowly luteous ; connexivum luteous, spotted with dark indigo-blue ; membrane brassy brown, with its apex hyaline. Body beneath bright shining purplish blue; lateral margins of sternum, a spot on each side of metasternum, rostrum, coxal spots, bases of femora, INSECTA. 249 apex of spine on anterior femora, a broad central annulation to posterior tibiae, central transverse fasciae and marginal spots to abdomen, luteous. Antennae and apex of rostrum blackish. Long. 13 millim. (W. L. D.) Holcostethus obscuratus, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 2.) Dull obscure castaneous ; head, anterior half of pronotum, and basal area of scutellum dull ochraceous ; apex of scutellum levigate and pale olivaceous j connexivum luteous, spotted with blackish ; membrane black, its apex paler ; body beneath and legs very pale olivaceous. Body above thickly, darkly, and coarsely punctate ; beneath much more sparsely punctate ; femora with two small black spots near apex, and lateral mar- gins of abdomen beneath with a series of small black segmental spots ; rostrum just passing posterior coxse with its apex black. Antennas pale fuscous, basal joint (excluding apex) luteous ; second and third joints subequal in length, or second slightly shorter than the third. Long. 9 millim. This species diners from H. scapularis, Thunb., by the spotted connexivum, and from H. apicalis, Herr.-Sch., it is distinguished by the more elongate body, different colour, &c. (W. L. D.) Halyomorpha capitata, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 3.) Body above ochraceous, thickly and irregularly covered with dark punctures. Head with the eyes fuscous, the ocelli red, and somewhat thickly covered with coarse brown punctures. Pro- notum thickly and coarsely punctate, on each side of disk the punctures form obscure oblique fasciae ; lateral margins pale ochraceous and impunctate. Scutellum coarsely punctate, near lateral margins and before apex the punctures are con- fluent and castaneous, apex obscure pale olivaceous with scattered dark punctures ; corium thickly, coarsely, and darkly punctate, castaneous in hue, excepting lateral margins, which are ochraceous ; membrane purplish brown, with a submarginal tinge of black ; connexivum ochraceous, with a double series of blackish spots at segmental margins. Body beneath and legs ochraceous, apical half of rostrum blackish, some small lateral 250 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. sternal spots, smaller scattered spots on disk of abdomen, small stigmatal spots, and a series of marginal spots at segmental incisures black. Antennae ochraceous, fourth and fifth joints and the apex of third fuscous, bases and apices of fourth and fifth joints ochraceous. Long. 12-14 millim. In this species the head is somewhat long and narrow, a character which will alone distinguish it from other species of the genus. (W. L. D.) Halyomorpha pretorice, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 4.) Above dull ochraceous, irregularly shaded with dark punc- tures ; scutellum with the lateral and apical margins distinctly infuscated; corium with the disk more or less castaneous; membrane black, shining; connexivum with fuscous spots at segmental incisures; body beneath, rostrum, and legs ochra- ceous; rostrum with a central line and apex black; lateral margins of abdomen obscurely infuscated. Antennae obscure brownish; second and third joints subequal in length and darkest in hue, fourth and fifth joints also subequal in length, fifth joint infuscated at centre. Long. 12 millim. (W. L. D.) Veterna patula, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 5.) Body above ochraceous ; basal area of pronotum from between lateral angles and corium (excluding lateral margins) purplish or olivaceous. Head with the eyes fuscous ; pronotum with four black spots near anterior margin, the lateral angles black mar- gined with carmine- red ; scutellum with some clusters of dark punctures at base, and the same at lateral margins a little before apex, which is pale olivaceous ; connexivum spotted with fuscous (sometimes immaculate) ; membrane black, shining. Body beneath and legs ochraceous, apex of rostrum, apices of pronotal angles, stigmata, and some lateral sternal spots black. Autennse castaneous, basal joint luteous, fourth and fifth joints infuscated ; second joint longest. Long. 12 millim., exp. pronot. angl. 8. millim. This species is allied to V. pugionata, Stal, by the shape of the INSECT A. 251 pronotal angles, but is broader and without the white spots at base of scutellum. (W. L. D.) Antestia transvaalia, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 6.) Above dull ochraceous, somewhat thickly punctured with brown. Head with the margins of the central lobe enclosing two short central lines at base, the inner margins of the eyes and a cluster of punctures near the apex of each lateral lobe, black. Pronotum with the posterior area thickly covered with coarse black punctures and some scattered punctures on anterior area, the punctures form two obscure dark spots on disk; anterior and lateral margins and a central longitudinal discal line luteous and levigate, a black line on lateral margins near the posterior angles. Scutellum thickly covered with black punctures; two large spots at base and the apex luteous and almost impunctate ; the black punctures become confluent near base, and form two obscure spots before apex. Corium thickly covered with black punctures, excepting at base of lateral margins and an angulated fascia on disk, both of which are luteous and levigate. Membrane black, its apical margin hyaline; con- nexivum luteous, spotted with black. Body beneath and legs luteous ; abdomen with three basal creamy levigate fasciae, the second and third interrupted at centre ; rostrum with a central line and apex black margins of abdomen spotted with black. Antennae mutilated. Long. 7 millim. This species is allied to A. variegata, Thunb., from which the white levigate fasciae on the under surface of the abdomen will alone render it very distinct. (W. L. D.) Plinachtus falcatus, sp. 11. (Tab. III. fig. 8.) Body above and antennae reddish ochraceous ; head with two curved black lines extending from base to near emergence of antennas ; eyes dark fuscous ; pronotum rugulose, lateral mar- gins and apices of spines narrowly black, sub-anterior and sub- lateral margins and the spines (excluding apices) red dish, a central pale levigate line margined with black punctures, and with some scattered black punctures on basal area ; scutellum darkly 252 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. punctate, its apex black ; corium very darkly punctate, its outer margins luteous and levigate, inwardly edged with black ; membrane pale testaceous, exhibiting from beneath a black spot on each side. Body beneath, legs, and rostrum pale reddish ochraceous. The second joint of the antennae is longest, and the apical joint is somewhat infuscated. Long. 11 millim. This species may be distinguished by the pronotal spines being much less directed forwardly than is usual in the genus, and also by the two black spots seen through the membrane near apex of abdomen. (W. L. D.) Lygtzus planitiae, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 7.) Body above reddish orange, finely pilose; antennae, eyes, central lobe to head, and a large basal spot at inner margin of eyes, two large wide discal longitudinal fascise to pronotum (strongly constricted anteriorly, fused near anterior margin, and connected with lateral margins at base and centre), scu- tellum excluding apex, apical half of clavus and claval margin, a large discal spot to corium connected with its lateral margin for half its length, membrane excluding lateral and apical margins, rostrum, coxae, legs, margins and sutures of sternum, and sutural fascise to abdomen, black ; margins of membrane pale fuscous. Long. 10 to 12 millim. (W. L. D.) Lygaeus desertus, sp. n. (Tab. III. -fig. 9.) Closely allied to L. planitia, but differing by the following characters : corium with the lateral and apical margins, a broad claval marginal fascia, and a longitudinal fascia extend- ing from the base where it is narrowest, to the centre of the apical margin where it is broadest, black. Membrane pale grey, hyaline, with an irregular reddish spot at the centre of basal margin, and a small obscure fuscous spot at inner apical margin. Long. 10 millim. (W. L. D.) INSECTA. 253 Lyg&us campestris, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 10.) Body above reddish orange; antennae, eyes, central lobe of head, inner margin of eyes, two irregular longitudinal central fasciae to pronotum (which become somewhat evanescent posteriorly and are united to lateral margin a little beyond centre), lateral pronotal margins, scutellum excluding apical carina, a small spot near each apical margin of clavus, apical margin, posterior half of sublateral margin, and a spot on disk of corium, subbasal spot to membrane, sternum, legs, and rostrum, black. Membrane pale fuscous, the veins black, and a white spot on each side of the subbasal black spot. Extreme lateral margins of corium ochraceous; sternum with some large greyish- white spots. Long. 8 millim. (W. L. D.) Transvaalia, gen. nov. Ocelli much nearer to eyes than to each other. Body elongate; head triangular and convex; pronotum excavated anteriorly, its lateral margins and a central longitudinal ridge carinate, basal margin with its apices angularly reflexed back- wardly and inwardly. Rostrum with the basal joint extending a little beyond the base of the head. Scutellum triangular, moderately convex, and with a central longitudinal sulcation on basal half. Legs long; body above moderately pilose. The peculiar structure of the pronotum and scutellum is sufficient to easily distinguish this genus. (W. L. D.) Transvaalia lugens, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 12.) Body above shining luteous ; head, antennae, legs, anterior area of pronotum, basal margin of scutellum, membrane, marginal sutures of pronotum, and apical half of abdomen (excluding segmental margins) black; a large furcate spot to head above and apex of head beneath, a spot at each anterior marginal area of pronotum, and coxal spot carmine- red. Second joint of the antennae longest, third and fourth sub- equal in length. Long. 12 millim. (W. L. D.} 254 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Nysius novitius, sp. n. (Tab. III. fig. 11.) Body above ochraceous ; head brownish, with the lateral margins, a central longitudinal fascia with a rounded spot on each side of disk ochraceous, the ochraceous markings mar- gined with black; antennae luteous, the basal and apical joints infuscated; eyes blackish. Pronotum coarsely covered with brown punctures, the lateral margins luteous and levigate, with a double curved linear mark on disk and a spot near posterior angle black. Scutellum black, with an irregular luteous mar- ginal fascia on each side extending for about half the length from base. Corium with scattered coarse punctures, the lateral margins impunctate, and with three marginal brown spots, one below centre of lateral margin, and one at each apex of apical margin. Membrane pale ochraceous. Legs ochraceous, apices of femora fuscous, coxa3 luteous; sternum strongly punctured with brown ; abdomen beneath blackish. Long. 5 millim. (W. L. D.) Reduvius pulvisculatus, sp. n. (Tab. II. fig. 3.) Body above purplish brown, thickly spotted with greyish pile, more thickly on corium than on pronotum. Head, antennas, rostrum, anterior lobe of pronotum, scutellum, mem- brane, body beneath, femora, and tarsi black ; tibiae red, their bases and apices black ; anterior lobe of pronotum thickly covered with ochraceous pile ; head more sparingly pilose ; con- nexivum above and beneath pale stramineous, slightly spotted with brownish at the segmental incisures. Long. 20 millim. Allied to R. albopunctata, Stal. (W. L. D.) Reduvius sertus, sp. n. (Tab. II. fig. 8.) Head, antennae, rostrum, scutellum, membrane, body be- neath, and legs black ; a large quadrate spot on head extending from front of eyes to base of antennae ; pronotum, corium, oonnexivum above and beneath, coxae, central area and lateral margins of sternum, and a discal patch to abdomen ochraceous. 1NSECTA. 255 Anterior lobe of pronotum irregularly and rugosely wrinkled ; scutellum deeply and obliquely striated. Var. a. Scutellum ochraceous. Long. 17 millim. (W. L. D.) Reduvius capitalis, sp. n. (Tab. II. fig. 1.) Black ; a large quadrate spot on head extending from front of eyes to base of antennae, lateral areas of anterior lobe of pronotum, angular areas and basal margin of posterior lobe, scutellum (excluding basal angles), an angulated fascia to corium, connexivum above and beneath, head beneath, cosfe and coxal spots, parts of lateral margins of sternum, and abdomen beneath sanguineous ; segmental spots to connexivum and margins of abdominal segments black ; anterior femora annulated with sanguineous. Long. 17 millim. (W. L. D.) Pirates conspurcatus, sp. n. (Tab. II. fig. 10.) Head, antennae, rostrum, pronotum, scutellum, sternum, and legs black; corium and abdomen beneath ochraceous; base and apex of abdomen black ; membrane, claval area, and lateral margins of corium fuscous; a black spot near inner angle of corium, a much larger black spot on disk of membrane, and a rectangular black spot on claval area. Abdomen above ochraceous. Long. 10 millim. Allied to P. balteatus, Germ. (W. L. D.} NEUROPTERA. The first signs of returning summer, with warmer nights and mornings, were shown by the appearance of Dragonflies hovering over the few small ponds to be found near Pretoria. The earliest to appear were Orthetrumfasciculata and 0. subfasciolata, Crocothemis erythraa, and the gigantic Anax mauricianus , all these species being very abundant. Tramea basilaris is very rare and I only took or saw one specimen, whose wings were 256 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. wet after heavy rains and floods. The genus Palpopleura I could only find represented by one species (P. jucunda} around Pretoria. Ant-lions also are somewhat scarce, frequenting the open veld, and I never saw but one species of Palpares (P. coffer) in the district of Pretoria, and, at all events, this is the dominant and representative species. The time and manner of appearance in the winged form of Termes angustatus has already been described (ante, p. 49) . I received much assistance from Mr. W. F. Kirby in iden- tifying the species of Libellulinse, and Mr. E. McLachlan kindly named two species of Ant-lions belonging to the collection. NEUROPTERA-PLANIPENNIA. Fam. MYRMELEONID^E. Palpares caffer, Burm. Pretoria. Myrmeleon trivirgatus, Gerst. Zoutpansberg. Creagrisflavipennis, Burm. Pretoria. PSEUDO-NEUROPTERA. Fam. TERMITID^. Termes angustatus, Eamb. Pretoria. Termes, sp. ? Pretoria. Fam. LlBELLULIDjE. Tramea basilaris, Ramb. Pretoria. Palpopleura portia, Dru. Zoutpansberg. Palpopleura lucia, Dru. Durban, Natal. Palpopleura jucunda, Eamb. Pretoria and Zoutpansberg. Sympetrumfonscolombii, Selys. Pretoria and Zoutpansberg. Trithemis dorsalis, Eamb. Pretoria. Trithemis sanguinolenta, Burm. Pretoria and Zoutpansberg. Crocothemis erythraa, Brulle. Pretoria and Zoutpansberg. Orthetrum fasciculata, Eamb. Pretoria. Orthetrum subfasciolata, Brauer. Pretoria. INSECT A. 257 Subfam. Anax mauricianus, Ramb. Pretoria. ORTHOPTERA. The vast plains of the Transvaal are peopled by myriads of insects belonging to this order, and when the summer is advanced it is impossible to walk across the veld without putting on wing numbers of the smaller species of the Acridiidse, particularly the widely distributed Acrida nasuta, and species of the genera Paracinema and Catantops. It is this wealth of orthopterous life that provides the food for so many birds, and their disappearance at the dry season is also the principal reason of much bird migration in Southern Africa. A few species are on the wing during the winter or dry season, and the largest and most brilliant example of these is Acridium rubellum, which also has the strongest flight of any orthopteron I saw, and when on the wing may easily be mis- taken for a small bird. The next prominent insect to appear is Phymateus leprosus, which has a very sluggish flight, is easily captured, and precedes its generic companion Phymateus morbillosus. The most active and high-flying species of Phy- mateus is P. squarrosus, which increases in numbers as the summer progresses, when the varieties with the pronotum concolorous and that with the margins red are both found together. Another brilliant species which I found on the barest and most sterile veld is (Edalus acutangulus, whose blue and black wings make it very conspicuous during flight. The vast swarms of Pachytylus migratoroides which visited the Transvaal during my stay have already been recorded (ante, p. 71), and in the Locustidse the peculiar habits of Clonia wahlbergi and Hemisaga prcedatoria have also been described (ante, pp. 83 & 65). I am much indebted to Mons. Henri de Saussure for much valuable assistance in the identification of the species of this order. Fam, FOBFICULID^B. Labidura riparia, Pall. Pretoria. Labidura, sp. ? Pretoriai 258 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Fam. BLATTID^:. Ectobia ericetorum, Wesrn. Pretoria. Phyllodromia germanica, Linn. Pretoria. Deropeltis erythrocephala, Fabr. Pretoria. Nauphteta circumvagens , Burm. Pretoria. Derocalymma capucina, Gerst. Pretoria. Fam. PHASMID^E. Clonaria ? guenzii, Bates. Durban, Natal. Fam. MANTID.E. Pyrgomantis singularis, Gerst. Pretoria. Lygdamia capital a, Sauss. Pretoria. Parathespis galeata, Gerst. Pretoria and Zoutpans- Miomantis fenestrata, Fabr. Pretoria. [berg. Mantis sacra, Thunb. Pretoria. Hierodula gastrica, Stal. Pretoria. Harpax tricolor, Linn. Pretoria. Phyllocrania paradoxa, Burm. Pretoria. Fam. GRYLLID^E. Gryllotalpa africana, Pal. Beauv. Pretoria. Gryllus bimaculatus, De Geer. Pretoria. Gryllus leucostomus, Serv. Pretoria. Gryllus compactus, Walk. Pretoria. (Ecanthos capensis, Sauss. Pretoria. Fam. LOCUSTIDJJ. Conocephalus mandibularis, Charp. Pretoria. Clonia wahlbergi, Stal. Waterberg. Hetnisaya pradatoria, Distant, sp. n. (fig. ante, p. 63). ? . Ochraceous, disk of abdomen and ovipositer testaceous, apical area of abdomen greenish ; head with two faint black central longitudinal lines, continued more distinctly along the whole length of the pronotum and abdomen. Lateral furrowed margin of pronotum white and somewhat bifasciate, with its inner edge narrowly black; lateral margins of meso- and INSECT A. 259 metanotum white ; lateral margins of abdomen with a narrow white fascia, inwardly testaceous and outwardly black. Wings quite rudimentary and greenish ochraceous. Anterior femora a little longer in length than head and pronotum together and armed with ten spines on each side ; anterior tibiae with eight spines on each side; intermediate femora with nine spines on inner under margin, and ten shorter spines on outer under margin ; intermediate tibiae with ten or eleven spines on each side ; posterior femora with a double series of short spines beneath, but not reaching apical area. Long, from apex of head to apex of ovipositor 76 millim. ; pronot. 7; head 5; ovipositor 28; ant. femora 13; post. femora 38. Pretoria. Differs from H. hastata, the only other described species of the genus, both as regards the different markings and the pro- portional measurements. Fam. Acrida nasuta, Linn. Pretoria. Acrida turrita, Linn., var. calaata, Sauss. Pretoria. Mesops abbreviates, Pal. Beauv. Zoutpansberg. Parga gracilis, Burm. Pretoria. Phymateus leprosus, Fabr. Pretoria. Phymateus morbillosus, Linn. Pretoria. Phymateus squarrosus, Linn. Pretoria. Ochrophlebia ligneola, Serv. Pretoria. Maura rubro-ornata, Stal. Pretoria. Taphronota porosa, Stal. Pretoria. Petasia spumans, Thunb. Pretoria. , var. ater, Dist. (Tab. IV. fig. 3.) Black ; anterior and posterior margins of thorax above, interior area of wings, basal halves of anterior and interme- diate femora, tibise excluding bases and apices, tarsi excluding apices, and the palpi bright coralline red. Pretoria. Porthetis cimrascens, Stal. Pretoria. Porthetis griseus, Serv. Pretoria. 260 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. Xiphocera distanti, sp. n. Xiphocera picta, sp. n. Acridium ruficorne, Fabr. Acridium hottentottum, Stal. Acridium tataricum, Linn. Acridium rubellum, Serv. Catantops humeralis, Thuub. Catantops sulphureus, Walk. Calliptenus crassus, Walk. Calliptenus pallidicornis, Stal. Pezotettix capensis, Thunb. Chrotogonus meridionalis , sp. n. Paracinema tricolor, Thunb. Paracinema basalis, Walk. Pycnodictya obscura, Linn. Pycnodictya adustum, Walk. Cosmorhyssa fasciata, Thunb. Pachytylus migrator -aides, Reiche. Pachytylus lucasii, Brunn. (Edalus plena, Walk. (Edalus marmoratus, Thunb., var. (Edalus acutangulus, Stal. (Edalus nigro-fasciatus, Charp. (Edalus citrinus, Sauss. Humbella tenuicornis, Schaum. Heteropternis hyalina, Sauss. Tmetonota sabra, Sauss. Trilophidia annulata, Thunb. Acroiylus flavescens, Stal. Pretoria. Waterberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Zoutpansberg. Pretoria and Zoutpans- Pretoria. [berg. Durban, Natal. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Zoutpansberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Zoutpansberg. Pretoria. Zoutpansberg. Pretoria. Pretoria. Pretoria. Descriptions. (By Mons. H. DE SAUSSURE.) Familia PAMPHAGID^E. Genus Xiphocera, Latr., Stal, Saussure. The two species which follow belong to the group of X. mannulus, Saussure, having filiform antennae, not dilated. INSECT A. 261 (Comp. H. de Saussure, ' Spicilegia entomologica Genevensis/ ii. 1887, p. 33.) They differ from that species and from others of the same group by their strongly compressed body, and can be distin- guished from one another as follows : . The crest of pronotum having three ovoid pellucid fenestrse, very distinct ; the crest entire to its apex. X. distanti. b. The crest of pronotum having but small pellucid fenestrae, obsolete ; the crest crenulated at its apex. X. picta. Xiphocera distanti, Saussure, sp. n. (Tab. IV. fig. 1.) Fusco-grisea, valde compressa, crasse granulata. Antennse filiformes, 15-16-articulatae, superne totse obsolete, subtus articulis 6 primis planatse. Articuli omnes depressi, extus acuti, facie interna angusta subrotundata, baud marginata; articuli 7 apicales submoniliformes. Caput confertim, inter carinas laterales sparse, granulatum. Vertex vix declivis, a latere rectangulatus ; ejus scutellum breve, excavatum, antice rectangulatum, marginibus valde prominulis, postice rotundatum. Ejus carinulae laterales incisse, angulis incisurse rotundatis, haud crenatis. Costa facialis a latere parum incisa. Pronotum utrinque inferius dense granulosum. Crista ele- vata, lamellaris, supra occiput valde acutangulatim producta (Sauss. /. c. pi. ii. fig. 7) ; ejus linea dorsalis a latere in medio vix, autice et postice magis arcuata (Sauss. /. c. pi. iii. fig. 23) ; ejus pars postica valde producta, nee sinuata nee crenata, apice acuto, bidentato. Sulci 3 in crista profundi ac fenestrati, impressiones profundas, ovatas, diaphanas majores obferentes. Pars dorsalis prouoti verruculosa ac sparse acute granosa. Pedes graciles, antice haud granulati, sed extus carinati. Femora postica haud late dilatata, ante concha apicali coarctata (Sauss. /. c. pi. iii. fig. 20), cristis parum latis, supra 9-spinosa, infra irregulariter denticulata. Abdorninis segmenta l m -6 m superne ante apicem spina trigonali armata. $ . Long. 46 millim., pronot. 16, fern. post. 16. Pretoria, 1 ? . Xiphocera picta, Saussure, sp. n. (Tab. IV. fig. 2.) Statura et forma sensim ut in X. distanti; corpore toto sabuloso, excepto in parte apicali abdominis ; colore fusco, valde albo et flavido strigato. Antennse 16-articulatse, de- plan ato-prismaticse, supra planse, subtus articulis 3-8 in 262 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. medio carinatis ; 7 ultimis submoniliformibus, angulo externo prominulo. Scutelli verticis margines laterales incisi ac crenulati. Pronoti crista quam in X. distanti minus arcuata, apice crenata. Sulci 3 in ilia minus impressi, lineares, fenestris parum translucidis, minoribus. Pars dorsalis tuberculis minutis dentiformibus conspersa; crista confertini granulata vel verruculosa, rugosissima; lobi laterales sparse nigro- verruculati, margine postico minute denticulate. Femora postica albida, fusco 3-fasciata, necnon area inferiore albo 4-maculata; margo superior spinis trigonalibus fortibus armatuSj genu spina apicali armato; margo inferior valde denticulatus. Segmenta abdominis omnia superne dente acuto praapicali armata. Pictura : Facies albo et nigro marmorata. Corpus utrinque linea albida callosa, interrupta, percurrente, ornatum. Lobi laterales pronoti lineis albis irregularibus, crista et dorsum vittis albis obliquis, descendentibus, notata. Metathorax utrinque inferius vittis 2 albis et superius vitta obliqua in 1 abdominis segmento perducta. Corpus subtus pallidum. ? . Long. 36 millim., pronot. 16, fern. post. 15. Waterberg. Familia PYRGOMORPHID^:. Chrotogonus meridionalis, Saussure, sp. n. (Tab. IV. fig. 5.) Gracilis, fulvo-griseus, fusco-umbratus ; pedibus fusco-fasciatis. Costa facialis a latere visa tenuiter sinuata, haud angulatim incisa. Verticis rostrum sat prominulum, parabolicum, oculos plus quam dimidia latitudine superans. Pronotum margine postico transverso, arcuato, haud lobato, tuber- culis nigris 5. Prozona supra tenuiter tuberculosa; ejus partes 3 sequales. Metazona tantum rare tuberculata ac subtiliter granulata. Lobi laterales fere rectangulatim de- flexi, angulo postico rectangulo vel leviter retro-producto, haud lobato. Elytra angustissima, abdominis apicem attin- gentia, nigro-punctata, seriebus tuberculorum nullis; area costali parum dilatata. Alee nigrae. ? . Long. 21 millim., pronot. 4, fern. 9, elytr. 15, latit. 3. This species is characterized by its narrow form, by its elytra being narrow and not tuberculated, and by its pronotum having the hind border not angulated, but only arcuated, and less than in Chr. hemipterus. Zoutpansberg. INDEX, Abacetus obtusus, 188. Acacia mollissima, 115. Acanthogenius dorsalis, 188. Acanthocoris lugens, 246. Acanthorrhinus dreyei, 200. Acariote, 126, 179. Found under stones in Trans- vaal, 179. Loss to live-stock in Natal, 126. Accidents common to all animal life, 55. Aclwenops fadalis, sp. n., 204. Acharana otreusalis, 241. Acherontia atropos, 18, 68, 153, 236. Acidalia gazella, 240. Acrcea anemosa, 233. buxtoni, 233. caldarena, 233. doubledayi, 233. encedon, 233. horta, 232. natalica, 123, 233. neobule, 233. nohara, 233. rahira, 233. violwum, 233. Acrida nasuta, 259. turrita, var. cal&ata, 259. Acridium hottentottum, 260. rubellum, 260. ruficorne, 260. tataricum, 260. Aa-otylusjlavescens, 260. Adaliaflavomaculata, 209. Adoretus luteipes, 47, 192. AZgialitis asiaticus, 169. tricollaris, 169. ^Enidea pretorice, sp. n., 206, 209. dEthriostoma yloriosa, 190. Agama atricoUis, 174. ^zd, 87, 173, 174. Habits under stones, 87. Aglossa basalts, 241. Agonoscelis erosa, 246. puberula, 246. versicolor, 246. Ayrotis biconica, 238. Alfsmon nivosa, 168. Alcena amazoula, 234. Alcides sene.r, 200. Alesia indusa, 209. Aliteus adspersus, 195. Aloes, 45. Amblyomma hebrceum, 179. Amblysterna vittipennis, 195. Amiantus gibbosus, 199. nndosus, sp. n., 199. Ammophila bones spei, 211. Ampkidesmus analis, 196, 201. Ampules niffi-o-Cfenilea, sp. n., 211, 212. Amydrus morio, 164, 167. Anace lateritia, 237. Anax mauriciamis, 45, 257. Ancylopus fuscipennis, sp. n., 210. Anisorhina Jlavomaculata, var. eyre- ^a, 194. Anomalipes complanatus, 199. intermedius, 199. te/jpa, 199. variolosus, 199. Anoplochilus tomentosus, 194. Anoplocnemis curvipes, 46, 246. , 236. 264 INDEX. Antestia transvaalia, sp. n.. 246, 251. Anthia cequilatera, 188. desertorum, 188. maxillosa, 50, 187, 188. mellyi, 188. tJioracica, 50, 187, 188. Anthocomus, sp., 198. Anthrojyoides paradisea, 50, 168. Antipus rufus, 204. Ant-lion, 91. Anubis mellyi, 201. ApMia apolinaris, 123, 238. Aphodius lividus, 152, 191. Aplasta dichroa, 194. Apples in Natal, 126. Devastated by Cetoniid beetles, 115, 126, 193. Aquila ivahlbergi, 163, 165. Arachnida, 179. Araneae, 180. Argentiferous wealth near Pretoria, 59. Argiope nigrovittata, 180. Arthileta cloeckneria, 236. Asbecesta cyanipennis, 206. Asio capensis, 112, 165. Feeding on large coleoptera, 112. Aspilocoryphus fasciativentris, 247. Aspongopus japetus, 246. nubilus, 246. Astur polyzonoides, 165. Atella columbina, 233. Athalia bicolor, sp. n., 211, 226. Atractonotmformicarius, 187, 188. Attagenus, sp., 190. Aty lotus, sp., 244. Aulacophora vinula, 206. Aulonogyrus abdominalis, 45, 189. Auriferous deposits absent at Pre- toria, 59. Austen, Ernest E., 244. "Australian bug," 88. Aves, 162, 163. The Transvaal avifauna already well worked, 163. Axylia cinctothoraa.; 233. Azanus tesous, 234. Bagrada hilaris, 246. Bamboos, 121. Bananas, 121, 125. Basipta stolida, 209. Bates, H. W., ix, 41, 187. Beach Wood at Durban, 123. Belmogaster rufipennis, 210. Berea at Durban, 122. Berg bas," 43. Biggarsberg, 9. Binna linea, 237. madagascariensis, 70, 2-7. Attacked by Cape Wagtail, 70. Birds of prey around Pretoria, 55. Their extremely fat condition, 57. Blue Cranes, 50. Blufi nt Durban, 122. Boers, 20. As soldiers, 32. Farmers, 21, 22. Physical appearance, 35. Sobriety, 36. Theology, 23, 26, 33. Treatment of Kafirs, 24. Want of gaiety, 36. Boers and English, 35, 90, 147, 148. Boer War, 10, 31, 32, 140. Bolloceras batesii, sp. n., 191. Boom, great, the, 145. Boulenger, G. A., 173. Bourgeois, Mons. J., 196. Bowker, Colonel, 41, 121. Brachinus armiger, 188. Brachycerus apterus, 200. cancellatm, 200. natalensis, 200. Bracon fastidiator, 211. flagrator, 211. Bradyornis silens, 167. Bubulcus ibis, 169. Bufo car ens, 176. regularis, 48, 176. INDEX. 265 Buteo desertorum, 56, 163, 165. jakal, 112, 163, 165. Butler, A. G., 235. Butterflies, 5, 39, 40, 46, 61, 91, 112, 121, 123. Buzzards, 57, 80, 112. Instinctive terror of these birds possessed by poultry, 57. Ccenina pcecilaria, 240. Ctenomorpha nervosa, 245. Calkida angustuta, 188. Callidea nataknsis, 245. Calliphora marffinalis, 244. Calliptenus crassus, 260. pallidicoi-nis, 260. Callistomimus sexpustulatus, 187, 188. Calomorpha wdhlberyi, 205. Calpe apicalis, 237. Camponotus grandidieri, 211. Camptolenes cribraria, 204. Candeze, Dr. E., 195. Cam's mesomclas, 111. Canna indica, 18. Cantharsius, sp., 191. Cape Town, 4. Malay population, 5. Museum, 5. Carbula trisiynata, 246. Cardiophorus prcetnorsus, 195. Carebara vidua, 211. Cassida hybrida, 209. /wntfa, 209. punctata, 209. smpta, 209. Castalius mekena, 234. Castellated residence in Zoutpans- berg, 96. Catantops humeralis, 260. sulphureus, 260. Catochrysops osiris, 233. Catopsiliajlorella, 46, 234. Caura rufiventris, 246. Causus rhotubeatus, 176. Cephalolophus grimmii, 111, 159. Cerchneis amwensis, 112, 165. Feeds on Orthoptera, 112. - rupicola, 128, 165. - rupicoloides, 165. - tinnunculoides, 112, 165. Feeds on Orthoptera, 112, 164. Ceropksis bieincta, 202. - brachyptera, 202. - capensis, var. n., 202, 203. Cervicapra arundinum, 159. Cetonia cincta, 194. Cetoniids, 66, 92, 123, 193. Chalcogenia cuprea, 195. Chameeleon parvilobus, 174. Champion, J. C., 198. Charlestown, 119, 120. Cheraprogne, 50, 167. Nuptial plumage a hindrance to flight, 50. Sexual selection exercised at the expense of protection, 164. Chtttusia coronata, 169. CMcenius cylindricollis, 188. - subsulcatus, 188. - vitticollis, 187, 188. Chlorion xanthocerum, 210. Chcerocampa nerii, 18. Chrotogonus meridionalis, sp. n., 260, 262. Chrysis (Pyrin) lynica, 211. Chrysococcyx cupreus, 164. Chrysomela opulenta, 206. Chrysorychia amanga, 234. Cicadas, 67. Cidaria pudicata, 240. Cigaritis leroma, 234. Cimex figuratus, var. n., 245, 248. Circus pygargus, 152, 163, 165. Cleonus, sp., 200. Oeitos ochraceus, 246. Clivina grandis, 188. Clonaria ? guenzii, 258. Cforaa wahlbergi, 84, 258. Clytanthus capensis, 201. C/y^Ara wahlbergi, 204. 266 INDEX. Coaching, 9. Coccinellidae, 66, 209. Colasposoma pubescens, 205. Coleoptera, 152, 187. After the rains, 50. Difficult to obtain, 92. On leaves after rain, 123. Under stones, 39. Colias. electra, 39, 234. Colley, General, his grave, 11. Colonial settlers in the Transvaal, 134. Their great value to the State, 135. Colonist, an old, 90. Colotes, sp., 198. Colours of animals fixed by natural selection during the great struggle for existence subsequent to the last geological change of surface, 76. Colpoon compressum, 42, 77. Columba phaonota, 168. Commercial morality, 137. prosperity of the Transvaal retarded by want of railway com- munication,. 130, 138. Company promoter, the, 127, 138. Comparison of social life and politics in the Transvaal and Britain, 86. C'ompsomera elegantissima, 201. Conocephalus mandibularis, 258. Convolvulus, a fine, 96. Copridae, their flight, 190. Copris contracttts, 191. Julius, 191. Coptomia umbrosa, 123, 193. Coptorhina klugii, 191. Coracias caudata, 80, 112, 166. Corvus scapulatu-s, 96, 167. Corynetes ruftcollis, 152, 198. rvfipes, 152, 198. Corynodes compressicornis, 205. Cosmorhyssa fasciata, 260. Cossypha caffra, 166. 1 Crania, belonging to the Makapan tribe, descriptions of, 157. Creagris Jlavipennis, 256. Crepidoyaster bimaculatus, 187, 188. Crioceris const ricticollis, 204. puncticollis, 204. Crocidura martensii, 159. pilosa, 159. Crocodile, mythical reports as to, 78. Crocothemis erythnea, 45, 256. Crossotus kluffii, sp. n., 202, 203. Orothama decor ata, sp. n., 237. Cryptocephalus decemnotalus, 204. dregei, 204. pardalis, 204. pustulatus, 204. Cursorius chalcopterus, 169. senegalensis, 169. Cyclopides willemi, 235. Cydonia lunata, 209. quadrttineata, 209. Cyligramma latona, 238. Cynictis penicillata, 159. Cypholoba ranzanii, 187, 188. Cyphonistes vallatus, 193. Cyphononyx antennata, sp. n., 211, 217. Danais chrysippus, 39, 61, 232. Devoured by Hetnisaga prceda- toria, 65. Its varieties alcippus and dorip- pus found at Pretoria, 65, 232. Decimia bicolorata, 237. Deiopeia pulchella, 68, 153, 237. In flight mistaken for a Ly- ccenid, 68. Its wide distribution, 68. Dendritic or arborescent markings in quartzite, 58. Dendropicus cardinalis, 166. Dermantinus limbifer, 247. lugens, 247. Dermestes vulpinus, 152, 190. Derocalymma capucina, 258. INDEX. 267 Deropeltis erythrocephala, 258. Destruction of birds by floods, 91. Diceros algoensis, 193, 194. , \&r. Jlavtpennis, 193, 194. Dichelocephala lanceulata, 246. Dichelus vulpinus, 192. Dichtha cubica, 198, 199. Dieuches armipes, 247. patruelis, 247. Diplognatha hebraa, 50, 194. silicea, 194. Diptera, 46, 67, 244. Discolia caffra, 211. prcecana, sp. n., 211, 222. prcestabilis, sp. 11., 211, 222. Disnwyistusfonbriatus, 245. Distantella, gen. n., 229. trinotata, sp. n., 211, 230. Dopper Church, 27. Dorylus helvolus, 211. Dragonflies, 45, 54, 112. Dresser. H. E., 165. Dromica gigantea, 187. Durban, 8, 121. Beach Wood, 123. Berea, the, 122. Bluff, the, 122. Museum, 121. Pleasures of the naturalist at, 124. Durrant, J. Hartley, 235, 242. Dust-storm, 47. "Duyker," the, 111. Dwaas River, 97, 112. Dynamite, 58, 89, 120. East London, 8. Ectobia ericetorum, 153, 258. Edocla quadrisignata, 248. Egybolia vaillantina, 122, 237. Elanus cceruleus, 163, 165. ElapJiinis irrorata, 123, 194. latecostata, 123, 194. Eiasmopoda undata, 246. Eletica rufa, 198, 199. Elis barbata, 211, 223. Epilaclma bifasciata, 209. dregei, 209. hirta, 209. Epizeuxis cethiops, sp. n., 239. Equus quagga, 75. Eremias lineo-ocellata, 174. Eriesthis gidtata, 192. semihirta, 192. Eronia Ma, 123, 234. Estrelda astrild, 107. Eubolla deei'cana, 240. proxaulkaria, 240. punicaria, 240. Eucalyptus, 17. Euchromia africcma, 123, 236. Euclasta war rent, sp. n., 241. Euleptus caffer, 188. Eumenes tinctor, 210. Euphorbia, 45, 80. Poisonous qualities, 80. Eupoda, 203. Habits, 203. Euporus callichromoides, 201 . Euryope terminalis, 205. Eurytela hiarbas, 233. Exochomus nigromaculatus, 152, 209. Exocostus lineatus, 3. Falco ruficollis, 164, 165. Farm, Natal model, 126. Farmer, British, wanted in the Transvaal, 138. Farmers, Boer, 21, 22, 34, 45, 113. Great want of education, 133, 138. Floods, and loss of life, 53, 60, 78, 88, 129. Flowers, common English, culti- vated in the Transvaal, 18. Flying-fish, 3. Francolinus gariepensis, 112, 168. levaillantii, 75, 112, 168. Protective coloration, 75. subtorquatus, 112, 168. Gahan, C. J., 201, 204, 206. 268 INDEX. Galerucidte, 66, 206. Gametis balteata, 194. Gastracantha, sp., 180. Gellia angulicollis, 246. Geological features around Pretoria, 58. Gerrhosaurus Jlavigularis, 174. Gill, G. D., 94. Gladstone, Mr., name of, in the Transvaal, 140. Glareola melanoptera, 169. Glaucidium perlatum, 165. Glaucoma distanti, sp. n., 175. Glypsus conspictms, 245. mcestus, 245. " Gom Paauw," 74. Gomphocarpus, sp., 62, 66. Gonodela amandata, 240. Gorgophis libania, 238. Gorham, Rev. H. S., 197. Graphipterus cordiger, 188. ovatus, 188. westwoodi, 188. Grass-fires, 21, 46, 114. Gryttotdlpa africana, 258. Gryllus bimaculatus, 258. compactus, 258. leucostomus, 258. Guinea-fowl, 13, 72. Gymnopleunis ccelatus, 191. wahlbergi, 191. Gynandrophthalma anisogramma, 204. Gynanisa maia, 238. Gyps Jcolbii, 69, 163, 165. Hailstones forming blocks of ice, 53. Halitonoma epistomata, 204. Halyomorpha capitata, sp. n., 245, 249. p-etoria, sp. n., 246, 250. Hamanumida dtedalus, 40, 41, 233. Haritala quaternalis, 241. Harpalus capicokt, 188. Harpax tricolor, 258. Hecyrida terrea, 202. Hedybius amcenus, sp. n., 197. Heidelberg, 117. Heliocopris hamadryas, 191. Helioryctes melanopyrus, 210. Hemaris hylas, 236. Hemipimpla, 227. caffra, sp. n., 211, 227. calliptera, sp. n., 211, 228. Hemisaya prcedatoria, sp. n., 65, 258. Devours Danais chrysippus, 65. Herpania eriphia, 91, 234. Hesperia forestan, 235. Heterocera, 235. Habits &c., 230. Heterocorax capensis, 167. Heteroderes inscriptus, 195. Heteromera, 67, 198. Habits of, 198. Heteronychus, sp., 193. Heteroptera, 244. Heteropternis hyalina, 260. Hibiscus, 18, 125. Hierodula gastrica, 258. Himatismus buprestoides, 199. Hindu race at Durban, 8. Hippobosca riifipes, 244. Hipporhinus corniculatus, 200. cornutus, 200. pilularius, 200. Hirundo cucullata, 167. semirufa, 167. Ifi'sier co^e;-, 190. fossor, 190. hottentotta, 190. ovatula, 190. Holcostethus obscuratus, sp. n., 245, 249. Hollanders, 35, 134, 135, 148. Homceocerus annulatus, 246. magnicorniS) 246. Homonotus ccerulans, sp. n., 211, 213. pedestris, sp. n., 211, 214. Homoptera, 243. Honey poisonous, when derived from bloom of Euphorbias, 80. Hoplostomus fuligineus, 194. INDEX. 269 Hoploterna valga, 246. Horse-sickness, 95. Humbella tenuicornis, 260. Hybosorus arator, 191. Hydrous, sp., 189. Hymenoptera, 67, 210. Hypanis ilithyia, 46, 233. Hyperacantha oculata, 206. Hyphantornis velatus, 167. Hypolimnas misippus, 65, 233. Hypolithus, sp., 188. Hypseloyenia concava, 193. Hystrichopus coffer, 188. Icerya purchasi, 88. Illicit diamond-buying, 138. Insects protected from their enemies by mimicry or protective resem- blance frequently thus survive some incipient mortality which would have otherwise helped to effect their extinction, 62. lolaus boivkeri, 234. Iron-work among the Mavenda Kafirs, 107. Ischnostoma nasuta, 193. Islam, a Priest of, 117. Jackal, the, 111. Jacoby, Martin, 204. Janson, Oliver, 193. Jews in the Transvaal, 36, 135. Financial ability, 136. Their cosmopolitanism and gaiety, 137. Their knowledge of the country, 136. Johannesburg, 13, 116. Absence of trees, 116. Hotels, 117. Most English town in the Transvaal, 138. " Jumping hare," 75. Junonia boopis, 233. cebrene, 40, 233. clelia, 233. Kafir and Boer, 22, 24, 25, 81, 98. Kafir labour, 22, 24, 98, 104, 140. Distance travelled to work, 99. Manual labour at present de- pendent on, 141. Work to procure money to obtain another wife, 99. Kafir stores and Kafir traders, 97. Solitary life, 97. Kestrels, 112, 163. Kirby, W. F., 235, 256. Kriiger, S. J. P., President, 28, 33, 82. Labidura riparia, 153, 257. Ladysmith, 121. Lcelia adspersa, 237. Lagria, sp., 199. Laings Nek, 11, 120. Railway tunnel, 120. Lamprocolius sycobius, 164, 167. Lamprophis rufulus, 176. Laniarius atrococcineus, 167. ffutturalis, 167. Lanius collaris, 55, 167. collurio, 167. Larra ornata, 210. Lebeda aculeata, 237. Lebia, sp., 188. Lepidoptera, 153, 231. Leptodira rufescens, 176. Leptosoma apicalis, 123, 236. Leucania amens, 238. apparata, 238. percussa, 238. substituta, 238. Lewis, George, 190. Life on the table-lands compared with that on the sea, 59. Lion, probably in the Transvaal con- fined to Zoutpansberg, 157. Liquor, love of, by Kafirs, 102. Lithosia ? fumeola, 237. Litopus dispar, 201. lAxus, sp., 200. L'ocris arithmetica, 248. transversa, 248. 270 INDEX. Locust chased by dogs, 39. eaten by Kafirs, 72. eaten by poultry and bustards, 72. impaled on barbed wire, 55. swarm, 71. Longicornia, 201. Habits &c., 201. Lophoceros kucomelas, 164, 166. Lophonotus, sp.,244. Lost in the wood-bush, 91. Luciola capensis, 197. Lyc&nesthes liodes, 234. Lycauges donovani, sp. n., 240. Lycus ceolus, 196. ampliatus, 196. bremet, 123, 196. constrictus, 196. dilatatus, 196. distanti, sp. n., 196. integripennis, 196. kolbei, 196. pyriformis, 196. rostrattts, 196. subtrabeatus, 196. zonatus, 196. Lygaidai, 45, 67, 247. Lygceosoma villosula, 247. Lygceus campestris, sp. n., 247, 253. desertus, sp. n., 247, 252. eleyans, 247. planitiee, sp. n., 247, 252. rivvlaris, 247. septw, 247. trilineatus, 247. Lyffdamia capitata, 258. Maluia striata, 174. trivittata, 87, 173, 174. Great resemblance to snake when curled up, 87. Inhabit holes with toads, 87. Machetes puynax, 169. Machla porcella, 199. MacLachlan, R., 256. Macruylussa trochilus, 236. Macroma coynata, 194. Macronyx capensis, 164, 168. Magato, chief of the Makatese, 107. Magwambas, the, 100. Dress, 101. Funeral dances &c., 102. Killing an ox and great dance, 102. Love of strong liquor, 102. Number in the Spelonken, 101. Originally refugees from sur- rounding districts, 100. Maiden-hair ferns, 45. Maize cultivated by Kafirs, 83. Majuba Hill, 10, 90, 120, 128, 135. Makapan's Cave, 82, 84. Immense slaughter of Kafirs, 82. Kafirs blockaded by Boers, 82. Makapan's Poort, 81. Scene of murder by Kafirs in 1854, 81. Makatese, the, 107. Location in the Spelonken, 107. Malacodermata, 196. Malays at Cape Town, 5. Mamestra breviuscula, 238. renisigna, 238. Mammalia, 152, 157. Mangoes, 125. Man's development of the Transvaal a struggle with the different forces and agents of Nature, 89. Manticora tuberculata, 50, 187. Mantis sacra, 258. Maritzburg=Pieterniaritzburg, 121, 127. Mashonaland trek, 85. Maura rubro-ornata, 259. Mavendas, the, 107. Iron-smelting and iron manu- facture, 107. Making a pick or hoe, 108. Megachile maxillosa, 210. Megalonychus inter stitialts, 188. Melaniti's leda, 232. INDEX. 271 Melinesthes umbonata, 194. Melittophagus meridionalis, 108. Melybaus crassus, 195. Men who early in life visit South Africa seldom finally leave it, 87, 138, 139. Mcnius distant^ sp. n., 205. Merops apiaster, 44, 152, 166. Mesa diapherogamia, sp. n., 211, 225. Mesops abbreviatus, 259. Micranterus validus, 199. Microstylum dispar, 244. Milvus cegyptius, 56, 165. Mimicry, 41, 66, 92. Mimosa-bark, 116. Miomantis fenestrata, 253. Mirperus jaculus, 246. Mist and fog, 116. Monitor, the, 77, 87, 174. Monochelus, sp., 192. Monoleptajlaveola, 206. Monticola brevipes, 166. Morcegamus globiceps, 202. " Motacilla capensis, 49, 70, 164, 168. Attacking a moth, 70. Pursuing species of Acrcea, 70. Moths flying to light, 122. Mus concha, 159. rattus, 162, 159. (Isomys) pumilio, 159. Musca domestica, 244. Museum at Cape Town, 5. at Durban, 121. at Port Elizabeth, 8. Mutilla albistyla, sp. n., 211, 225. tetensis, 211. Mycalesis perspicua, 232. Mygnimia belzebuth, sp. n., 211, 218. depressa, sp. n., 211, 219. distanti, sp. n., 211, 220. fallax, sp. n., 211, 221. Mylabris capensis, 199. ffrondali, 199. lunata, 199. mixta, 199. ophthalmica, 92, 199. Mylabris transversalis, 126, 199. tristiffma, 199. Mylothris agathina, 234. Myoxus murimis, 159. Myriopoda, 181. Myrmecocichlaformicivora, 166. Myrmeleon tnvirgatus, 256. Nanotrayus scoparius, 159. Nassunia bupaliata, 240. Native commissioners and treatment of Kafirs, 98. Nauphceta circumvagens, 258. Nectar inia famosa, 166. Nemognatha, 199. Nephila transvaalica, sp. n., 91, 179, 180. Small colonies living in gigantic webs, 91, 179. Neptis agatha, 233. Nerium oleander, 18. Neuroptera, 255. Habits &c., 255. Neurosymploca agria, sp. n., 23G. concinna, 236. Newcastle, 9, 119. N czar a capicola, 246. viridula, 246. Night in a wagon, 96. Nilaus brubru, 167. Nomophila noctuella, 153, 241. Nucras tessellata, 174. Numida coronata, 13, 72. Nylstroom, 80. Nysius novititis, sp. n., 247, 254. Oceanic birds, 4. Ochrophlebia ligneola, 259. Ocypete megacephala, 180. (Ecanthos capensis, 258. (Edalus acutangulus, 260. citrinus, 260. marmoratus, var., 260. niffro-fasciatus, 260. plena, 260. (Edicnemus capensis, 169. 272 INDEX. Oleanders, 18. Oncopettus famelicus, 247. Oniticellus militaris, 191.. Onitis caffer, 191. Onthophagm gazella, 191. Ootheca modesta, sp. n., 206. Ophisma croceipennis, 239. pretoria, sp. n., 239. Orthetrumfasciculata, 255, 256. subfasciolata, 255, 256. Orthoptera, 153, 257. Habits &c., 257. The food of many birds, 112. Oryctes boas, 193. Osteodes turbulentata, 240. Otis afroides, 74, 168. carulescens, 74, 75, 168. kori, 74, 128, 168. Food, 74. Maximum weight, 74. Oxythyrea cBneicollis, 194. amabilis, 194. cinctella, 194. hcemorrhoidalis, 195. marginalis, 194. perroudi, 194. rubra, 194. Ozarba densa, 238. dubitans, 238. Pachnoda flaviventris, 92, 115, 126, 194. leucomelana, 194. Pachy enema tibtalis, 192. Pachymerus apicalis, 247. Pachytylus lucasii, 260. migrator aides, 71, 260. Immense swarm, 71. Pats decora, 236. Paliffa infuscalis, 241. Palpares caffer, 91, 256. Palpopleura jucunda, 256. /MCMZ, 123, 256. jiwrfca, 266. Pamera proximo,, 247. Pamphila fottentota, 235. Pangonia subfascia, 244. Pantoleistes princeps, 247. Papilio demoleus, 45, 123, 235. morania, 123, 235. Paracinema basalis, 260. tricolor, 260. Paramecocoris atomarius, 245. ventralis, 240. Parathespis galeata, 258. Parga gracilis, 259. Paroeme gahani, sp. n., 201, 202. Partridges, 75, 112. Pne?-a arietans, 173, 176. Volksrust, 11, 129. Vultures, 13, 69. Maximum weight, 69. Mode of flight, 70. Their probable greater scarcity of food, 70. Wallace, A. R., 41. Walsingham, Eight Hon. Lord, 235. Warm baths, 79. Warren, W., 235. " Waterberg Flats," 79. Waterberg, scenery in, 80. Waterfal River, 129. Waterhouse, C. 0., 190. Weather, severe, and losses in live- stock, 48. White Ants, 48. White-bellied Crow, 96. Willow trees, 17, 19, 67. Winter or dry season in the Trans- vaal, 9, 10, 18, 39, 73, 111, 114. Women, Kafir, 99. Female infanticide unknown, 99. Polygamy a useful institution, 100. Position of the Kafir women compared with those of the lowest classes in England, 100. INDEX. 277 Wood-bush, 01. Contrast of its zoology with that of the hare veld, 91. XantTiospilopteryx sttperba, 91, 236. Xiphoco-a, 260. disf.anti, sp. n., 260, 261. picta, sp. n., 260, 261. Xylocopa inconstans, 210. Xystrocera globosa, 201. Ypthima asterope, 232. Zeritis orthrus, 234. Zinnias, 18. Zonitis eborina, 198, 199. Zonurus cordylus, 174. Zophosis angusticostis, 199. punctulata, 199. Zosterops virens, 166. Zoutpansberg, 113. Great agricultural future, 113. Warm air and rich vegetation, 113. Zyyana, sp., 8. PRIKTED BY TAYLOR AND TEANC1S, EED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. NAT. IN TRANSVAAL Tab. I. W.Rirkiss del. Mintern Bros . Ch l.Airusntus urxdosus. b.Bolboceras batesii . 2. Tra.gocepHala, sulpHura_ta. . 2.HedytiitiS ainoenus. 6. Menius diatariti . 10 . jnidea pretorise. S.Lycus dietorxu . 1 . Paroeme gaKani . 11 . Ootheca. modesta, 4.AcKeeTxops facialis. 8. Crossotus klu-^ii . 12. SpilocepKalus viridipennis . R.H .Porter, Publisher, London. . NAT . IN TRANSVAAL . 10 W.Rirktss del. MinternB. 1 Reduvius capitalis . 4 . Lycau.ges donovani . 8 . Reduvius sertus. 2 Zpizeuxis astKiops . 5 . Euclasta -warreru . 9 . Neurosymploca agria. 3 Reduvius pulvisculatus. 6 . Cxotlxaema. decora-ta. 10. Pirates canspurcatus . 7. Ophisma. pretoriae . R.H. Porter. PuUisriar, London.. NAT. IN TRANSVAAL Tals.III. W.Rxrkiss del. Miritern.Bros. Chromo. 1. Cimex figuratus.yar. 5. Veterna, pa,tu.la. 9 . Lygaeus deser-Lus. 2. HolcostetKus obsciiratus. S . Antestia. tr-Lnsvaalia. . lO.Lygaeus campestris. 3. HalyomorpKcL .cs^ita.tau. 7. Lygaeus planitiae . 11 . Nysius novitius . 4. Halyoraorpha. pretoriae . 8 . PlinacKLias falca-Uis . 12 . TransvaaJia. kigens . R.H.Porter.PublisKer, London.. . NAT . IN TRANSVAAL . imf * 9. * f 10. 5 '11. "W. Purkiss del . Miniern. Bros. Chron 1. .Xiphocera. distant!. 4,a,T3,c,ci,e, Sematocera .gerucharact . 8. Mesa diapherogamia. . Z.Xiphocera. picta . 5 . Chrotogonus Tneridionalis . 9. Discolia praestabilis . 3 . Petasia. spumaixs var. ater. 6. AmpulexnigroccErulea. . 10 Ancylopus fuscipe/inis . 4.Semaiocera. fiiligirupurxcta. 7 . Mutilla alBastjda- 11 .Discolia praecana . R. H . Porter. Publisher , London.. NAT . IN TRANSVAA1 , . Tab V W.Purloss d BLiilil. 1 . Homo no tuts coerulajTS . 2 . CypKononyx an.tenna.ta 3. Priocnemis hirsutus . 4. NepKila. trai\svcLalIc6L . R.H.Porter 5 Mygnimia, fa-llax. S. Homonotiis pedeskris 7. Mygrumia distaxiti . 8. MygrumiabelzebulK. SECOND EDITION. Now issuing, price 12s. 6d. each Part. COLOURED FIGURES OP THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. ISSUED BY LORD LILFORD, F.Z.S. &c., PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS* UNION. " Lord Lilford's work (now in progress) only requires to be known to have as many admirers as there are lovers of birds, and as many subscribers as can afford it." Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P. 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