[Footnote 1:  Phyllium siccifolium.]

It rests on its abdomen, the legs serving to drag it slowly along, and thus the flatness of its attitude serves still further to add to the appearance of a leaf.  One of the most marvellous incidents connected with its organisation was exhibited by one which I kept under a glass shade on my table; it laid a quantity of eggs, that, in colour and shape, were not to be discerned from seeds.  They were brown and pentangular, with a short stem, and slightly punctured at the intersections.

[Illustration:  EGGS OF THE LEAF INSECT.]

The “soothsayer,” on the other hand (Mantis superstitiosa Fab.[1]), little justifies by its propensities the appearance of gentleness, and the attitudes of sanctity, which have obtained for it its title of the praying mantis.  Its habits are carnivorous, and degenerate into cannibalism, as it preys on the weaker individuals of its own species.  Two which I enclosed in a box were both found dead a few hours after, literally severed limb from limb in their encounter.  The formation of the foreleg enables the tibia to be so closed on the sharp edge of the thigh as to amputate any slender substance grasped within it.

[Footnote 1:  M. aridifolia and M. extensicollis, as well as Empusa gongyloides, remarkable for the long leaf-like head, and dilatations on the posterior thighs, are common in the island.]

The Stick-insect—­The Phasmidoe or spectres, another class of orthoptera, present as close a resemblance to small branches or leafless twigs as their congeners do to green leaves.  The wing-covers, where they exist, instead of being expanded, are applied so closely to the body as to detract nothing from its rounded form, and hence the name which they have acquired of “walking-sticks.”  Like the Phyllium, the Phasma lives exclusively on vegetables, and some attain the length of several inches.

Of all the other tribes of the Orthoptera Ceylon possesses many representatives; in swarms of cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets.

NEUROPTERA. Dragon-flies.—­Of the Neuroptera, some of the dragon-flies are pre-eminently beautiful; one species, with rich brown-coloured spots upon its gauzy wings, is to be seen near every pool.[1] Another[2], which dances above the mountain streams in Oovah, and amongst the hills descending towards Kandy, gleams in the sun as if each of its green enamelled wings had been sliced from an emerald.[3]

[Footnote 1:  Libellula pulchella.]

[Footnote 2:  Euphoea splendens, Hagen.]

[Footnote 3:  Gymnacantha subinterrupta, Ramb. distinguished by its large size, is plentiful about the mountain streamlets.]