Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0280
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[Page 280]
276
Thirsty Sound
trees were like those in the last bay both in leaf & producing a very small proportion of Gum, on the branches of them & other trees were large ants nests made of Clay as big as a bushel something like to those describd in Sr Hans Sloanes Hist of Jamaica Voll II: p.221. t. 258. but not so smooth the ants also were small & had whitish abdomens: in another species of tree Xanthoxiloides mite a small sorties of black ants had bord all the twigs & livd in quantities in the hollow part where the pith should be the tree nevertheless flourishing & bearing leaves & flowers upon those very branches as freely & well as upon others that were sound. Insects in general were plentifull Butterflies especialy of one sort of these much like P. Similis Linn. The air was for the space of 3 or 4 acres crowded with them to a wonderfull degree the eye could not be turnd in any direction without seeing milions & yet every branch & twig was almost coverd with those that sat still of these we took as many as we chose