made by Dr. Shaw in relation to M. viatoria, but they are equally applicable to the whole tribe:—"In its real disposition it is very far from sanctity, preying with great rapacity on all the smaller insects which fall in its way, and for which it lies in wait with anxious assiduity, in the posture before mentioned, seizing them with a sudden spring when within its reach, and devouring them. It is also of a very pugnacious nature, and when kept with others of its own species in a state of captivity, will attack its neighbours with the utmost violence, till one or other is destroyed in the contest. Roësel, who kept some of these insects, observes, that in their mutual conflicts their manœuvres very much resemble those of hussars fighting with sabres; and sometimes one cleaves the other through at a single stroke, or severs the head from the body. During these engagements, the wings are generally expanded, and when the battle is over the conqueror devours his antagonist."
This pugnacious disposition is so strong in many of the species, that in China and other eastern countries, the inhabitants amuse themselves by making them fight like game-cocks. They are kept in small bamboo cages, and fed on soft skinned insects; and a set-to between these puny adversaries is said to be regarded with as much interest as a regular main at Fives-court.
The mantidæ are confined to the tropical and temperate regions of the globe. The former possesses by far the greater proportion of them, and it is only in the southern parts of the latter that they seem to
