HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



to be endemic in Australia. Be that as it may, these 

 abominable insects, which vary in size from the 

 tiniest little blue midge imaginable, celebrated for 

 the jDertinacity with which it insists upon getting into 

 the corners of your eyes, down to the enormous red, 

 bloated meat-flies, which oblige you to keep the 

 closest watch over your provisions, are almost as bad 

 as, if not worse than, the mosquitoes. It is next to 

 impossible to keep anything out of their reach ; I 

 have seen mutton spoiled by them in less than a 

 quarter an hour after the sheep had been killed, and 

 even hard salt junk does not escape their assaults, for 

 they are viviparous, and the maggots begin to feed 

 immediately after being laid, and grow with amazing 

 I'apidity. 



The intermediate kinds, or sizes, of flies are not 

 particularly different from those we are accustomed 

 to here at home ; they are just as inquisitive, 

 familiar, and just as annoying as their European 

 relatives, with whom I really think, they not infre- 

 quently intermarry ; for in the ship that carried me 

 to England from Melbourne, we had their delightful 

 company all the way, though where they came from 

 no one could make out. They were cunning too, 

 and not to be lured by any bribe of peppered sugar 

 to their destruction, but stuck to us to the last, though 

 they retired from observation during the cold 

 weather at the Horn, to re-appear some weeks before 

 we cast anchor in the Mersey. 



It is a curious fact that the farther you go into the 

 bush, the more numerous do the meat-flies become, 

 while they are comparatively scarce in Melbourne ; 

 but it is just the reverse with the house-flies, whose 

 name, in the town, is legion, whilst "up the 

 country " they are found in moderate numbers only, 

 and in some places not at all. 



Australia does not possess many butterflies. A 

 few grey, and brown, insignificant looking little 

 beings, were the only representatives of that class 

 of insects which I chanced to become acquainted 

 with in the bush ; but it has many varieties of 

 moths. 



Wonderful creatures are some of these, which, at 

 rest, so exactly resemble a withered leaf, that you 

 would never suppose them to be anything else, unless 

 you chanced to see them move, which they are careful 

 not to do while you are looking on. The only thing 

 that betrays them is the i)hosphorescent glare of their 

 eyes, which shine even in .the daytime, like little 

 carriage lamps, and are positively, tiny meteors in 

 the dark. Another s]:)ecies, a tremendous brown 

 fellow, is very nearly as large as a sparrow, and 

 comes against the window at night with a thump 

 that is almost alarming. 



I recollect once meeting with the pupa of one of 

 these giant moths, as it was working its way out of 

 the ground, preparatory to casting off its chrysalis 

 shell, and completing its metamorphosis. I mistook 

 it at first sight, fur tlie cone of some species of pine, 



and under that impression stooped to pick it up, 

 wondering where such a thing could have come 

 from, in that land of gum-trees and acacias ; it was 

 fully five inches in length, and thick in proportion. 

 The moment it felt my hand touching it, it wriggled 

 back into its hole, greatly to my astonishment ; how- 

 ever, I proceeded to dig it out with my knife, and 

 must have injured it in doing so, for it bled a great 

 deal after I got it out, a colourless, ichory kind of 

 blood, and never came to anything. I fell in with 

 plenty of the creatures afterwards, and was told by a 

 Cornish acquaintance that they were " Buskum 

 Sneevers," or some such name, which I had never 

 heard of before, and of which I doubt whether I 

 caught the true pronunciation. 



Australia possesses several kinds of native bees ; 

 and it is a curious fact that these laborious and useful 

 insects — I am now speaking of the European variety — 

 seldom succeed well in that country. They either fly 

 away into some unknown region, or if they remain 

 with their owners, refuse to work. The reason of this 

 strange conduct appears to be that the climate is so 

 fine, flowers so plentiful all the year round, and so 

 large a quantity of "manna" is secreted by several 

 kinds of eucalyptus trees, that they grow lazy. " Why 

 should we tcil when we can live comfortably without 

 fatiguing ourselves?" seems to be their mode of 

 reasoning ; whether or not, they act as if it were, and 

 lay up no provision for the winter that never comes. 

 Perhaps they are led astray by the bad example of the 

 native bees, which are thorough vagabonds, destitute 

 of sting, leading an erratic, merry life, flitting from 

 flower to flower, and from sweet to sweet, all the 

 day long, taking no thought for the morrow, like the 

 human aborigines of their native land ; though unlike 

 them, they have a fixed dwelling-place to which they 

 resort at night. 



From bees to wasps, the transition is natural and 

 easy ; some of the latter are tremendous fellows— one, 

 especially, a handsome blue insect, with great gauzy 

 wings, is quite two inches in lengih, and carries a 

 sting a quarter of an inch long, with which it is said 

 to attack small birds. 



I was once the spectator of a strange combat 

 between one of these monsters and a large tarantula, 

 which terminated tragically for the latter. The 

 tarantula was quietly walking down the smooth bole 

 of a large gum-tree, probably on the look out for 

 prey. I had had my eye on him for some time, and 

 was meditating an attack, for I had no desire to see 

 him about my premises, when I suddenly beheld him 

 drop, as if he had been shot, or galvanized ; I ex- 

 pected he would have fallen to the ground, but he 

 did not : he had thrown out a thread, and swung on 

 it, at about a foot below the spot where I had seen 

 him throw himself down. At the same instant some- 

 thing whizzed past me, and flew straight at the 

 tarantula, which received it in a close embrace that 

 lasted for a second or two ; then, releasing its hold, 



