12 January. 



Oil August 4th we landed at Freinautle and went on by train to 

 Perth. Here we were met by the disquieting news of the outbreak of 

 war, the sense of which calamity was to haunt us during the rest of 

 our journey. Embarking again at Fremantle, we steamed across the 

 great Australian Bight, receiving on Aug. 6th, by wireless, orders to 

 cover our lights. Neither at Adelaide (Aug. 8th-12th), nor Melbourne 

 (Aug. 13th-19tli;, were insects much in evidence; but at Maiysville, 

 some 50 miles N.E. of Melbourne, a man came over on horseback to tell 

 us that he knew of a lyre-bird's nest. A few of us started off to see it ; 

 we were led in single tile through the bush. Having been told that the 

 bird was not sitting, we naturally went up close to the ne^t, which was 

 a large, round, covered-in structure, two or three feet from the ground. 

 A lady of our party stooped to look in ; there was a rush and a 

 scramble ; out flopped the lyre-bird ; struggling through the scrub, it 

 came to a small torrent, across which it flew. Alighting on the other 

 side it ran swiftly up a fallen tree trunk on the sloping bank, and 

 finally disappeared in the bush. The nest contained a single egg: 

 large, smoky-brown, with a tinge of green. It was rapidly examined 

 and carefully replaced. 



At Sydney (Aug. 20th-26th) a species oiEufloea, prbijably Chancqm 

 (Euploea) corinna McLeay, was to be seen occasionally in the 

 University precincts. These were the first butterflies I had met with 

 in Australia. 



At Brisbane (Aug. 27th-Sept. 3rd) matters entomological showed 

 a decided improvement. Many butterflies, including Papilio saiyedon 

 Linn, and Precis velleda Fabr., were to be seen in the town itself ; 

 while in the outskirts Acraea andromache Fabr. was abundant and 

 Delias nigrina Fabr. common. The former of these two species had 

 the slow, deliberate flight characteristic of the genus, and was often 

 observed to settle on the ground ; the latter, also with a slow flight, 

 kept mostly out of reach, haunting the tops of trees and passing from 

 one to another with a sailing motion that displayed the dark ground- 

 colour and brilliant red band of the under surface. 



Passing up inside the Great Barrier Reef, and within sight of 

 some delightful-looking islands, the S.S. Montoro reached Townsville 

 on September 6th. Here I spent most of the day in the scrub among 

 the hills at the back of the beach. Butterflies were fairly numerous, 

 but, owing to the rough nature of the ground, by no means easy to 

 catch. Tirumala hamata McLeay was abundant in places, flying round 

 trees and occasionally settling on twigs. In one male I detected a 



