THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 27 



and Liolepisma. We camped by the Burnett, some 20 miles 

 out of Gayndah, and spent the evening fishing in a little back- 

 water. There are two kinds of turtle in the river, the long- 

 necked (Ghelodina longicollis) and the short-necked (Ghelymis 

 macquariensis), and sometimes one is surprised at pulling out a 

 turtle instead of a fish. Next day we made our way back into 

 Gayndah, passing by large patches of Grass Trees in full flower, 

 with swarms of the little black native bees hovering around them. 

 Just as we were passing through a mob of travelling cattle our 

 dogs started two Kangaroo Rats (Bettongia, sp.) There was a 

 general scattering as the little animals, with the dogs in full 

 chase, ran through the mob. After a short run one was caught, 

 which had in its pouch a single small young one not more than 

 i l yi inch long. 



I stayed a few days in Gayndah, hoping to make a collection 

 of earthworms, which up till then there had been very little 

 chance of collecting. The name of the township will be well 

 known to Australian entomologists, since it was here that Mr. 

 Masters made a very fine collection : he was fortunate enough to 

 have almost a year in the district, and thus secured forms at all 

 seasons. About a mile behind the township is a large stretch of 

 scrub, where I spent a considerable time, often accompanied by 

 one or other of my friends — Messrs. Illidge, Cole, and Connelly 

 — to whom I am indebted for help in the laborious task of 

 digging out worms from dry ground. My favourite place was a 

 large patch centering in a big Bottle Tree, Sterculia quadrifida (? ). 

 Here was an open space, lightly timbered with small trees of 

 Melia azedarach, the light green foliage of which formed a strong 

 contrast to the sombre foliage of the dense scrub all around. 

 Besides Eucalypts and Bottle Trees, the scrub was made up of 

 such trees and shrubs as Geijera muelleri and salicifolia, which 

 were covered with small yellowish flowers, Leptospermum lani- 

 gerum, Bursaria spinosa, Nephelium (sp.), Hovea longipes, 

 Solatium stelliyerum, &c. I am indebted to the Baron von 

 Mueller for his kindness in giving me the names of plants, to Mr. 

 C. French for names of Coleoptera, to Mr. A. H. S. Lucas for 

 names of Amphibia and Lizards. From the open space alleys lead 

 away into the recesses of the scrub, and along these numbers 

 of the beautiful Danais erippus, Papilio erectheus, and Acrasea 

 (sp.) kept flying to and fro. Of birds, probably because I 

 was not specially on the look-out for them, I saw very few. 



The two most numerous forms of life were ants and millipedes. 

 The moment you put anything which could serve as food for 

 them on the ground, the former appeared as if by magic. 

 Several times they spoilt butterflies just while I put them down 

 on the ground and made a paper bag for them. They always bit 

 off first the little knob at the end of the antenna. White ants 



