52 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



into waterholes when they are only a few feet deep, and, keeping 

 the cattle a short time in the water, they stir up the mud, and 

 cause the fish to come to the surface, when the men can catch as 

 many as they want. I have forced eels to come to the surface in 

 the same way by making a hole muddy, and it can be seen that 

 the places eels would prefer for their burrows would be where the 

 water was salty, so that it would not carry mud in suspension, or 

 else in sandy soil. 



The Wurdieboluc Swamp had been dry for some time, but 

 after the first rains thousands of young eels appeared in the 

 swamp. In another swamp close by eels grow to a large size, and 

 several over seven pounds in weight have been taken in the 

 overflow. 



DESCRIPTIONS AND NOTES OF AUSTRALIAN 

 HESPERID^, CHIEFLY VICTORIAN. 



By G. a. Waterhouse, B.Sc, B.E., F.E.S. 



(Communicated by G. Lyell.) 



(Read hefora the Field Naturalists^ Club of Victoria, I3th Jidij, 1903.) 



In offering this paper to the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria I 

 have to thank Mr. G. Lyell for the loan of the Victorian species 

 under consideration. 



From the following remarks two conclusions will, I think, be 

 obvious. Firstly, that in the Hesperidae the spots of the fore- 

 wing are far from being numerically constant. Secondly, that no 

 author should sink a species as a synonym without indicating his 

 reason for so doing, or, at least, quoting the description of the 

 species sunk. In further support of the first conclusion I may 

 say that I have examined over one hundred male specimens of 

 Telesto donnysa, Hew., in which I found a range of {xoiYifour to 

 nine spots on the fore-wing, while in males of Mesodina halyzia, 

 Hew., I have found specimens with one and sometimes even two 

 sub-apical spots. 



Telesto monticol^, Ollifif. — Ilesjyerilla monticolce, Oil., Proc. 

 Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1889, p. 624; T. monticolce, Meyr. and 

 Lower, Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., 1902, p. 63. 



Male, 11-12 mm. Head, thorax, abdomen, and palpi above 

 dark brown, below yellowish. Antennae above very dark brown, 

 below yellow. Fore-wing with costa straight ; outer margin 

 convex ; apex acute ; inner margin straight. Hind-wing rounded. 



Upper side. — Fore-wing dark brown, basal area suftused with 

 yellowish, a small orange spot at end of cell, three imperfectly 

 divided sub-apical yellow spots, differing in size in all three 

 specimens ; discal stigma short, whitish surrounded by black. 



