THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 25 



here destroys most of the oranges by making holes in them and 

 devouring their contents. It often does the same to the grena- 

 dillas. Large dark brown coloured moths were occasionally 

 disturbed in the scrub, but they could hardly be detected unless 

 they flew ; the markings of many were very beautiful. We saw 

 very few scorpions, and those were not large. Land shells were 

 plentiful in places. The natives use the larger ones as an article 

 of food, and those found in the scrub are different to those found 

 in the open country. I was fortunate in getting a beautiful new 

 species, which has been described by Mr. Hedley, of the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, Sydney, and named Papuina cerea. I only 

 succeeded in getting the one specimen, and that I found in the 

 scrub. Of the freshwater shells found one was new to Australia, 

 Neritina variegata. Small crayfish were to be found in all the 

 freshwater creeks, the Telplmsa brassa and Scopimera globosa 

 being the most numerous. Frogs were found in all sorts of places, 

 dry and wet ; in the dry, hot, open country we often came across 

 specimens of the Hyla Peronii. One large frog had its habita- 

 tion in a long hollow palm, used as a portion of the fence near 

 the house, and its croak was often heard, especially during showery 

 weather. Other varieties were found in rocky creeks in the scrub. 

 Several kinds of Cicada? were heard, both large and small, but I 

 was unable to secure specimens. I noticed in one part of the 

 scrub that one species of these insects seemed all to utter their 

 shrill sound at the same time, and then pause and again utter it, 

 the many hundreds of them seeming to act in concert. Both the 

 curious stick insects and leaf insects were occasionally noticed, 

 but more often escaped detection from their similarity to their 

 surroundings. 



Spiders were very numerous. A large variety frequently made 

 its web right across the openings in the scrub over the creeks, 

 often ten feet or more in breadth, and on one occasion I saw a 

 large leaf, which was falling to the ground, get entangled in one 

 of the webs. It took the spider a quarter of an hour to dis- 

 entangle it. I noticed a small cobweb which had a perfect cross 

 just above the centre of the web — it was made of cobwebs, thickly 

 woven together. White Ants (Termites) were very numerous; 

 and two different kinds of mounds were plentiful in this neigh- 

 bourhood. One was of a large, bulky structure, often reach- 

 ing the height of eight feet, and found in the open country 

 only, and the other was a small one, of a conical shape, 

 always built in the scrub on the coast ranges, and not exceed- 

 ing two and a half feet in height. It is in this structure that 

 the White-tailed Kingfisher builds its nest. In the larger kinds 

 of mounds, first mentioned, rats, lizards, &c, &c, often made 

 their homes. Some distance away from here, in the open country, 

 the curious mounds of the Termites called the Meridian White 



