142 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The cave proved so convenient that we set up the tent inside, 

 and so tired were we that we slept soundly during the night in 

 spite of the Penguins. 



The morning of Wednesday, the 28th, broke clear and fine. 

 From the top of the island we keep a good look-out for the 

 cutter, but the day passed without a sign of her. A Brown Quail 

 (Synolcus australls) was picked up, which must have come a 

 long distance, for it was unable to fly. The butterfly^ Pyrantels 

 Itea flitted about, and was the only kind seen. Large numbers 

 of a dark hairy caterpiller were 

 found. One was placed in a 

 tinful of guano, and was not 

 opened till the 6th January of 

 this year. It had turned into a 

 chrysalis, and later on the same 

 day the perfect insect emerged 

 and proved to be a dark form of 

 the moth Spllosoma glatygni. 



Two lizards were met with on the island, viz., Lloleplsma 

 pretlosum and L. trllineatum, both common to Victoria and 

 Tasmania. The Planarian Geoplana Sugdeni was also noted. 



At dusk it was our wont to watch the Penguins come in from 

 the sea. There is a heavy surf in the cove, and we are anxious 

 to see how they land. They appear first some distance out, 

 swimming slowly about in shoals of about fifty; then, waiting their 

 opportunity between the breakers, they would all start for the 

 shore at a great rate, diving and reappearing in rapid succession, 

 then splashing through the kelp they would struggle on to the 

 rocks, sometimes using their rudimentary wings to gain a holding. 

 Several such companies will assemble on one large flat rock, until 

 there are 400 or 500 birds. Then one will make a start along 

 one of the various well-defined tracks, and the rest follow in 

 single file. Up to the present the only sound has been the 

 splashing as they land ; but when the birds rejoin their mates it 

 is made evident that they have not come on shore to sleep, still 

 less let others sleep, for a discordant row begins, which lasts the 

 whole night long. In the cave in which we had taken up our 

 abode they were in hundreds, walking about and paying visits, 

 and keeping up the following performance : — First one would 

 utter a high shrill note, then followed a long-drawn squawking 

 chorus, the process being repeated ad Infinitum, and, let us add, 

 ad nauseam. 



On Thursday, the 29th November, we paid a visit to a large 

 rookery of Silver Gulls (Larus Jamiesoni) on the west side of 

 the island. The nests were situated between the tussocks 

 springing from the clefts in a rocky headland, and contained two 

 to three eggs or young. The birds were much less wary than 



