THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 171 



the ventral surface near anal end, one-half of each being yellow, 

 or sometimes red, and the other half velvety black. These are 

 greatly distended when the caterpillar is alarmed. The legs, 

 pro-legs, and the little-used hind claspers are dark red. 



The pupse are dark brown or black in colour, generally from 

 i}( to ij^ inches in length, and are contained in large, fiat, 

 oval cocoons, made of sticks, leaves, and other rubbish fastened 

 together with coarse web. They are generally placed close to 

 the surface, and sometimes even the chrysalis inside is visible 

 from above. 



To-night I have placed on exhibition water-colour drawings by 

 my brother (Mr. J. C. Goudie), of the larva, pupa, and imago of 

 this species, to enable members to follow the description more 

 closely. 



Note. — Since writing above, the drought has affected this and 

 many other species to a wonderful extent. Some of these which 

 were quite common before are now apparently extinct in this 

 district. — D.G. 



Blackbirds Useful in Gardens.— Members of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club may be interested in hearing that my gardener 

 has watched a pair of English Blackbirds, Turdus nier^da, last 

 week clear the vines in the gardens of my neighbours as well as 

 my own of the Agarista caterpillars, carrying two or three at a 

 time in their beaks to their young in a nest in a tree close by. 

 Lately I have observed six Blackbirds every evening in my 

 garden flying to these vines, and have examined the vines, and 

 find them free from caterpillars, whilst in previous years the vines 

 have been denuded of their leaves. The grapes (unripe) are un- 

 touched. The Bronze Cuckoo is the only other bird I have ever 

 seen eat this caterpillar. The Agarista caterpillars appear in 

 early spring and destroy the vine blossoms, and throughout the 

 summer, so that poisons are useless unless applied frequently. 

 If any bird will keep the vines clear it would be a boon to the 

 vigneron. — F. C. Christy, South Yarra. 



" Fat-hen." — It would seem, from notes received from several 

 correspondents, that this name is applied to various species of the 

 genus Chenopodium, " Goose-foot," in different parts of Australia. 

 Bentham and Mueller give it as the vernacular name of C. 

 miriconnmi, Lindley, indigenous in all the States except Tasmania. 



" MoNOMEETH Parbine." — This name does not seem to be in 

 recent use, but from the rest of the paragraph quoted (Vict. Nat., 

 xix., p. 134), the description seems to agree best with Callistemon 

 salignus, Candolle, which, doubtless, was plentiful along the 

 lower Yarra at the time mentioned. 



