154 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



beetles, and almost the only ones we saw were two or three 

 species of Thynnus, fairly numerous, and an occasional speci- 

 men of a small species of Pompilus. Folistes Tasmanicus, as well 

 as its nests, which hitherto was very common on the rocky slopes, 

 has, with many other things, apparently taken its departure ; at 

 all events, our search for it was vain. Neuroptera were also 

 scarce, and we did not see a single specimen of the lovely blue 

 species which on all previous visits we have seen in numbers 

 hovering over the water, or resting close to its edge. Lepidoptera 

 may be summed up in one name, Heteronympha merope ; and 

 even this almost everywhere common butterfly, and usually to be 

 seen here in hundreds, was far from plentiful. 



Our day's collecting being ended, and having started on our 

 return, we ask ourselves why it is that this spot, where we have 

 seen the shrubs literally swarming with innumerable varieties of 

 insects, and which is very nearly in the same state it was over 20 

 years ago, possessing all the same shrubs and big trees, should of 

 late years have proved such a poor collecting ground. May it be 

 that the seasons of our recent visits have been exceptional, or that 

 good seasons only come in cycles, and that we have been singu- 

 larly unfortunate in missing these. But with all our ill-success we 

 shall still retain our implicit faith in the Plenty, from the site of the 

 old mill down to Greensborough, as one of the ideal spots for an 

 entomologist, besides affording numerous *' pretty bits " to the 

 lover of the picturesque. Greensborough itself is delightfully 

 situated in the valley of the Plenty, surrounded by orchards on all 

 sides, from whence a pleasant walk of about five miles will take 

 the excursionist back to Heidelberg. — D. Best. 



EXCURSION TO BEAUMARIS. 



Some six or eight members of the club visited Beaumaris on 

 Saturday, nth March, and a pleasant afternoon was spent in 

 examining the geology as displayed in the cliff sections. The 

 beds consist of clayey sands, stained red with oxide of iron. Near 

 the surface the acids produced by decomposing organic matter, 

 vegetable for the most part, have dissolved the iron out of the 

 beds and have left the sands fairly white. A little deeper and 

 this dissolved iron has been precipitated and we find sheets and 

 bands of ironstone, or strange concretionary forms dimly shadow- 

 ing forth objects of all kinds — frogs, umbrella handles, human 

 figures, fish, teapots, tree stems, jawbones ; in fact, you can get 

 anything you want. They are not fossils, be it remembered. We 

 call them concretions ; but it does not follow that, having named 

 them, we are any nearer knowing how they are formed, or why 

 they assume such strange shapes. To many people they are the 

 most interesting objects on the beach. In former times fossils 



