THE VICTUUIAN NATURALIST. 93 



monly swift, so much so, indeed, that they succeeded in getting 

 down their holes, from which we successfully dug them out. 

 Tiiey have very powerful mandibles, and can give the skin a tight 

 squeeze, but one not strong enough to penetrate through it — in- 

 deed, so far as we know, there is no beetle in Victoria able to do this. 

 Under logs we also took some fine specimens of Notonomus, of 

 Sarticus discopunctata, and of Adcliums, and of rarities one 

 specimen each of EiUoma tiiictillata and Gnatlioxys humeralis. 

 In the decaying portions of some logs on moist ground we secured 

 several specimens of the small Lucanus beetle, Ceratognathiis 

 niger, both male and female, the former being easily distinguish- 

 able by its large mandibles. Here in the Grampians both 

 Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera were also exceedingly scarce, and 

 we saw very few, indeed, of either family. Snakes also were 

 scarce, the only two being a fine black one, Pseudechys porjjhyr- 

 hiacus, and a very small one of the brown species, Hoplocephalus 

 superba. With respect to snakes, at our last meeting Mr. Le 

 Souef mentioned that in the Mallee the Death Adder was more 

 numerous than is generally supposed, as, owing to its sluggishness, 

 it was often passed over. Possibly Mr. Le Souef is right, but so 

 far as our party was concerned, we looked very carefully, indeed, 

 for snakes, and not one of any kind did we see in the Mallee. 

 That snakes are there admits of no doubt, but the residents we 

 spoke to on the subject all said they had never seen or heard of 

 any large number. 



The Grampians are always good for plants, and of these, there- 

 fore, we have a much better record. We saw Melaleuca squamoia, 

 with its beautiful pink flowers, but one of the prettiest sights was 

 the liliaceous plant Calectasia cyanea, with its lovely bright 

 steely-blue flowers. Various Prostantheras were in flower, viz., 

 F. hirtitla, debilis, and rotiindi folia, this last showing well with its 

 purple flowers. The beautiful shrub, Bauera sessilijiora, confined 

 almost exclusively to the Grampians, was also in fine flower. 

 Amongst the Asters, A. asterolrichus and A. huegelii showed out 

 well with their blue flowers, as did also Pultenea rosea, a rare 

 leguminous plant, seen in Middleton's Gap, and only found on the 

 highest peaks of the Grampians. Helichrysum bla'tidowskianuin 

 was only just coming into flower, and at this we were much dis- 

 appointed, as we were anxious to secure good bunches of these for 

 decorative purposes, for which they are well adapted. On the flat, 

 just before the entrance to Hall's Gap, thousands of these pretty 

 everlastings were growing, and very nice their flower buds looked, 

 the predominant white being well set off by the addition of the flesh 

 tint. On the hills were a large number of the Mountain Pine, 

 Callilris cupressijormis, and we carefully searched these for 

 beetles and larvae. Of beetles we secured only one specimen, 

 and that was a small dead longicorn of a genus unknown to us. 



