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had been experienced. The wind with us on board the 



' Kaikoura ' was moderate from N.N.W. Mr. East has taken 

 a good deal of trouble to secure these specimens for me, and 

 in getting a box made." 



I duly received the insects from Mr. East when he arrived 

 here in February in the ' Kaikoura,' on her return voyage, 

 and they are the specimens of Lepidoptera which I send you. 

 On Sir John Hall's return to New Zealand I asked him if he 

 could give me the lat. and long, in which the occurrence 

 took place, and, after consulting his diary, he wrote me as 

 follows : — " I find that it was about S. lat. 30 and W. long. 

 46 that we fell in with the swarms of moths, of which I sent 

 you specimens. My diary says of the weather that we had 

 not very strong wind at the time, but a strong head-sea, and 

 a barometer almost low enough for a hurricane. When we 

 reached Kio Janeiro we did not find that any exceptionally 

 strong wind had been blowing there, but no doubt it had 

 urther south." It seems to me that this occurrence is of 

 more than ordinary interest owing to the many families, 

 genera, and species which must have been represented in the 

 swarm, for, besides those specimens preserved, I understand 

 from Sir John there were numerous kinds, large and small. 

 Will you kindly get them named, and, if there are any of 

 them new to science, get them described. I should like to 

 have them back again for our Museum, but I suppose if any 

 of them are new, the describer will require to keep such for 

 the type. 



As to the hymenopterous insect, it was taken about two 

 months ago by a Mr. Hamilton at Kiccarton, four miles from 

 here, in one of his bee-hives. He had noticed that the hive 

 seemed almost deserted, and on looking into it observed a 

 small dome of thin wax covering something on the floor of 

 the hive ; and, on detaching the dome, he found within it 

 this insect. Its legs, which have since got broken off, and 

 are enclosed in a piece of paper, were then attached to the 

 body, but when handed to me it had no wings, and Mr. 

 Hamilton did not notice any when he found it. He said, in 

 reply to my question, that the bee entrance to the hive was 

 small, but sufficient to admit such an insect as this. My 



