RANDOM NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND LEPIDOPTERA. 267 



and of course I could not expect to do very much in this time. 

 Argyrophenga antipodwm were flying in large numbers, and there 

 were a greater proportion of females than there were at White- 

 cliffs on the 31st of last month ; and Ckrysophanus salustius and 

 C. boldenarum were plentiful. I also had the pleasure of taking 

 to-day, for the first time, Lycana oxleyi, a very delicate and 

 distinct species ; and a very pretty Euclidia was disporting itself 

 in a rough stony place on the hill-side, where it was difficult to 

 catch. By the time I had pinned and boxed a sufficient number 

 of these species, with the addition of a few small Geornetrse, it 

 was time to return to the farm where I had left my trap, and 

 drive back to the station, where I arrived just as the last train 

 was starting, and reached Lyttelton again at nine o'clock. The 

 railway carriages near Springfield were full of a small Pyrale 

 (Scoparia diptheralis), which were disturbed as the train passed, 

 and came flying in through the open windows. 



On February 17th we arrived at the Bluff, the port of Inver- 

 cargill, almost the southernmost point of the middle island ; and 

 the next morning I left by the first train for three days' fishing 

 to a place called Waipahi, a small township intermediate between 

 Invercargill and Dunedin. The country through which we passed 

 was mostly flat, though in some places hilly or undulating, with 

 a lofty range of mountains to the westward. As we got further 

 away from Invercargill it became wilder and wilder in appear- 

 ance, until at last for miles on each side of the line there was 

 nothing but unbroken ground overgrown with the usual tussock 

 grass. In some places where it was low and marshy, and by the 

 margins of ail the creeks, as they call small streams in this 

 country, there was plenty of native flax, which grows in large 

 clumps, the broad sharp-pointed leaves attaining a height of six 

 or seven feet, while the flowering stems are a foot or two higher ; 

 at a distance they look something like aloes. Waipahi is situated 

 upon a river of that name, and is fifty-six miles from Inver- 

 cargill ; we took three hours and twenty minutes on the journey, 

 so the speed was not dangerously rapid. The three days I was 

 there were almost entirely devoted to trout fishing, and nearly 

 all the fish were caught with a small Cicada placed and thrown 

 upon an artificial fly. These Cicadse were foand in the tufts of 

 tussock grass ; and when the sun is bright and warm they crawl 

 up the stems and chirrup in a most lively fashion, and are then 



