98 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



-a most comfortable method of getting over the cold 

 season. In New Zealand we have very few hybernating 

 animals. The bats which, alas, are now rare near the 

 haunts of men disappear for several months, to come 

 out again when the warmth of spring returns. They 

 mostly frequent caves or overhanging shelters *in the bush, 

 and are not uncommon too along the rocky seashores. 

 Lizards also become torpid, and hide away till warmer 

 days prevail, lying hidden under bark or dead timber, or 

 in deep ferny hollows under boulders on the hillsides. 

 Some insects remain late on the wing, the drone flies 

 (Eristalis) being common flower visitants during May, 

 while brilliant days tempt out some Red Admiral butter- 

 flies, which have probably crept into a cranny or nook 

 not too far from the range of the sun's rays. Occasional 

 humble bees also may be met with. By this time of 

 the year, however, only mature queens survive, each 

 being destined to found a new colony during the succeed- 

 ing season. 



But while the land thus becomes comparatively barren 

 of life at the beginning of winter, the broad expanse of sea 

 undergoes no such marked change, and the naturalist can 

 find as much to interest him there in the month of May as 

 in the height of summer. No doubt there are seasonal 

 changes in the sea, but they are not so well marked as on 

 the land, and far less is known about them. But we do 

 know in a general way that vast migrations of living 

 organisms take place ; we can tell this by the abundance of 

 certain species at certain periods. The industrious army 

 of fishers old and young which lines the wharves knows 

 something of this fact. Thus among fishes the barracouta 

 is at times extremely common in the seas, and at other 

 times it has absolutely disappeared. A species of Octopus 

 will appear in myriads in the harbour, and then for ten 

 months of the year none are to be met with. One day 

 a message comes to me that the harbour is full of yoimg 

 lobsters, and I go down to find an invasion of a peculiar 

 red shrimp-like animal (technically known as Munida), 

 which creeps on the rocks and stones of the beaches at low 



