102 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



Chapter VIIL June, 

 I. 



TN June the year has not yet touched its deadest stage, 

 *- because, though the sun reaches its furthest north 

 point towards the end of the month, the mean temperature 

 is not so low as that of July, and the ground has not 

 become so cold and Avet as it is in August. And although 

 the naturalist who has been at all busy during the past 

 season is more likely to find congenial occupation in the 

 study of his collections by the fireside and by lamplight 

 than in the field or roadside, yet there is much to be seen 

 outside if one only knows where to look for it. 



Nature is not dead, but only in part asleep, and in the 

 leafless branches and under the ground there is the con- 

 stant stirring of the life which is preparing to break 

 forth in fresh vigour with the advent of spring. The 

 Thrushes also sing on the tree tops, the native birds which 

 come in towards cultivations and human habitations at the 

 beginning of winter korimakos, torn-tits, wax-eyes, and 

 fantails are still to be seen and heard about the bush and 

 gardens, and the skylarks begin to soar heavenwards all 

 in anticipation of the nesting season which is soon to begin. 



Butterflies are occasionally to be met with on bright 

 days and in sunny nooks, and the first example which I 

 met with of the pretty Vanessa itea was sent me from 

 Saddle Hill one clear frosty June. Occasionally humble 

 bees rashly venture out in search of food ; of course these 

 are only large queens, founders of the next season's 

 colonies, and they have probably made their nests on 

 sunny banks facing the north. But under bark and dead 

 leaves, among the decayed and decaying rubbish of the 

 bush, and buried in the ground, are numberless forms of 

 insect life, much of it in the chrysalis stage preparing for 

 the transformation which is to be consummated later. It 

 is a time of transition. 



Most plants have entered on their period of apparent 



