THE BUSH HUT 31 



noise, pleasant for a time, afterwards monotonous and 

 hard to tolerate. 



Nominally, we took all Nature for our province, 

 but birds received the largest share of attention. We 

 did not neglect insect life, though, in those days, Henri 

 Fabre's wonderful books were unknown to us; nor 

 had we read "The Life of the Bee." In butterfly time 

 many gay insects danced in the sunlight, floated over 

 the bracken and sword-grass, and dallied with flowers 

 in the Bush and our garden. Most abundant was the 

 Common Brown [Heteronympha merope], which re- 

 velled in sunshine, and rested in shade. At the end 

 of November hundreds of these insects were on the 

 wing; it seemed as if Titania had sent into the Valley 

 an army of golden-mailed warriors to conquer. The 

 Large Wood Brown [Epinephile abeona], with 

 primaries of smoky-brown, blotched with orange, and 

 each bearing two purple spots, black margin and 

 white centre, was rather rare, but some were seen 

 floating about sword-grass (caterpillars' food plant), 

 close to the ground. Several other "Browns" were 

 fairly numerous, also the Australian Admiral 

 [Pyrameis itea~\, a lovely insect. Chrysalids of the 

 Admiral were equally beautiful, some being violet- 

 gray, flecked with black, others of a golden hue. Tiny 

 "Blues" flitted over the grass, like animated bits of 

 the Summer sky. We were never lucky enough to 

 see the Moonlight Blue [Miletus delicia], perhaps the 

 rarest and most beautiful of Victorian butterflies. 



Dragon-flies, with delicate gauzy wings and bril- 

 liantly coloured bodies, threaded the air; beetles 

 climbed over grass stems, hid under loose bark on gum 

 trees, or circled on the surface of the creek. On hot 

 summer days the shrilling of cicadas was intolerable. 

 Millions of these goggle-eyed insects inhabited the 

 Eucalypts, whose boles and branches were studded 

 with pupal shells. On gum leaves were seen the 



