IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 211 



with short thick spines, and similar, but smaller spines, on the sides 

 of the shield ; the spines and claws were white ; the legs having 

 been pulled off by the blacks, to prevent their escape during the 

 time they were employed in catching others, I could not ascertain 

 their colour. They are found under the large stones in the rivers, 

 and are taken by the hand when the rivers are low. The natives 

 usually seek for them in the evening, or at night, by torch-light, 

 and say it is difficult to get them during the day-light. In March, 

 the season commences at Sydney, for cray-fish, which are caught in 

 large quantities, and of enormous size, about the sea-coast, and are 

 hawked about the streets at a cheap rate ; therefore, in this colony> 

 cray-fish abound in the sea, and lobsters in the river. — Vol. I. 

 p. 214. 



The following notice of the Cicada is interesting : — 



As the summer season was now fully set in, the previous silence 

 of the woods was broken by the incipient, shrill, chirping noises, 

 which resounded over them, occasioned by the male Tettigonice, or 

 tree-hoppers, emerging from the larva to the winged state ; the cases 

 [which] the fly had left being seen on almost every tree or post. 

 This genus is remarkable for the instrument with which it cuts 

 grooves in the wood for the purpose of depositing its eggs. The 

 musical organs, or drums, are only found in the males, and are 

 equally interesting. The best published account respecting them is 

 that by Reaumur. The aborigines call these insects G 'along galang, 

 and formerly used them as food, first stripping off their wings. They 

 ate them in the raw state ; that is, as the native blacks told me, "When 

 no white feller here, no black feller get bread or yam." My notice 

 was particularly directed by the natives to the drums in the male 

 insects, as the means by which they produced their thrilling sounds : 

 at the same time adding, in their peculiar English, " Old woman 

 Galang galang no got, no make a noise ;" implying that the females 

 do not possess these musical instruments. There are several species 

 of this genus known in Australia. During rain, these insects are 

 silent, but recommence their clamour on the appearance of fine 

 weather. — Vol. I. p. 237. 



We now proceed to the account of the Bugong moths, 

 a remarkable example of the gregarious propensity of insects. 

 Most of our readers will recollect Reaumur's history of count- 

 less myriads of Ephemerae, and various instances of similar 

 multitudes of locusts and other insects. Captain Cook tells 

 us, that at Thirsty Sound, on the coast of New South Wales, 



