80 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST 



that lay in wait to capture the salmon as they entered his " stake 

 nets." So, taking his gun one morning, lie determined to put an 

 end to the career of this aquatic |)ii'ate. For this purpose he seated 

 himself on a rock, the sea coming close up to his feet, and the spot 

 being within easy shot of liis nets. He had not long to wait 

 before the seal made its appearance, and like lightning dived again 

 on seeing the enemy armed for murder. At intervals of a good 

 many minutes, the seal re-appeared, each time making towards the 

 nets to try and get a fish ; and each time it did so, up went the 

 gun, and down ducked the seal, before it was well up to the man's 

 shoulder. This having been repeated often, and lasting until both 

 watcher and seal were tired, the seal at last appeared in the water, 

 close to the fisherman's feet, and, raising itself erect out of the 

 water, it raised its arms close up to his face, holding therein a balw 

 seal ; at the same time casting its beseeching, searching, and liquid 

 eyes full on his. 



The fislierman said : " I sat for some moments spellbound, after 

 which I shouldered my gun and went straight off home, being 

 perfectly powerless to harm it, never again returning to molest that 

 seal and its infant offspring." 



CORKESPONDENCE. 



Entomology. — I agree with the idea of your correspondent 

 " Correa," in your last number, and think the following may be 

 interesting to some of your readers, as showing the mildness of the 

 present winter. On the evening of the 11th Augu=:t, I was rather 

 surprised at an apparently large insect flying to the gaslight in my 

 room, from the open air. On capture, it proved to be a beetle ot 

 the family Elateridee, Is not this an unusual occurrence for this 

 time of year ? ^ 'J 



"ELATER." 



NOTE. 



A CORRESPONDENT draws our attention to the conspicuously small 

 competition in exhibits of Australian birds at the late Intercolonial 

 Exhibition, held under the auspices of the Victorian Poultry and 

 Dog Society. He points out that there was an entire absence of 

 Pennant's and Barraband's beautiful Parrakeets, Grass Parrakeets, 

 and Finches, aU of which are excellent and showy cage bn-ds, thriving 

 well in confinement. We have not space to insert the Prize List 

 for Birds, but are glad to notice that Mr. E, Dombrain (F.IST.C), 

 obtained the special prize for the best talking magpie in the Show. 

 We quite agree with our correspondent that the special opportuni- 

 ties we possess in Australia for training talking birds demand 

 special successes. We may add, too, that we possess special facili- 

 ties for making scientific observations on the psychology of our 

 parrots, which ought to elicit facts of high scientific importance. 



