THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



visible or to give the appearance of ciliary action, which has 

 caused the misinterpretation of these forms. 



Mr. Anderson reports as follows on the Lepidoptera : — " To 

 the lepidopterist Carrum, at the first glance, appeared but a poor 

 collecting ground. The sheep had removed every vestige of grass 

 and the sun had thoroughly baked the ground. That these 

 circumstances were not fatal to all insect life was proved by the 

 large numbers of grasshoppers disturbed at every footstep, while 

 the Great Yellow-winged Locusts {(JEclipoda musica, Fab.) would 

 every now and then start up in alarm, and, having reached a 

 distance, relax their hurried flight, and with their peculiar click ! 

 clack ! click ! drop into fancied security and silence. Around the 

 ponds that afforded occupation to the major portion of the 

 members present, the vegetation was still verdant, and here the 

 little blues were flying in fair numbers, but thouoh carefully 

 scanned in hope of the rare coast species nothing but Lycoena 

 lahradiis was observed. The first moth captured proved to 

 be Xanthorhoe percrassata, a species by no means common 

 everywhere, and subsequently three more specimens were 

 obtained, together with the following species, mostly single 

 specimens : — Lucia lucanus, Phrissogonus lacticostalis, Asthena 

 pulchraria, Hydrioniena subochraria, Euchceca rubropu7ictaria, 

 Dichromodes stilbiata, Stericta thyridalis, Acidalia rubraria, A. 

 recessata." — J. Shephard, 



CANNIBALS AND CANNIBALISM. 

 By Thos. Steel, F.C.S. 

 (Bead be/ore Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Ajiril 10, 1893.^ 

 To most people there is a certain fascination of feeling about 

 such a subject as forms the title of my paper. However repug- 

 nant it may be to our minds, we cannot help feeling interested in 

 a custom which we know to be so widespread amongst savage 

 people, and which is so greatly at variance with the amenities 

 which civilization has developed in our own social state. 

 Indeed, it is perhaps to this strong contrast between our 

 own manners and customs and those of the more primitive 

 races of mankind that anthropological studies owe their chief 

 attractiveness. 



Having lived for some years in places where formerly the 

 practice of cannibalism was the rule, and having while on the 

 spot taken much interest in inquiring into the customs and 

 observances by which it was accompanied, I have thought that a 

 short descriptive paper on the subject would be within the scope 

 of our Club, and would perhaps be of sufficient interest to 

 warrant my bringing it forward. 



It is not my intention to attempt to speak of cannibalism at 



