THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST, 79 



with which the whole district must previously have abounded 

 It is very regrettable that so few of the selectors in the colony 

 have any romance or love of the picturesque in their natures, and 

 although this is, perhaps, not to be much wondered at, consider- 

 ing the hard nature of the lives they mostly have to lead, still 

 we think there should have been, and still ought to be, some 

 restriction as to the amount of destruction they are at liberty to 

 work on their holdings. Had some restriction been enforced, the 

 selector would thereby have sustained no loss, and many perfect 

 little gems of beauty would have been preserved to please and 

 gratify this and future generations. As showing how utterly 

 objectless and reckless are many of these destructions, we may 

 mention one large paddock, which had evidently been several 

 times burned to destroy the timber and scrub, with the result that 

 only some two or three miserable-looking tree ferns were left to 

 struggle for existence, whilst the rest of the land was given over 

 to the growth of senecio, whose yellow flowers covered it as with 

 a carpet, and which certainly did not afford a too liberal susten- 

 ance to the five or six horses we observed on it. The fact is, 

 Gippsland land requires to be continually looked after and 

 worked, as the natural vegetation is so vigorous that it soon kills 

 off all interlopers and resumes its own undisputed sway. In the 

 course of another year or two this would be the case with the 

 paddock mentioned, and senecio would no more be known in it, 

 but alas ! it will not, we fear, have this chance of re-asserting 

 itself. 



Another circumstance struck us with painful effect, and this 

 was the fact that the " Cockney " sportsman had evidently been 

 lately about here, and been about, too, in pretty considerable 

 numbers. Scarcely a bird of any kind was to be seen, and to 

 those of our members and others who are fond of a country excur- 

 sion we need scarcely say that their absence does away with fully 

 one-half of the pleasure one looks for. It is on such occasions that 

 we are tempted to wish we were an autocrat, so that we might 

 inflict summary chastisement on all those ruffians — -we decline to 

 apply any milder term to them — .vho so ruthlessly destroy our 

 feathered friends. 



Insects having claimed priority of our attention, we being 

 especially desirous of securing specimens of the Longicorn 

 beetles, Etineaphyllus aneipennis, Zystrocera vh-escens — Demonassa 

 Madeayii, Fyt/ieus pulcherrimus, &c., the umbrella and net 

 were got ready for use, and the former was soon employed in 

 receiving the shakings from the Eucalyptus sapling and the 

 white flower of the aster, of which latter plant there were two 

 species, A. argophyllus and A. glandulosus. Our exertions, how- 

 ever, received very little reward, and as to the net it was not once 

 ailed into play, for, strange as it may seem, we scarcely saw a 



