308 Transactions. — Zoology. 



maggot atage lie precipitately proceeded to get rid of the eggs, he would 

 soon discover that he had only succeeded in making matters ten times 

 worse, for in his vain endeavonrs to rub or scraj)e off the eggs he was sure 

 to burst most of them, the outer skin of which thereby became indelibly 

 glued into the material, presenting for ever after the disgusting appearance 

 of a dirty white blotch or stain on the garment. Experience soon taught 

 the early settlers that the only effectual mode of remedying the evil was to 

 wrap up the garment till the eggs were hatched out into the larval stage, 

 when a smart shake of the outspread garment at once freed it from all trace of 

 the nuisance. The evil was always worst in warm damp weather, but it was 

 not confined to such days, nor to woollen materials lyiug at rest in the open 

 air. For a long time it was absolutely necessary and commonly practised 

 to wrap up all woollen materials in close calico bags — even the very blankets 

 on beds had to be rolled up and wrapped in calico soon after the night's 

 repose, and it v>'as rare in those days to see blankets that had not been 

 disfigured by the disagreeable stains alluded to, for once the eggs were burst 

 there was no washing out of the mark afterwards. 



I am indebted to AV. D. Murison, Esq., editor of the " Daily Times," 

 for the following note on this subject, and subsequent ones on other fauna, 

 which I shall read in their several places : — " It was common to take the 

 blankets from the bed in the morning, if the weather was fine, and hang 

 them over a rope. They would not then be ' blown,' as there were no 

 folds." 



I remember on one occasion going on a fishing excursion to the Silver 

 Stream, for in those days everybody was possessed with the fond belief that 

 New Zealand would beat the world for fishing or shooting, or, for the 

 matter of that, for any other natural production to be found in any countrj'' 

 on the face of the globe — one of our infantile illusions long since got rid of. 

 It was a warm damp night, on which, according to all orthodox rules of the 

 piscatorial art, we ought to have had plenty of sport. But a diizzling rain 

 and empty baskets sent us home in the early morning only for me to 

 discover that my fine waterproof mohair overcoat, recently brought from 

 home and looked upon as an invaluable companion in a land of few 

 accommodation-houses and no umbrellas, was one mass of maggots every- 

 where. My inexperience made me disgustedly pitch it on the dung-heap, 

 from whence it never reapj)eared, at any rate as a coat. Another instance : 

 My father bought a property and run in the Tokomairiro district in 1852. 

 There was no possibility then of taking any wheeled vehicle fi-om Dunedin, 

 and hence all goods and- provisions were shipped in small coasting craft 

 and sent round by sea to the Taieri mouth and landed at the head of the 

 "Wailiola Lake. For in those primitive days it was officially impressed upon 



