364 KEYIEWS — HUMAN CKAUTA. 



The natives are a fine race of men, and very apt at learning. They 

 soon become good navigators ; some own large schooners and sail them 

 themselves ; their canoes are excellently made and will stand any sea. 

 They own many mills and cultivate the land largely, the women doing 

 most of the labor. Their character is kind and hospitable, and in war 

 they are by no means to be despised. Their fortifications exhibit con- 

 siderable ingenuity. 



Among the specimens of natural curiosities will be found the vege- 

 table caterpillar — the Sphozria sicudes or Robertia as it is called. It is 

 very abundant in New Zealand, especially upon the west coasts, where 

 it is said that tons might be collected. I am in hopes it may become 

 an article of trade with China, where the fungus is prized very highly 

 and is used as a medicine. The Sphceria Robertia although bearing 

 much resemblance to a caterpillar is evidently a plant, the mode of its 

 production is said to depend upon the growth of a sporule of the 

 fungus germinating within the body of the animal while yet alive. 

 Aware of the disease, the caterpillar seeks the shelter of the Rata tree, 

 and lays itself up to die under it, in due season the fungus shoots out 

 its stem, flowers, seeds, and dies. From the specimen I have sent, 

 abundant evidence of its fungus nature will be manifest. The but- 

 terfly that produces this caterpillar is said, by an intelligent friend 

 from Hohinaga, to be the Hepialus Sericeus ; when the eggs are hatch- 

 ed, the caterpilar seeks the Kahikaton tree, bores into it to a great depth, 

 and then covers its hole over with bark and web, so as to hide itself 

 from the depredations of the "Waita, a species of flea nearly as large as 

 a mouse. I shall try my best to obtain correct information upon this 

 matter with a view to communicate it to the Institute when I write 

 again. 



Along with the other specimens now forwarded, illustrative of the 

 Natural History of New Zealand, I have sent a Hippocampus which 

 was taken upon the little Barras island in the Gulph of Hourica, not 

 far from Auckland. 



REVIEWS. 



Catalogue of Human Crania in the Collection of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; based upon the third edition of 

 Dr. Morton's " Catalogue of Skulls," fyc. By J. Aitken Meigs, 

 M.D., Librarian of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 &c. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1857. 

 No purely scientific American work has more firmly, though slowly, 



established its claims to a permanent place among the valued contribu- 



