Australian Natural History. 1427 



are of great use in followiug the plough and clearing the soil of the 

 grub of a black or brown beetle or chafer. This grub is very abun- 

 dant, and resembles the grub of the cockchafer ; it is white, with a 

 brown hard horny head, armed with formidable forceps, with which it 

 destroys many plants by cutting them below the soil. Instead of my 

 gun being levelled against the magpie, I now admire this bird. It is 

 unlike the English magpie in plumage, being for the most part black 

 with white across the wings, a triangle of white above the root of the 

 tail-feathers, the ends of which are also edged with white. Its note 

 is not unmusical, and its bright yellow irides give the eye a sparkling 

 and animated expression. Fearless of man, it generally builds in 

 some tall tree near cultivated ground : the nest is in the shape of a 

 small bowl, formed of clay or cement, and smoothly plastered on the 

 outside, and is firmly fixed on a bough. Of its inside structure I can- 

 not speak, never having had the inclination to fall the tree. They 

 are very social in their habits, only separating to pair, which they 

 do, I rather think, some time in September. The colonial name is the 

 " Mutton-bird." 



A name in this country does not necessarily class a bird, tree, or 

 flower ; for the most opposite are given to the different objects of na- 

 ture that can well be imagined. For instance, the screech owl which 

 is heard uttering his mournfully prolonged scream at night is no other 

 than a plover. The bird is never seen in the daytime, unless scared 

 from his screaming-log or stone by some passer by. I once saw one 

 that had been shot, but I had no opportunity of examining it further 

 than to identify it as a plover. I have gone out many a night after 

 them, but never succeeded in coming on them. When I thought I 

 had approached close to them I would hear their scream, as if in deri- 

 sion, in quite an opposite direction, quite baffling all my attempts to 

 find them out. 



Some of your English Honey-bees have been transported to this 

 colony within the last year or two (1842) and succeed well, and no 

 doubt many will soon desert the hives of their few proprietors, and 

 spread over the country. We have our bees, but I believe there are 

 none with stings. They form their hives in hollow trees. 



The only insects to be found now (August) are a few species of 

 beetles under logs and stones, and many of them on being taken hold 

 of, emit a most pungent vapour, which readily enters the pores of the 

 face, and causes a smarting sensation. Others, like your Bombardiers 

 give off a puff of smoke from their tails on being touched. They do 



