802 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



an insect which occurs in amazing numbers, and gave me a great 

 deal of uneasiness and constant trouble to preserve my collection 

 from their repeated attacks." (I may remark that I saw no trace 

 whatever of this beetle on East Wallaby Island, though I was 

 specially on the look-out for Coleoptera.) 



Soon afterwards I found the Egernia quite commonly in a 

 rather restricted space, but always under stones, and never 

 seen in the open. I brought off six or seven of the largest 

 in a bag, most of which were subsequently consigned to the 

 spirit-tank as specimens ; but I kept two alive for several months 

 afterwards, feeding them when they would eat, which was but 

 seldom, on small pieces of raw beef. As the afternoon was now 

 well advanced, I went down to the landing-place, where I found 

 the whaler almost filled with game, a large number of Wallabies 

 having been shot, chiefly for the benefit of the ship's company, 

 but without any apparent diminution of their numbers when we 

 landed on a subsequent occasion. 



We were still detained at our anchorage on the 18th by the 

 wind, which had sprung up again very strongly from the old 

 quarter, accompanied with exceedingly brilliant sheet lightning 

 after sunset; and no boat landed on the island that day. Contrary 

 to our expectations, fishing from the ship met with very little 

 success, only two or three " Snapper" and several Blow-fish, Tetra- 

 odon Icevis, being caught ; the latter were a nuisance, as, besides 

 being quite useless, if not actually dangerous, as food, their 

 powerful front teeth at once severed almost any hook that was put 

 overboard. Sharks were, if anything, more numerous than at Dirk 

 Hartog Island, and several were caught and despatched by the 

 sailors during the day ; the stomach of one about eight feet long 

 (which appeared to be the widely distributed Galeocerdo arcticus) 

 contained, besides the carcases of two or three Wallabies which 

 had been thrown overboard, more than a bushel of the remains 

 of a large species of Sea-crawfish (Palinurus sp.), among which 

 were some nearly perfect specimens. 



On the 19th the southerly wind continued very strong all the 

 morning, but the day was otherwise fine, and in the afternoon I 

 was able to land again for two or three hours. A few fresh 

 species of beetles rewarded my search, as well as several more 

 fine specimens of Stokes's Lizard, which as before I could find 



