Visit to the Diggings. 



5913 



assert from observation. In December and January they give way to 

 a smaller species that is still more troublesome : they come in clouds 

 and follow you incessantly, not to bile, but to suck moisture from your 

 lips, your eyes, or wherever it is to be obtained. Many of the dig- 

 gers wore veils, others bound little twigs of Eucalyptus before their 

 eyes ; but the best remedy is to smoke perpetually during the sun- 

 shine: thej appear to have a deep-rooted aversion to the weed. I 

 can scarcely distinguish this species from the common house fly 

 {Musca domestica) of England. These last till March, when ano- 

 ther fly assails you, called the March fly, a species of Tabanus, a dull 

 sleepy-looking insect, that bites severely, instantly drawing blood 

 from man or beast ; but these are not so numerous and therefore not 

 so formidable as the smaller pests. Before I conclude these remarks 

 on flies I must add that sore eyes and ophthalmia are common com- 

 plaints in Victoria. I have observed hundreds of people with one or 

 both eyes so swelled that they could not see. The dropsical-looking 

 eyelids are puff'ed up on a level with the cheek and forehead : 

 this is called having the blight ; it is usually attributed to flies, 

 but with what truth I am unable to say. I observed that men 

 wath large or humid eyes were most liable to this distressing com- 

 plaint. 



Among the Lepidoptera of Victoria a green Geom^tra, closely 

 allied to an English one, w^as of common occurrence. Many Noctuae 

 that I should have thought nocturnal flew in the hottest sunshine, and 

 the beautiful species of the genus Synemon, now arranged as one of 

 the Heterocera, flew about all day as merrily as any of the butterflies, 

 and rested at night with erected wings. The new and unique Teara 

 Guenei of Newman, one of the most lovely and remarkable of its tribe, 

 1 caught on a hot day in November, about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 

 after a most severe chase. 



I had not long been in the country before I observed, lying about 

 at the foot of a gum tree, several little oval objects, which I at first 

 supposed to be eggs fallen from nests among the branches above, but 

 on touching them I found they were attached to some substance, as 

 the bark of the tree, or to a twig or a blade of grass. On examining 

 them I found a case or cap had invariably been pushed off one end, 

 and I then concluded they were the cocoons of a Dipteron. At last 

 I found one entire, and, having opened it, I discovered they were 

 lepidopterous. Incited by this discovery, I searched diligently for 

 more, and succeeded in obtaining several. I took them with me 

 XYl. I 



