28 
THE GEELOKG NATUEALIST. 
rivers and liigli mountains, and where labour is of little value, 
monetarily speaking, the number of locusts destroyed by means of 
these screens is simply beyond all attempts at calculation. In 
Australia, however, I am afraid that until the interior becomes more 
settled, and partly owing to the comparatively high price of labour, 
an attack on such magnitude as those which have taken place in the 
countries mentioned, will be well nigh impossible. At present we 
in Victoria know a good deal concerning the life history of these 
pests, and partly for the purpose of refuting a statement that our 
Department of Agriculture was, on a certain occasion, too late in 
taking action, I obtained freshly deposited eggs of the locust and had 
them hatched artijBcially. After making allowances for the difference 
in temperature, etc.) I found that we had a good two months between 
the hatching out of young locusts, and the time when they 
assumed the winged stage, and in which the insects could be 
attacked before taking flight. These experiments which I under- 
took principally in defence of the Department, but partly for my 
own information, conclusively disproved the assertions that had 
been circulated that the Department had been dilatory in the matter. 
It also proved that it had done its best to induce the settlers to band 
together for the destruction of their common enemy. In the early 
part of last year I received several large green caterpillars said to 
be doing great damage to the vines in many parts of the colony. 
In some instances they were described to me as "horrid things 
with a horn sticking out of their head," (the so-called horn I may 
say, is on the other end), "and that when handled they would spit 
and fly back " I was, of course, anxious to interview this 
*' monster," when to my astonishment it proved to be the larva of 
silver-striped hawk-moth, an account of which you will find in Part 
II of my handbook. Now if these good people had only taken the 
trouble to rear one of these grubs into the perfect insect, they 
would then have had a practical aquaintance v.ith at least a part of 
the life history and habits of one of the worst caterpillars of our 
vineyards. How often it has happened that a traveller, who, by 
stress of weather or from other causes, has been unable to accomplish 
the business for which he had left home and has had to pass many 
a weary hour at some country hotel, and who has had the bitter 
experience, i.e., if he be not an observer of nature in making dimless 
walks, or perhaps sitting about doing nothing! whereas, had he 
been a naturalist, his spare time could have been agreeably arid 
profitably spent in observing and collecting some of the insects or 
plants of the district. To those who know how to spend their 
leisure both profitably and intellectually at the same time, more 
especially in a delightful study of nature and her handiwork, the 
feeling becomes one of intense pleasure. You have also the feeling 
that you are not only adding to your own store of knowledge, but 
in all probability you are making observations that may be of some 
use to someone else, and that someone will most likely be the 
