OUT OF DOORS. 
127 
pattern like a mosaic. This spider has no regular abode, but 
stays very quietly upon a leaf, keeping the one position for 
hours, until an unfortunate insect settles close by, when it is 
instantly seized by the long fore-legs. We found a brown 
spider upon one of these same gums, sitting upon a clutch of 
eggs with the evident intention of hatching them out, like the 
domestic hen ; and there is a large black species found every- 
where in the spring while digging, which carries a bag of eggs 
almost as large as itself between its hind legs, and gets over the 
ground at a surprising pace with this heavy burden. 
One very curious resident upon our gums, curious, not so 
much in itself, as in its work, is a very small brown larva, 
which lives in a little silken house, and eats the upper surface 
of the leaf alongside this dwelling. The strange part of the 
performance is the springing up of a miniature forest of brown 
threads all over the part where he has been feeding, and on the 
margin of it also, where the leaf is intact. The threads appear 
to be vegetable fibre, but how they are made to assume the 
vertical, and what purpose they serve, unless to assist the con- 
cealment of the larva, we have, as yet, been unable to discover. 
There is another small larva which constructs a circular wall 
upon the leaf, and, bringing down another leaf upon the top, 
securely fastens it there, and in this simple fortress enjoys perfect 
security. 
Of birds, the honeyeaters seem the great frequenters of our 
young grove, coming thither probably for the numerous small 
insects which form part of jtheir diet. Strange to say, however, 
they do not build there, always choosing in preference a clump 
of young ti-tree, where the cleverly-constructed nest of long soft 
strips of bark, often delicately lined with wallaby hair, is made 
secure between three or four stems about the thickness of one’s 
finger. In this are laid two whitish eggs, spotted with pink 
upon the larger end, and so closely does the hen bird sit that she 
might be almost captured with the hand. 
Hamilton Stuart Dove. 
Table Cape, Octobev iith, 1892, 
OUT OF DOORS. 
By the Editor. 
HE annual exodus this year, looked forward to as it 
doubtless is by many thousands, will perhaps be less 
keenly relished than is sometimes the case. In no pre- 
vious season of the century, it may, we believe, be stated 
without fear of contradiction, has there been such a marvellously 
fine spring and early summer as that with which we have been 
favoured this year. Never within our memory has an out-of- 
door life been so possible, so delightful, so enjoyable, as it has 
