NATURE ^NOTES. 
190 
the beautiful red Blandfordia lilies, and bushes of the snowberry 
{GauUhena), while graceful leatherwood trees {Eucryphia), over- 
hung the stream, bearing profusely their white saucer-shaped 
blossoms. Higher up the stream the banks were adorned with 
Christmas bush {Prosianthera), clothed with dark green aromatic 
leaves and w’hite labiate flowers, purple-tipped. Here the 
shallow waters gently rippled over a gravelly bottom, and pull- 
ing off our boots, we forded the river without difficulty, and 
while sitting upon the other bank to “lace up,’’ I was stung on 
the neck. On putting up my hand quickly to brush off the 
culprit, something fell down inside my shirt and stung me 
smartly on the chest. On being extracted, it proved to be a 
small black hairy caterpillar with red legs, not unlike a small 
edition of the well-known woolly bear. This larva appears to 
produce the effect by means of its hairy coating, as no special 
apparatus is discernible. The sensation is like being pricked 
with a red hot needle, and a red patch appears, accompanied bj' 
a slight rash, but the irritation passes off in from fifteen to thirty 
minutes. 
With regard to the Doratifera larva, it was only in captivity a 
couple of days before it assumed the pupal condition, forming a 
small reddish cocoon in the corner of the box, the cocoon being 
held in its place by a slight web of silk. As the season is far 
advanced, the perfect insect should emerge very soon, unless it 
intends wintering in the cocoon ; and I look forward with some 
curiosity to see what kind of moth my little stinging friend will 
produce. 
Table Cape, Tasmania. H. Stuart Dove. 
STORM ON THE WIGTONSHIRE COAST. 
OULD that I had the pen of a Sir Herbert Maxwell or 
i other accomplished writer on such subjects, when I try 
shortly to delineate for your readers the scene wit- 
nessed here this afternoon. The writer and three com- 
panions, one of whom was a lady, ventured forth, in spite of the 
elements, to the sea-shore, to visit what is known as the “ Blow- 
hole ’’ amongst the rocks on this coast. It lies about mid-way 
between Burrow Head and Glasserton Hill. What strikes one 
most in walking towards the shore is the manner in which the 
trees are almost levelled, as it were, by the force of the wind. 
There is one covert close to the sea, famous in years gone by, 
before the Ground Game Act, as a refuge for numberless hares, 
which, alas, now are seldom found. In this covert consisting of 
small oak and other hardwood trees a few struggling firs have, 
with great difficulty, forced their way, and they, with their hardier 
comrades, are completel}' sloped off from tlie direction of the 
prevailing wind and twisted into all manners of shapes. 
