FISHES, INSECTS, 
72 
greater part of which they preserve for winter 
stock. They always catch these fish in the 
darkest nights, when they are able to see the di- 
rection the shoal takes, from the phosphorescent 
appearance which their motion causes on the 
water. They surround them with their nets, 
which are several hundred yards long, and drag 
them in vast numbers to the shore ; where the 
contents are regularly divided among the peo- 
ple to whom the net belonged. 
Reptiles there are none, but the small lizard 
before mentioned. 
Of Insects there is no very great variety. The 
principal are, the locust and the grasshopper, 
which, during the summer months, make an inces- 
sant and truly unpleasant singing noise among 
the fern; the dragon-fly and scorpion-fly; with 
a small sand-fly, not larger than a flea, but very 
noxious — its bite is sharp, and leaves an unplea- 
sant itching for many hours — and they are so 
numerous on the beach, and by the sides of creeks 
and rivers, as to become, at times, almost a pest : 
their bite is most virulent before rain. Musketoes 
abound in the woods, and by the side of streams ; 
but they are only lately imported. According to 
Cook, however, these troublesome insects were 
found in great abundance in the woods, on his 
first visit. The natives deny this, and constantly 
tell us they were brought to New Zealand by 
