THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 89 
the tops of the young shoots of apple trees, and on growing 
older, draw the sides of a leaf together as a shelter. At 
times they eat holes in the green apples. 
EASTER EXCURSION: TUGGERAH LAKES. 
Twenty-seven members of our Society spent the Haster 
holidays at Tuggerah Lakes entrance. Suitable accom- 
modation was obtained at one of the boarding houses, and 
altogether, an enjoyable time was spent. No very serious - 
excursions were undertaken, but each morning and after- 
noon rambles were made through the neighbourhood for 
botanical and entomological specimens. A boating trip 
was taken on the lake on one afternoon, and the ladies 
showed an equal skill in the use of the sculls to the men. 
We were able to get a closer view of the pelicans and an 
immense flock of black swans. On another afternoon a 
launch trip was not so successful, and we had to return 
owing to the driving rain ‘lwo members eager for night 
feeding Lycaenid larvae, returned at 10 p.m. in the pour- 
ing rain. Other than this, rain interfered but slightly 
with the trip. 
The thanks of the members were specially conveyed: to 
Mr. Wickham for the arrangements he had made, and for 
his management, which greatly helped to make the trip 
a success. 
The botanists were indebted to Mr. A. A. Hamilton 
for identifying the plants collected, for leading the 
botanical excursions, and for supplying many interesting 
facts about the plants. One afternoon was devoted to a 
talk about the plants collected, and an examination of 
them. Mr. Hamilton reports that the flora proved to be 
much the same as that of the beach flora from the lakeg 
south to Port Jackson, with a few outlying plants from the 
Northern Brush Forests, the rarest being a straggling com- 
posite, Mclipta platyglossa. On the flats near the lake the 
mistletoe, Loranthus linophyllus, was found parasitic upov: 
the swamp oak, Casuarina glauca, and upon the mistle- 
toe a further parasite, Notothixos incanus var subaureus. 
Dendrobium teretifolium, the Pencil Orchid, was also found 
upon the Casuarina. An individual plant of a prostate 
geebung, Persoonia chamaepence, rarely found in the coas- 
tal area, was also noted, 
