On the 26th of November I returned from “Gudarigby” to Yas Plains, by a longer but better road than that by which I came; passing through a fine open forest and luxuriant pasture land, the distance being eight or nine miles further than by scrambling over the ranges. The _Rubus australis_, or Australian raspberry, (char, mut’h, mut’h of the Yas natives,) was abundant. The fruit is small, devoid of flavour, but might, perhaps, be improved by cultivation. It may also be an interesting experiment to ascertain how far the _Exocarpus cupressiforme_, or native cherry-tree, may be made to produce a good edible fruit by grafting or culture. The greatest elevation I have seen this tree attain has been thirty to forty feet, and a diameter of a foot to a foot and a half: the fruit is insignificant, and almost tasteless. There is another species of _Exocarpus_ abundant about Goulburn Plains, and other parts of the colony, shrubby, seldom attaining more than five or six feet elevation; bearing a white, instead of a red fruit, as in the other species just mentioned. The Eucalypti trees were now covered with a profusion of white blossoms, attracting multitudes of parroquets, who revel in the sweets afforded by the nectaries. As the summer season was now fully set in, (December,) the previous silence of the woods was broken by the incipient, shrill, chirping noises which resounded over them, occasioned by the male _Tettigoniæ_, or tree hoppers, emerging from the larva into the winged state; the cases the fly had left, being seen on almost every tree or post. This genus is remarkable for the instrument with which it cuts grooves in the wood for the purpose of depositing its eggs. The musical organs, or drums, only found in the males, are not less interesting; and the best published account respecting them is that by Reamur, quoted in the very interesting work, entitled “Insect Miscellanies.” The aborigines call these insects “Galang, galang,” and formerly used them as food; first stripping off the wings, they ate them in the raw state; that is, as the native blacks told me at Yas, “_when no white feller here, and black feller no get bread or yam_.” My notice was particularly directed by the natives to the drums in the male insects, as the means by which they produced their thrilling sounds; at the same time adding, in their peculiar English, “_Old woman Galang, galang, no got, no make a noise_;” implying that the females do not possess these musical instruments. There are several species of this genus known in Australia. During rain, these insects are silent; but recommence their clamour on the reappearance of fine weather. The native blacks at Goulburn Plains told me that the manna produced by one of the Eucalypti trees, (_E. mannifera_,) was the excrement of this insect: this, probably, arose in their minds, from these insects appearing on the trees in the winged state, about the same time that the manna is secreted.