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Whi

THE NATURALIST IN
AUSTRALIA,

*~
?

BY

W, SAVILLE-KENT, P.Liss F284 ee,

PAST PRESIDENT ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND ;
FORMERLY ASSISTANT IN THE NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM;
LATE COMMISSIONER AND INSPECTOR OF FISHERIES AND FISHERIES EXPERT REPORTER TO THE
GOVERNMENTS OF TASMANIA, QUEENSLAND, VICTORIA, AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA

AUTHOR OF

“THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA,”
“A MANUAL OF THE INFUSORIA,” &c., &c.

Illustrated by 50 full-page Collotypes, 9 Coloured Plates by Keulemans and other Artists, and over

one hundred Illustrations in the Text.

Lonpon: CHAPMAN & HALL, LimirTep.

1897.
p

LONDON :
WATERLOW AND SONS LIMITED, PRINTERS,

LONDON WALL.

TO

THE HON. SIR JOHN FORREST, K.C.M.G.

PREMIER AND EARLY PIONEER

OF
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

WITH THE NATURAL HISTORY
OF WHICH COLONY

THE FOLLOWING PAGES MAINLY DEAL

This Volume

THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA

IS DEDICATED AS A MARK OF HIGHEST ESTEEM

BY THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

=A HE endeavour is made in this volume to present to the English

reading public a few glimpses of the Faunal and Floral
products of that magnificent component of our Empire—the
Island-Continent of Australia.

No attempt is made here to produce a_ systematic

monograph or anything beyond a general compendium of

any particular group or groups, the purpose being more
in the direction of recording data concerning the life phenomena or peculiarities
of biological types that specially attracted the author’s attention during the
period of close upon twelve years in which he acted as Commissioner of Fisheries,
or specially engaged Fisheries expert to the greater number of the Australian
colonies, and in the fulfilment of which professional engagements he extended his
travels throughout the entire Australian coast-line.

The material here selected for description and illustration will, it is trusted,
assist towards the promotion of a wider interest in the natural history wealth in
sea and on shore possessed by the Australian peoples, and conduce towards its
more intimate investigation both by dwellers on the land and by systematic
explorers. Concerning many of the subjects here dealt with, as for example the
form, habits, and architectural fabrications of the Termites and the varieties,
distribution, and bizarre manners of many members of the Bird and Lizard races,
a wide field is open both for original investigation and for inexhaustible recreation

to every intelligent observer.

ve PREFACE.

As was the case with the author’s previously published volume, ‘“ The
Great Barrier Reef of Australia,” the camera has been extensively requisitioned for
the delineation of the subjects illustrated. These will be found to include, as in
that volume, various marine organisms photographed in their native element with
possibly an even greater measure of success. The potency of the camera “to
hold as ’twere the mirror up to Nature” in almost every conceivable phase and
condition of her varying moods and tenses, is indeed established in these pages—at
any rate, to an extent that should recommend the more universal employment
of this instrument for the portrayal of the protean aspects and metamorphoses of
living organisms.

The subjects dealt with in this book include tenants of the sea and shore
throughout the entire range of the Australian colonies, from North Queensland,
Port Darwin and Thursday Island, to picturesque Tasmania and Bass’s Straits. A
larger space has undoubtedly, however, been allotted to the products of Western
Australia. This colony, although possessing the most extensive land area, has
but recently come to the forefront among its compeers, and there has hitherto
been but a scant amount of information available concerning its natural history
treasures. The marvellous material progress and prosperity that, concurrently with
the discovery and exploitation of its auriferous wealth, has so pre-eminently distin-
guished this colony’s career within the past few years will, no doubt, also speedily
bring about an equivalent awakening to and development of its latent scientific
potentialities.

As an indication of the leading position Western Australia is eligible to
occupy with relation to one important biological subject, reference may be made to
that Chapter which deals with Houtman’s Abrolhos. As there demonstrated, very
exceptional facilities prevail at that place for the conduct of reef-boring opera-
tions and for the prosecution of all methods of investigation relating to Coral and
Coral life. The Islands are situated within a day’s journey from the metropolis of
the colony and a few hours’ sail only from the Port of Geraldton. A permanent

biological observatory established there would, consequently, be in near touch with

PREFACE. VII

and possess full command of all the conveniences and appliances of up-to-date
civilisation.

An element that will highly recommend the Abrolhos Archipelago to the
attention of many biologists is the circumstance that notwithstanding the predom-
inating tropical nature of the marine fauna, the Islands are situated so far south
that the climate is temperate and consequently exempt from those conditions which
are a serious deterrent to investigators of tropical marine life.

The few data chronicled in this volume concerning the remarkable inter-
blending of a tropical and temperate marine fauna that occurs at Houtman’s
Abrolhos will serve to accentuate the desirability that exists for their further
systematic investigation. The question of fully exploring and working out the
indigenous faune of isolated or otherwise remarkable islet areas is at the present
time commanding a large share of attention in scientific circles the world over.
Among the multitude of counsellors upon whom will devolve the responsibility of
electing which regions shall hereafter receive the advantage of such systematic
attention the author would earnestly advocate the undoubted claims upon their
suffrages that are possessed by this, biologically speaking, most interesting assemblage
of Islands on the western shores of Australasia.

The author has various and sundry obligations to chronicle with relation
to the production of this volume. To the Western Australian Government in
general and to its enlightened Premier, Sir John Forrest, in particular, ic. is
indebted for opportunities and facilities afforded for acquiring the information herein
recorded concerning the marine and other natural history products of that important
colony ; and to Dr. Ernest Black, Mr. John Brockman, Dr. Williams, Mr. G. S. Streeter,
Mr. W. Male, Mr. R. C. Hare, Mr. Broadhurst, and others, for individual assist-
ance towards the acquisition of specimens and for facilities for making studies
or taking successful photographs of many of the Western Australian objects
illustrated.

To Prof. T. Jeffry Bell, Mr. Boulanger, Mr. Edgar Smith, Mr. R. I. Pocock,
Dr. Murray, and other officers of the Zoological and Botanical Departments of the

VII PREFACE.

British Museum, the author is indebted for kindly assistance towards the correct
identification of many of the specimens figured. For substantial services in the revision
of the proof sheets acknowledgments are especially due to Mr. Robert Bell, M.A.

The author has, finally, to acknowledge his obligations to Messrs. Waterlow
and Sons Limited and their staff of expert departmental managers for the pains-
taking and, to himself, eminently satisfactory manner in which they have carried out

his views concerning the production of this volume.

Lonpon,
February 1st, 1897.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

ae oe
CHAPTER. Paces.
I. GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY ... oe 3 ti oe oe ase 1- 38
II Birps me es se 9 ee ae a ee or 39- 68
Jit. Lizarps sa we” sis we am vis ay sie wet 69-100
IV. TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) - si =e ee iia ats its 101-131
Vi: Hovutman’s ABROLHOS ches is iy ig és 16 te 132-152
VI. FisHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL ... aise si as a ee 153-194
Vii. PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS_... sy uae Ss me ai iiss 195-214
VIII. Marine MISCELLANEA ay aes as sits as oy a 215-251
IX. Insect ODDITIES ake ae wis iy ase se ae se 252-265
X. VEGETABLE VAGARIES wae hie =e see ius eis wisi 266-289
APPENDIX ... te viet 8 ve wie au ae a 290

Puate.

LIST OF CHROMO-PLATES.

TIDALLY EXPOSED INSHORE RexEr, Patm IsLaAnps, QUEENSLAND

GouLp1an Fincues, Poephila mirabilis, anp Poephila Goulde

. THe Frittep Lizarp, Chlamydosaurus Kingi

Maprepora Reeser, Persart Istanp Lagoon, Hourman’s ABROLHOS

ABROLHOS NuDIBRANCHIATE Mo.uusc, Doris wmperialis

Sea Horses anp Dragons, SYNGNATHIDE

A Famity Party, PLEcTOGNATHI...

A Sea-Star GALaxy

Insect ODDITIES

Factne Pace

1

39

69

144

Between 150 and 151
153

187

244

254

LIST “OF

WHOLE PAGE, COLLOTYPE, ILLUSTRATIONS.

Puate.

I.

II.

IIT.

VII.
VIII. anp IX.

X.

XXI.

XXII.

Factne Pace

Natives oF Kine’s Sounp, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, WITH CHARACTERISTIC RaFt.
GLass AND Quartz Spear Heaps... oye es ni me 8

Festive Dance, orn “Corropores,” or Natives oF Rozpuck Bay, WESTERN
AUSTRALIA aie ay Set iby vee ae ae 15

THe Duck-BILLED Piatypus, Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, anD Spiny ANT-EATER,

Echidna aculeata es oie es en an 0h 18
AvsTRALIAN Bears, Phascolarctos cinereus, AND Fiyinc PHALANGER, Petauroides

volans ons ate an He sie fer oe 26
Western AUSTRALIAN BaoBaB oR Bottue-TREE, Adansonia rupestris sa 37
AUSTRALIAN “ MoreE-PorKs” oR Fern-Owns, Podargus strigoides. 8 AND? ... 42
AUSTRALIAN ‘‘ Mors-pork.” Mae Birp ae dn aa oe 44
AUSTRALIAN “ MoreE-porks.” ILLUSTRATING PROTEAN ASPECTS ASSUMED UNDER Between

VARYING EMOTIONAL INFLUENCES ... ses ee ... 46 and 47
AUSTRALIAN “ More-porks.” Rarn-BatH MAancuvres ans os sees 50
“INNocENTS ABROAD”; YounG AUSTRALIAN PELICANS — sed ee 67
Toe Frittep Lizarp, Chlamydosaurus Kingi. BiPEDAL RUNNING ATTITUDES

ILLUSTRATED BY INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS me ee bie 74
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN Spinous Lizarps, Moloch horridus. ¢ AND ? ine 83
Sping-Taitep Lizarps, Egernia Stokesti, anp Lace Lizarp, Varanus varius ... . 93
Nest Mounps or Waite Ants (Trrmires), MeripIan variety, Laura VALLEY,

NortH QUEENSLAND oe <8 — asd sts eit 101
Nest Mounps or Wuite Ants, KimBertry Type, DerBy, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 105
Nest Mounps or Waite Ants, Kimpertey typr, Derpy, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 108
Nest Mounps or Waite Ants, KIMBERLEY TYPE, INCLUDING SECTION ae 114
Nest Mounps or Wuite Ants, KIMBERLEY TYPE, ILLUSTRATING ABNORMAL

SHAPES AND PHASES OF RECONSTRUCTION 2a) 119
Nest Mounps oF Wuite Ants, Mrripian variety, Laura VaLiey, Norta

QUEENSLAND... rr ae ae ee a dis 122
Nest Mounps or Wuite Ants, Meripian variety, Port Darwin, NortHEern

TERRITORY OF SourH AUSTRALIA ... or as me 124

Nest Mounps oF Wuite Ants: a. CoLuUMNAR TYPE, Porr Darwin; B. OvaTE
Termite Mound, WITH NEST BURROW OF Tanysiptera sylvia ; 0. SMALL
EXTRA-TROPICAL TERMITE MOUND, WITH NEST BURROW OF Posephotus
pulcherrimus ... 3% oe weg A site ‘ae 128

LIST OF WHOLE PAGE, COLLOTYPE, ILLUSTRATIONS.

XII
Prats. Facing Pace
XXII. ABROLHOS CORALS, GENUS MADREPORA 134
XXIV. AprotHos Corats, Montipora circinata ann Madrepora corymbosa 138
XXV. ApBrRoLHos Corats, Madrepora proteiformis “142
XXVI. Suet anp Corat Breacues, Petsart Istanp, Hourman’s ABROLHOS 148
XXVITI. . Diamonp TrEvALLy, Caranx gallus; 8. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SNAPPER, Pagrus
major ... 160
XXVIII. Puaster Casts or TASMANIAN Fisu 165
» XXIX. . Borrne-nosep Swapper, Pagrus major é ; B. Kina Snapper or “ NANNEGAI,”
Beryx Mulleri; c. Sza Prxe, Sphyrena obtusata 172
XXX. . SERGEANT Baker, Aulopus purpurissatus ; B. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN JEW FisH,
Glaucosoma hebraicum ; c. Cat-Fish Ex, Plotosus sp. 176
XXXI. . Lune Fisu, Ceratodus Forsteri; B. York PsninsutA BaRRaMuNDI, Osteoglossum
Jardinei ; c. Murray Cop, Oligorus macquariensis ... 180
XXXII. WEsTERN AUSTRALIAN PEARLS ... 195
XXXII. Tue “‘SourHerRN Cross” PEARL ats Aeeveen 198 © 199
XXXIV. REMARKABLE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PEARL wes
XXXV. EXPERIMENTAL PgARL-SHELL CULTIVATION sites: A. CoraL REEF, THURSDAY
Isuanp ; B. Mancrove Tuicketr, Rorsuck Bay 204
XXXVI. Natural Ciusters oF SHark’s Bay Motuer-or-PEARL SHELL - 209
XXXVII. PEARL-SHELLING Stations, Fresh WaArtER “Camp, SHark’s Bay, WRrsTERN
AUSTRALIA 210
XXX VIII. . SHaRK’s Bay GoLDEN PEARLS; B. ARTIFICIALLY-PRODUCED PEARL 212
XXXIX. . CyenetT Bay Awnemonss, Condylactis sp.; B. Giant ANEMONE, Discosoma
Haddoni, with CommENsSAL FisH AND CRAB 220
XL. SoctaLLy ConsorTeD ANEMONES AND Worm Tusss, Acrozoanthus australie 226
XLI. Youne Turries, Chelone mydas, PHOTOGRAPHED WHILE SWIMMING ms
: \ Between 236 & 237
XLII. JELLY Fis, Discomeduse, PHOTOGRAPHED IN WATER FROM LIFE
XLII. . Corat Rock Oysters, Ostrea mordax, GREAT BARRIER REEF; B. Rock OysTERs,
Ostrea glomerata, KEPPEL Bay, QUEENSLAND 247
XLIV. THE AvurTuor’s OystER CULTURE APPARATUS 248
XLV. QUEENSLAND Spiper, Wephila fuscipes, WITH DIMINUTIVE MALES, COMMENSAL
ARGYRODES AND Parasitic SANDFLY 264
XLVI. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN BaospaB on Botris-Trees, Adansonia rupestris 268
XLVIL . Grass-TREES, Cycaps AND Ferrns, DRraKkESBROOK, WESTERN AUSTRALIA;
B. ARBORESCENT GRASS-TREE oR “ BuackBoy,” Xanthorrhea arborea 272
XLVIII. . UnpERGRouUND Grass-TREE or “ Biackpoy,” Xanthorrhea hastilis; 8. DrRuMstTick
Grass-TREE or “Buackpoy,” Kingia australis 274
XLIx. . MANGROVE-FREQUENTING Fruit Bat, Pteropus conspicillatus; B. ORANGE AND
Wuire Mangroves, Rhizophora mucronata, AND Avicennia officinalis,
Broome CREEK, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 277
L. . Trumpet Creeper, Beaumontia grandiflora, oN A QUEENSLAND VERANDAH ;
B. WateR Hyactnru, Pontideria crassipes, ADELAIDE Botanic GARDENS 288

LIST OF PROCESS AND OTHER

Fic. No.

5.

IN THE TEXT.

PHoTOGRAVURE—AUTHOR’s Portrait (facing Title Page).

ABORIGINES OF Kine’s Sounp, WESTERN AUSTRALIA tis eee ee tae oon

“Broome Betyss,” Native Women or Rorssuck Bay, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

CarveD BaopaB Nut anpD SHELL APRONS, WITH Human Har Girpies, Kimpertey District,
WESTERN AUSTRALIA se ets se oaks wad

Natives or Kimpreritey District, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, SHOWING ATTITUDE WHEN HoLDING AND
THROWING THE BoomERANG Pre “ae sven see i som ned

SHORT-HEADED FLyING PHALANGER, SHOWING POSITION MAINTAINED DURING ITS FLy1ING LEAP

6 & 7. WHITE INDIVIDUAL OF LARGE FLYING PHALANGER, SHOWING TAIL PENDANT, AND IN ITS

CHARACTERISTICALLY ENROLLED STATE

8 & 9. Avusrratian PoucnEep Mo ez, Notoryctes typhlops, LATERAL AND VENTRAL ASPECTS

10.
11.

12.
13.

14,
15.

Miner’s Tent anp Nest Mounp or AusrraLian JuNGLE Fow1, Goopz Istanp, Torres Straits

Hottow Woopen CRADLE USED BY THE NATIVE WoMEN OF THE KIMBERLEY DistRIcT, WESTERN
AUSTRALIA ane ete eae ais ate ai Sat Sean

“Dutce Domum,” “More-porks,” ButcHer Birp, anp Piping Crow eg ts

AUSTRALIAN “ MoRE-PORKS,” ILLUSTRATING DISPARITY IN SIZE AND ASPECT UNDER CONTRASTING
INFLUENCES as Sas art duh a ad ae des

AUSTRALIAN “More-porks,” Nest BuILpING ExTRAORDINARY ex ee bid rer

Norra QUEENSLAND Laucuine Jackass, Dacelo Leachiit... ve aa as

16 &17. GouLtp1an Fincuzs, Dancina ATTITUDES we ey ENA age had

18.
19.
20.
21.
22.

Youne AUSTRALIAN Osprey, Pandion leucocephalus
FrittepD Lizarps at Bay on ae ek
Frittep Lizarp at REst es me ish ate discs me me bem
Frittep Lizarps ASLEEP bs ‘sie ae

Frittep Lizarp AS PRoTOTYPE OF CHINESE Dracon

93—25. BearpEep Lizarp, Amphibolurus barbatus, THREE ATTITUDES ees wie ee

26.

Sprvous Lizarps, Moloch horridus, ‘A WaysiDE GREETING ”
Sprnous Lizarps, sHowinG Kwapsack-LIkE Neck ExcrEscENnces... ner fo ate
Spinous Lizarps FEEDING at AN Ant TRACK... an ue ae its a

Sprvous Lizarps, “A Post PranpiaL PROMENADE 2 See oe e By as

ILLUSTRATIONS

Pace

XIV LIST OF PROCESS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

Fie. No. PacE
30. A Sxkutzt, B Tam SHeata or MIoLaNniaA OwENI ... 88
31. Sprnovs Lizarps, “A Mrnuwery Novenry ” 88

32 & 33. Srump-raitep Lizarps, Trachysawrus rugosus, LATERAL AND VENTRAL ASPECTS 90
34. Spine-raiteD Lizarp, Egernia depressa ... 93
35. SpIne-TaILED Lizarps, “TirFIn Anoy!!” 100
36. Termite Mounps, ALBANY Pass, NortH QUEENSLAND 101
37. White Ants, Termires, INDIVIDUAL TYPES 103
38. Woop-pestroyine Termites, Kimpertey Disrrict, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 103
39. Termite Nests, ALBANY Pass, NortH QUEENSLAND 116
40. Ant-Hitt Point, Atpany Pass, NortH QUEENSLAND 116
41. BroapsipE View or Laura Vauttey Meripian Ants’ Nest 122
42. InrusoriaL Parasites, Trichonympha Leidyi, or TASMANIAN WHITE ANTS 131
43, Wreck Point, Persart Istanp, Hourman’s ABRoLHos 132
44. Mrrace-ELevatep Breakers on OvurTerR Barrier, Prrsart Isnanp ... 132
45. Svae’s-Horn Corat Growrn, Grear Barrier REEF, QUEENSLAND 144
46. MapREpora BRANCHLET, SHOWING Rz-crowrn at BRokEN ENnpD 144
47. Prusart Istanp Scrou: Corat, Montipora circinata 146
48, “Birra or a Cora Istanp,” Hourman’s ABROLHOS 147
49. AprotHos Cora, Madrepora proteiformis 152
50. Puumep Trevauty, Carane gallus 153
51. Orp River Tassen Fisu, Polynemus Verekeri 168
52. Tasmanian Toap Fisu, Zetrodon Hamiltoni 191
53. Porr Jackson Suarx, Cestracion Phillipi 194
54, Prartinc Luceers, Broome Creek, WeEsterN AUSTRALIA 195,
55. Tue “SovuTHern Cross” Peary 200
56. isn, FIERASFER, EMBEDDED IN Moruer-or-PEarL SHELL 202
57, Peart SHELL OPENED, SHOWING CoNTAINED PEARL AND COMMENSAL CRAB 202
58. Youne Cuntivatep PEARL SHELLS ATTACHED TO PARENT ... 207
59. Group oF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PEARLS 214
60. ‘*Rainocrros Rock,” Rorsuck Bay, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 215
61. AscIDIAN-cOVERED Rocks, RorBuck Bay, WEsTERN AUSTRALIA 216
62. Soctat Hotornuripa, Colochirus anceps 218
63. Sea Anemones, Physobrachia sp. 292
64. Sea Anemonss, Condylactis sp.:.. 222
65. Srineine ANEMONES, Actinodendron aleyonidium ... 224
66. Youne Pertare Corar, Dendrophyllia axifuga, wira ExpanpED Potyps 232
67. Tijrbaricbe peltata, Marurep ExampLe From Suarxk’s Bay, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 232
68. Young Coratya or Turbinaria conspicua and T. peltata 233
69. Marurep Corata or Turbinaria conspicua 933

LIST OF PROCESS AND .OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT. XV

Fie. No. Pace
70. Revo.ture Curp-Corar, Zurbinaria revoluta is ics Be is on .. 234
71 &72. Vertictntate AND Neptune’s Cup SponcEs a sis c sis rors .. 236
73 & 74, Soupier Crass, Gelasimus coarctata, Two Ficures he ‘a 7 an .. 240
75. Army Crass, Mycteris longicarpus ‘te aH den ee we ass w 242
76. Army Crass, Mycteris platycheles, “A DESPERATE M&LEE” ov iy “i .. 242
77 &78. Corat Rock Oyster, Ostrea mordax, var. cornucopia, Two FIGURES sig Sed w. 248
79 &80. Dwarr Oysters, Ostrea ordensis, ORD River, WESTERN AusTRALIA, Two FicurEs ... ... 249
81. STALACTITE-LIKE Sanp-sTonE Concretions, SweErR’s Istanp, GULF oF CARPENTARIA... .. 251
82. ‘“ Burrerriry Birtapays” ae its ae ait 8 pas oe w. 252
83. QUEENSLAND “ X-Ray” Sprper, Argiope regalis ... site ste sa iad .. 262
84. WerstEeRN AUSTRALIAN TARANTULA — ae ies vee pe ge .. 265
85. “Sus Teaming Boast,” WeEstERN AUSTRALIA BorTLEe-TREE sig — a ... 266
86. Frowers oF Baopas TREE, Adansonia rupestris ... ee ase “it ae ... 268
87. Dovusie SremmeD BaosaB TREE Ge ae a sia ins esa ... 269
88. Prostrate BaospaB TREE wiItH REJUVENESCENT TRUNKS ... ses re ahs .. 269
89. A Fatten Monarcy, LicHTNinc-SHATTERED WESTERN AUSTRALIA BAoBaB ... ae6 .. 271
90. Roserre-GaLts or Waite Mancrove, Avicennia officinalis is se ss .. =-278
91. Brrv-Pza, Crotularia Cunninghami, Romsuck Bay, WusTERN AUSTRALIA... se ... 279
92, Satt Busy, Salicornaria sp., Cyanet Bay, WESTERN AUSTRALIA... dae wis ... 280
93. ‘ Roxey-Potey” Grass, SHARK’s Bay, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 26 oaks oe ... 280
94, Western AUSTRALIAN Frincep VioLet, Thysanotis dichotoma ae sey sf w 282
95 & 1A. Granr Cactus, Cereus chalybeus, SEPARATE FLOWERS ... te io oe w. 284
96. he Wuire Cactus, Cereus nitens, ADELAIDE Botanic GARDENS ve ve a a 284
97 & | A. Giant Cactus, Cereus chalybeus, ADELAIDE Botanic GARDENS... ysis 8 .. 285
98. B. Wuire Cactus, Cereus nitens, SEPARATE FLOWERS bee a ie es .. «285
99 &100.CEREUS GRANDIFLORUS, GOVERNMENT GARDENS, PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA aus ... 286
101. TREE-FERNS AND TropicaL Puanvs, BrissBanr Boranic GARDENS cn ne sete 1. 287
102. Tren-rerns, Mount WELLINGTON, TASMANIA = bed a sii wii .. 287
103. Finis—Breaxinc Waves, Bunpury Causeway ... ba ae ese or .. 289

104. Inp1an Boomerane (APPENDIX) ee $38 jee es i fae .. 290

CORRIGENDUM.

Page 99, line 3,
For EUMAUS ALGERIENSIS read EUMECES ALGERIENSIS.

‘g27'd GNVISNHAND SANVIS! WivVd ‘I94M FHOHSNI GasodXa ATTVALL

-xutd 42 “op 'yUsYy-eTTFARS M

OUIOIYD PIT SUOS 9 MOPIAIEMY

‘T 87e[q ouloslyD

THE NaTuRALIsT

IN AUSTRALIA.

<
+——+

CHAPTER I.

aA £50

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

GENE RAL AND INTRO D U CT 0 RY ABORIGINES OF KING’S SOUND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 9.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
‘< BROOME BELLES,’? NATIVE WOMEN OF ROEBUCK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 14.

A

@i HERE is probably no
: geographical region of
the world that so justly
commands the attention of the
naturalist as Australasia. In
nearly every department of zoo-
logy and botany it yields forms
and features represented, if at
all, elsewhere on the surface of
the globe, only by long extinct
fossil types.

From another standpoint, as
a territorial unit, Australia is of
surpassing interest, since, by the

light of the most recent biological

2 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

research and philosophic interpretation of the facts revealed, this insular territory
would appear to represent the isolated fragment of a pre-existing, apparently
‘Mesozoic, Antarctic Continent of such vast extent as to have united with its own
land area the now remotely separated regions of South Africa, South America,
and New Zealand.

The evidence in support of this interpretation, for which science is mainly
indebted to the writings and investigations of Huxley, Charles Darwin, A. R.
Wallace, W. K. Parker, H. F. Blandford, and H. O. Forbes is accumulating con-
tinually, and rendering more logically demonstrable the fact that there once existed
two huge northern and southern continents, for which Prof. Huxley proposed the
felicitous titles of “ Arctogea” and “ Notogea” respectively.

As an integral portion of the primitive antarctic continent, or Notogea,
Australia, by its apparent earlier isolation from the continental mass, would appear to
haye preserved alive and in its pristine purity much of that faunal and floral individ-
uality which in other regions of the world was early brought into competition with,
and succumbed to, those hardier and more aggressive northern races, that, following
the newer land distribution, migrated southward from Arctogea. Had such changes '
of the apparent previous distribution of the larger land areas of the earth’s
surface resulted in bringing about the continuity of the Indo-Malay peninsula with
Australia, subsequent’ to the population of the first-named region with a carnivorous
mammalian fauna corresponding with, or allied to, that which now inhabits it, it
may be safely predicted that but little of the most interesting marsupial and
other archaic types of animal life would be now surviving in this Island-Continent.
Happily, in the interests of science, and for the intellectual appreciation of all those
with whom natural history and the unravelling of nature’s mysteries is a continual
feast, this catastrophe was averted.

A number of living witnesses may be summoned to give evidence in support
of the widely entertained speculations concerning the pre-existence of an extensive
antarctic continent wherein the present widely separated lands of Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, and South America were either incorporated or most closely
approximated. These witnesses, moreover, are not represented so extensively by that
very characteristic Australian group of the marsupial mammalia as by isolated members
of various other animal and vegetable types. Up to within the last few months, in
point of fact, no marsupial closely related to the several families and many species of
this order peculiar to Australia was known to be living in any other part of the

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 3

world; the insectivorous and carnivorous American opossums, Didelphyide, possessing
no Australian representatives, but having apparently been independently derived from
an earlier extensive race of the same order that formerly inhabited both Europe and
North America, and that occurs in the fossil state in the Upper Eocene, Lower Miocene
and other tertiary deposits of these two continents. It is, at the same time, through
these extinct representatives of the Didelphyidw that it has been suggested * that
the present marsupial fauna of Australia was originally connected with that of
America, though in times probably anterior to that of the division of the earth’s surface
into the two continents previously referred to.

The discovery of a very interesting marsupial type that opens out a further |
field for speculation in this direction has been quite recently recorded by Mr. Oldfield
Thomas, the mammalian specialist at the British, Natural History, Museum: The
species, which has been described by Mr. Thomas under the title of Conolestes
obscurus in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for November, 1895, and
the ‘“ Proceedings of the Zoological Society” for the past year (1896), has been
obtained from the neighbourhood of Bogota, in South America. Although its dimen-
sions do not exceed those of an ordinary rat, it is of peculiar interest with
reference to the fact that, while representing an entirely new family among the
living marsupials, it may be most naturally assigned to the extinct group of the
Epanorthide, which has hitherto been known only by fossil remains obtained from
the early Miocene, or, according to some authorities, Eocene, deposits of Patagonia:
Following up the clue indicated by Conolestes obscurus, it has been found that the
form obtained from the neighbouring province of Ecuador, and originally described
by Tomes under the title of Hyracodon fuliginosus, is a second species of this
interesting genus. The derivation of these two types from an originally extreme
southern, or notogeal, centre of distribution is thus obviously indicated.

Among the other animal groups that contribute their quota towards demon-
strating their apparent common derivation from an original continental centre of
development, of which Australia formed a material constituent, that of the fresh-
water fishes is, perhaps, the most interesting. One remarkable fish, Ceratodus Forsteri,
now indigenous to but two rivers of Queensland, and known locally as the Mary or
Burnett River Salmon, and also as one of several species of so-called Barramundis,

is the most familiar with reference to its belonging to an order, the Dipnoi, of which

*« Mammals, Living and Extinct,” by Sir William Flower and Richard Lydekker, p. 135, 1891.

4 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the only other two discovered living representatives, Lepidosiren paradoxus and
Protopterus annectens, inhabit respectively the rivers of Brazil and those of tropical
Africa. The true Australian Barramundi, Osteoglossum Leichardti, also an inhabitant
of certain Queensland rivers, typifies a family group having but a limited number of
living representatives, which agree almost precisely with the Dipnoi in the singularity
of their geographical distribution. In this relationship Osteoglossum possesses even
more significant alliances. For while Ceratodus is represented in Brazil and Africa
by allied, but, at the same time, very distinctly differentiated generic types, the
rivers of Brazil and Guyana yield a species, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, referable to
the same genus as the Queensland fish. A third species, O. formosum, inhabits the
rivers of Bornea and Sumatra, and a fourth form, O. Jardinei, has been discovered and
chronicled by the writer within the last few years as inhabiting those rivers of North
Queensland which debouch upon the Gulf of Carpentaria. The ally of Osteoglossum
in the African continent is Heterotis niloticus, common to the Upper Nile and various
West African rivers. The most remarkable member of family Osteoglosside is,
however, the huge Arapaima gigas, which shares with Osteoglossum bicirrhosum a
Brazilian and Guyanan habitat. It is notable as being the largest known of Teleostean,
let alone fresh-water fishes. It not unfrequently exceeds a length of 15 feet.

The little native trouts, referable to the genus Galaxias, of the Australian
fresh-water streams, and so-called for their somewhat trout-like shape and usually
spotted ornamentation, are additional witnesses in evidence of the theory of an exten-
sive Antarctic Continent, wherein, in this instance, New Zealand is distinctly involved.
Of the numerous species of Galaxias known to science, an approximately equal
number are found in New Zealand and in Australia and Tasmania respectively. Three
species of the same genus are peculiar to the fresh-water lakes and rivers of Chili and
Patagonia, while one species, Galaxias attenuatus—as attested to by Dr. Gunther,
“Catalogue Fishes,” Vol. VI., p. 211—-occurs without any recognisable specific dis-
tinctions in the four widely-separated areas of Tasmania, New Zealand, the Falkland
Islands, and the southern parts of South America. No stronger evidence could perhaps
be adduced in demonstration of the pre-existence of a vast homogeneous Antarctic
Continent than that yielded by this little fresh-water generic group.

The fresh-water fishes of the family Haplochitonide, including the Australian
and New Zealand genus Prototroctes, or so-called cucumber mullets or graylings, and
the allied South American genus Haplochiton, yield corresponding though less abundant
testimony in the direction recorded of Galaxias. Within recent years a species of

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 5

Haplochiton, A. Seali, has been chronicled by Mr. R. M. Johnson* as occurring in
shoals in the waters of the river Derwent in South Tasmania. It is locally known
as the “Derwent Smelt.” It is noteworthy in the case of the several Australian
fresh-water fish genera—Galaxias, Prototroctes, and Haplochiton—that, while possessing
South American allies, they are not, as in the case of Osteoglossum and Ceratodus,
previously referred to, represented also upon the African Continent. Both here
and in other instances, where a near relationship can be apparently established
between Australian and African organic types, the representative forms are essentiaily
tropical or sub-tropical species. Where, on the other hand, the affinities with
South American types alone obtain, the specific forms are limited in their distribu-
tion to the extreme south or temperate regions of their respective areas. These
circumstances would seem to warrant the anticipation that the intercontinental
continuity of Australia with the south extremity of South America persisted for a
longer interval, and to a much later period, than that between Australia and a greater
or less extent of Africa. The very fact, indeed, of the survival of Galazias attenuatus
in an unaltered form in the several isolated localities above enumerated affords
substantial testimony in this direction. According to the generally accepted biological
axiom—‘“two identical species are never independently developed in remotely separated
localities.” This axiom, logically applied to the present distribution of Galazias
attenuatus, involves the unavoidable inference that its existing widely-isolated colonies
must have originated from a common centre, between which and its present habitats
there must have been a close land connection down to so comparatively recent a
date that even the essential diagnostic characters of the fish have remained unaltered,

The flightless Struthious birds, comprising the ostrich tribe and its allies, are
most commonly cited as affording by their geographical distribution the most
substantial evidence in demonstration of a pre-existent common centre of origin in
the shape of an extensive Antarctic Continent. In this direction, the Australian
region is especially rich. It possesses in conjunction with the neighbouring island of
New Guinea two representative genera of the order as typified by the Emu, Dromaius,
and one or more species of Cassowaries, Casuarius. While New Zealand is now in
possession of but one living generic representative of the order, the well-known
“Kiwi” or Apteryx, this now remotely separated island group was formerly the head-
quarters of the redoubtable Struthious race, which is exemplified by the giant “ Moa”

=

* R. M. Johnson, Proc. Zoo. Soc., 1882, p. 128.

6 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Dinornis. Abundant testimony has been adduced to show that the extinction of that
remarkable bird has been brought about by the earlier aboriginal inhabitants of the
island group within comparatively recent times. The bones of Dromornis, a form
very nearly related to the New Zealand Dinornis, if not those of this identical generic
type, have been found in the fossil state in the Darling Down deposits of the
Australian Continent; as also the remains of a type, Metapteryx bifrons, most closely
allied to the New Zealand Apteryx.*

In South America various species of the Rhoea, or so-called American Ostrich,
now alone survive as representatives of the Struthious order. Several distinct types
belonging to the same group have, however, as in the case of the allies of the
Marsupial mammal Hyracodon, been recently discovered in the tertiary deposits of
Patagonia. In like manner in the African Continent, the typical Ostrich, Struthio
camelus, is the sole survivor of a number of allied forms that probably populated
that and contiguous areas of the earth’s surface at an earlier geological epoch.

Among recent references to other bird types which, in addition to the Struthionide,
have yielded evidence in support of the hypothesis of a widely extending Antarctic
Continent, Mr. H. O. Forbes’ very interesting paper, “The Chatham Islands and their
relation to a former Antarctic Continent” (Proceedings of the Royal Geographical
Society, Vol. III., part 4, 1893), is specially worthy of mention. In this communication
some very remarkable data are given concerning the large flightless member of the Rail
or Wood-hen family, Aphanapteryx, which inhabited the Island of Mauritius, contempo-
raneously with the Dodo, down to about two hundred years ago. Quite recently,
following up the clue afforded by bones transmitted to him from the Chatham Islands,
500 miles east of New Zealand, Mr. Forbes obtained further material that fully
established the comparatively recent existence there of a species almost indistinguish-
able from the Mauritian form. The same deposits in the Chatham Islands also yielded
Mr. Forbes remains of several other types identical with existing New Zealand species,
including the sheep-destroying Kea, or Mountain Parrot, two hawks, an owl, and the
remarkable Tuatara lizard, Sphenodon (Hatteria) punctatus. Whilst none of these types
possess a direct Australasian association, their record as factors in the composition of
a previously continuous land connection between two now widely separated countries
in the southern ocean is of high significance.

There remain yet a few familiar Australian birds that are worthy of notice

* C. de Vis, Proc. Linn. Soc., New South Wales. Vol. VI., Sec. II., 1891.

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 7

in correlation with this Antarctic continental hypothesis. The little group of the
Jacanas, greatly resembling and allied to the Rails, but with longer legs and toes of
such remarkable length and tenuity that the birds run with ease and great celerity
over the surface of the leaves of the water lilies and other aquatic plants, is one of
these. The typical genus Parra includes some dozen species which are inhabitants
of tropical Australia, Africa, and South America. Their power of flight is essentially
feeble, and they could not possibly have arrived at their present widely separated
areas of distribution, but for some previous land connection between their respective
habitats. A bird of a very different character, but possessing a similar notable
distribution, is the gigantic Crane or Jabiru, Mycteria australis. Like the Jacana it
is a denizen of tropical or sub-tropical Australia, Africa, and South America. As
was pointed out many years since by the late Professor Huxley, the essentially
south-continental parrot tribe possesses some nearly related family groups in both
Australasia and South America. ~~

There are certain other birds indigenous to Australia which, with reference
to their distribution further afield, yield, in a less degree, similarly suggestive
evidence. The little wood swallows, referable to the genus Artamus, belong to this
category. In addition to being found in Australia, where they are most abundantly
represented, various species occur in India and in the essentially African region of
Madagascar. A. genus of true swallows, Atticora, also common in Australia, is yet
more significantly distributed, for it has, as with species previously cited, both the
South American and African continents recorded among its habitats.

The fauna of Australia is of peculiar interest, viewed altogether apart from
those phenomena which appear to justify our regarding that territory as the isolated
residuum of a disrupted Antarctic Continent. As an indirect but collateral outcome
of that interpretation, it is found that Australia can lay claim to the possession within
its boundaries of a fauna that yields the palm to no other one on the earth’s surface
in the matter of aristocratic and ancient lineage.

The aboriginal population ‘of Australia, such of it as still survives, is of itself
a standing monument of the high antiquity of that country’s fauna. As is conceded
by the common consent of experts in ethnology, the Australian aboriginal represents
the most primitive type of humanity. He is, in fact, a surviving relic of the Stone
Age, who, in this huge isolated island, has, in company with the marsupial mammals,
preserved his primeval simplicity down to the present date. Like all such less
civilised, or less effectively equipped, races, he is fast disappearing before the

8 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

advancing stronger and lethally armed northern arctogeal stocks. He is already
extinct through that agency in Tasmania; reduced to his last and most pitiful
conditions of existence in Victoria and the Europeanised districts of the adjacent
colonies; and it is only in the far north and in areas unsuited for the white man’s
occupation that he still retains his primeval habits and naturally robust physique.

That the Australian aboriginal represents a race entirely distinct from the
inhabitants of New Zealand, New Guinea, or any of the Indo-Malay islands is self-
evident to anyone having had the advantage of personal contact with members of these
several races. Even in the case of Papua or New Guinea, with whom an alliance
might be most reasonably anticipated, it has been pointed out by Dr. A. R. Wallace
that the roots of their respective dialects, a most important diagnostic character, are
essentially distinct. Among the notable points of divergence exhibited by the Australian
aborigines, as compared with the most contiguous races, those relating to their devel-
opment of the arts of navigation and the manufacture of war or hunting weapons,
are particularly prominent.

Navigation as practised by the coastal Australian tribes is of the most primitive
description, exhibiting in this association a striking contrast with the Malay and
Papuan races, who are expert sailors and boat builders. The aboriginal Tasmanians
apparently forswore the sea and possessed no floating craft whatever. Among: the
Southern Australian tribes, in the wider sense, nothing in advance of a floating log,
used in still waters for fishing purposes, has been recorded. On the Eastern, Queens-
land coast, and in the neighbourhood of the Palm Islands more especially, rough
canoes, rarely capable of holding more than two people, are fashioned out of single
sheets of bark stripped from the larger Eucalypti, and dexterously fastened together at
the two extremities. Higher up the same coast we meet with dug-out canoes having
the typical Malay and Papuan outrigger. The form has been most undoubtedly
borrowed from the Papuan, and is indeed most frequently derived directly from
Papuan sources; a trade in which these canoes form an important factor being carried
on between New Guinea and the Torres Straits Islands, whence they filter through to
North Queensland.

The North-Western, Kimberley, or King’s Sound, district of Western Australia,
undoubtedly produces the most distinctive type of native craft. This consists of a
triangular raft made from poles of the indigenous “Cyprus Pine,” apparently identical
with Frenella robusta, fastened together with wooden pegs, and supplemented at the

wider end by a few vertically affixed sticks, upon or between which the successful

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

Figs. 1 & 2, RAFT AND NATIVES OF KINGS SOUND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 9.
Figs. 3-6. GLASS AND QUARTZ SPEAR HEADS OF WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES, p. 12.

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 9

fisherman impales his finny trophies. This ingenious raft, in a yet more primitive
form, composed of two or three poles only, upon which the native sits and paddles
with his hands, is mentioned in Capt. King’s “Survey of the Coasts of Australia,”
Vol. 1, p. 48, 1826. At page 38 of the same work the author refers to the yet
simpler boat consisting of a single log, one such craft with its seated navigator
being figured on the title page of the work.

Captain King’s figure and descriptions relate to observations made by him in
the vicinity of Dampier’s Archipelago, several degrees south of King’s Sound, where
the more complex, and what might be designated “fully-rigged” raft is employed.
As shown in characteristic photographs of this more advanced type of naval architecture,
reproduced in Plate I., Fig. 1, taken by the author at Cygnet Bay, King’s Sound,
the occupant usually occupies an erect position, paddling the craft with his fishing
spear. In this particular instance, a rude paddle, fashioned out of a split rail, is
substituted for the customary spear. Seen from a little distance, and more especially
when, as often happens, there are no supplementary vertical attachments and the
raft is more or less completely submerged, the natives, propelling these frail structures,
present to a remarkable extent the appearance that they are walking on the surface
of the water, and when thus migrating in social companies from one to another of
the King’s Sound Island groups, constitute a singular spectacle. The precise form
and construction of this King’s Sound raft is clearly shown in Fig. 2 of the same
plate, which represents the native who propelled the raft in the preceding figure,
occupied with a comrade in transporting it to the water.

The foregoing photographic reproductions, together with those selected for a
head-piece to this Chapter, constitute characteristic illustrations of the general physique
and ordinary apparel and armature of the natives in the immediate neighbourhood. of
King’s Sound. In the first relationship, the figure and build of many of these dusky
warriors, excepting for the slenderness of their limbs, is of a shapely, almost classic
mould, and in marked contrast to that of the aboriginal tribes further south. This
very perceptible fact is, in a large measure, due to the circumstance that the natives
here represented have suffered little or no deterioration from contact with the colonizing
Europeans and are as yet strangers to those diseases and vices, without the counter-
balancing virtues, which to their slow, but certain destruction, are so readily acquired
wherever the white man and the primeval savage are brought into intimate intercourse.
As a matter of. fact, several of the individuals. deployed in open. line upon the

sand ridge, in the leading to this Chapter, had only ‘within the previous day or
B

10 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

two, made their first acquaintance with civilisation, having just arrived from an
unsettled district to the north of King’s Sound to participate with previously engaged
kinsmen, in the earnings and perquisites obtainable for their assistance in the
Béche-de-Mer fishery.

The sartorial accessories of the North Australian aboriginal are not such as
to demand elaborate description. In addition to his “birthday suit,” a polished,
variously engraved mother-of-pearl shell, Meleagrina, secured round his waist by a
girdle of twisted human hair, probably that of his wife or wives, a stick thrust
skewer-wise through the nasal septum, and on festal occasions, a little paint, represents
the alpha and the omega of his not very extensive wardrobe. Some of these shell
aprons, which may be regarded as an artistic antipodeal adaptation of the classic
fig-leaf, are somewhat elaborate in their pattern of ornamentation. Among the

examples of these shell aprons, included

in the photographic figures reproduced
on this page, the one on the top left
hand corner might suggest, to the en-
thusiastic student of the dawn of art,
the prototype of the decorative pattern
known as the “Grecian Key.” It is a
trite saying that extremes meet! On
carefully examining between the lines in
this particular example, it will be ob-
served that small triradiate characters
are scattered here and there near the
lower edge. These must not be inter-
preted as the equivalent of the cuneiform
symbols of Ancient Nineveh, excepting
to the same extent as the broad arrow

of the British Government may be trace-

able to the same source. As a matter

L of fact, these particular shell ornaments

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
CARVED BAOBAB NUT AND SHELL APRONS, WITH HUMAN HAIR GIRDLES,
KIMBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. ONE-FIFTH NAT. SIZE.

were obtained from natives belonging to
the settled district of Roebuck Bay, who
have consequently added this, to them, white man’s totem mark, to their own

repertoire. The most conspicuous character of these shell etchings, reproduced also

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 11

on the baobab fruit in the centre of the group figured, is the strictly rectilinear plan
of all of the several patterns. This character prevails also, so far as the writer has
observed, in all the carvings on their wooden shields, woomeras, or throwing sticks,
and other articles in ordinary use.

The weapons of the Australian aboriginals are but few, narrow wooden
shields, spears, the boomerang or kiley, a truncheon or knob kerri, a stone axe with
a wooden haft, and in some parts of Queensland a large roughly fashioned two-
handed sword, fairly complete the list. In the boomerang, however, they undoubtedly
possess a weapon that is almost (see Appendix A.) unique in the world’s armoury.

The form and method of use of this instrument will be familiar to most readers.

In outward angle. Diverse
aspect it is shapes and
merely an sizes of the

elongate boomerang

smoothly-flat- are used re-
tened piece spectively for
of hard dark-

coloured

war, when
hunting Wal-
wood, most laby or Kan-
frequently of garoo, or for
acacia, bent striking fish.
in the centre In the hands
and in the of its owner

same plane this simple

eS

at a some- a = eo aa a ee Weapon, as 1s
IV, Saville-Kent, Photo,
what vary- NATIVES OF KIMBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, SHOWING ATTITUDE ASSUMED well known,
WHEN HOLDING AND THROWING THE BOOMERANG.
ing obtuse can be made

fo)
to perform a series of most astonishing evolutions. It may be sent skimming

along the surface of the ground for hundreds of feet or circling in the air
almost out of sight, and, if thrown with skilful hands, returns as though it were
a trained, sentient emissary, to the feet of the thrower. The position in which
this very characteristic weapon is held on the point of its release from the hand,
as also the manner in which reserve boomerangs are stored, like holster pistols,
in the hair girdle, previously referred to, is aptly illustrated on this page, where two

warriors are ostensibly pitted against each other in an attitude of mortal combat.

12 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The spear of the native Australian is commonly, and more especially as used
for striking fish, simply a long pointed stick of hardened wood. For the larger
terrestrial game and for conflict with his fellow man, however, its efficiency is usually
increased by the addition of a bone barb or trenchant spear-head manufactured out of
chert, quartz or other suitably hard stone, which is affixed to the shaft by means of
a strong, resinous gum derived from the bruised blades and stalks of the spinifex
grass, Triodia irritans. Since coming in contact with European civilisation, the natives
have shown themselves to be great adepts at turning to account all materials intro-
duced by the settlers, suited to their simple needs. In this manner the discarded
glass bottles of manifold description which bestrew the ground like the leaves in
the famed Valley of Vallombrosa, around every North Australian township, and
which, in a less marked degree, mark the track of the prospector, have proved a
veritable God-send to the native. Out of this most unpromising material he will
manufacture spear-heads, pointed like a needle, and of the most exquisite workman-
ship.* An abnormally elongated example of one of these spear-heads, manufactured by~
a Kimberley native, with the view rather of demonstrating the workman’s skill than
for practical use, is reproduced from a photograph of the natural size in Plate [.,
Fig. 3. Opposite to this, fig. 4, is one of more normal dimensions, blunted by use,
and attached to the broken spear-haft by the customary spinifex-gum ‘cement.
Figures 5 and 6 represent smaller sized spear-heads manufactured out of white quartz,
which are now comparatively rare. The needle-like sharpness of the point in fig. 5
is particularly well defined.

In addition to bottles, the insulating glasses attached to the telegraph posts
have unfortunately been found by the Kimberley natives to be equally efficacious for
the manufacture of spear-heads, and are not unfrequently appropriated for this
purpose in the sparsely settled districts, to the great discomfiture of the telegraph
officials. The method by which these glass and quartz spear-heads are manufactured
presents points of interest. The flaking off of the superfluous surfaces is not
accomplished, as might be imagined, by direct percussion, but by a skilfully applied
pressing or gouging action with the aid of another suitably shaped fragment of hard

stone, or, if the native can obtain it, a piece of iron. The rough shaping of the

* The interesting circumstance has been related to the author by Mr. Henry Balfour, the accomplished
Curator of the Oxford University Museum, that the Fuegian Natives of Terra del Fuego and the mainland
shores of the Magellan Straits are in the habit of utilising discarded bottles in a closely identical manner for
the manufacture of their arrow-heads.

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 13

general form and sides is accomplished in a few hours, but the formation and finish
of the finer points is a longer process, involving the expenditure of much time and
patience, and, as witnessed by the writer, frequent failures before perfection is arrived at.

There is an accessory instrument commonly used in conjunction with the spear
by the aborigines of North Queensland and North-Western Australia which is
of rare occurrence among spear-armed nations. This is the Throwing Stick, or
“Woomera,” a piece of flattened wood about two feet six in length and three to six
inches wide. A small bone or hard-wood peg is attached at an acute angle to
the further, distal, end of the instrument, and this fits into a notch in the proximal
end of the spear. This accessory instrument gives as it were double length and
leverage power to the arm of the spear wielder, who can thus launch his weapon
with irresistible force against all but the most impenetrable objects. Among the
Kimberley, Western Australian, Natives, the flat surfaces of this ‘‘ Woomera,” or
Throwing-Stick, are, as previously stated, commonly ornamented with carvings presenting
various rectilinear patterns, while the handle end, among the North Queensland
Tribes, is often decorated with pieces of shell, or the scarlet seeds of that cosmopolitan
tropical creeper, Abrus precatorius, half embedded in a matrix of spinifex cement.
A peculiarity observed by the author as usually distinguishing the Woomeras of
Queensland from those of Western Australia is the. circumstance that the peg
attached to the extremity in the Queensland examples is affixed in the plane corre-
sponding with the broad side of the weapon while in those from Western Australia,
it is invariably at right angles to it.

The mechanical means utilised by the Australian aborigines for the production
of fire invite brief attention. In Queensland the mechanism usually employed consists
of two slender light-wood rods some four or five feet in length. One of these
is placed horizontally on the ground and held firmly in this position with the
feet, while the second rod is placed vertically upon it, with its tip resting in a
slight indentation made in the horizontal one. The vertical rod is now rotated
backwards and forwards between the two hands at so high a speed that the lower
one produces sparks which are communicated to some dry grass placed close at
hand. From this, with a little nursing, a large fire is soon established. For
convenience of carriage, the “broader” ends of these two fire-sticks are inserted
into a short wooden sheath, which is commonly covered with spinifex gum, decorated,
as are the handles of the “‘ Woomeras,” with the scarlet seeds of Abrus precatorius.

This rotatory method of producing fire is, it would appear, practised also in-India and

‘14 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the Malay Archipelago, whence doubtless it was originally communicated to North
Queensland.

In the Kimberley district of Western Australia, fire is also produced through
the friction of two pieces of wood, but on a different principle. The main portion
of the apparatus consists of a dry piece of wood about eighteen inches long, such
as the butt of a eucalyptus sapling. This is split down for some six inches at
its narrower end, a wedge of wood is inserted to keep the split edges apart, and
within this cleft a tuft of fine dry grass is fixed. The thin edge of the split half
of a second shorter piece of dry wood is now rapidly rubbed across the grass-holding
portion of the first one, as in the action of filing or fiddling. Within a few minutes
fire is produced, which ignites the accompanying tuft of grass, and is further developed
as in the preceding case.

It is, perhaps, worthy of note that these mechanical methods of generating fire
are but seldom resorted to. When the fire has been once established, it becomes the
duty of the women, after the manner of the classic “ Vestal Virgins,” to maintain the
flame unquenched, and, during migrations, to carry lighted fire-sticks with them. In
all except the few remaining absolutely unsettled districts, moreover, the fire instruments
produced by Bryant and May, and their compeers, have well-nigh superseded the
primitive native methods. |

The conventional “place aux dames” has been gallantly conceded to the
Australian aboriginal women-folk in the form of a corner illustration in the opening
page of this Chapter. Compared with their dusky lords deployed in martial statuesque
attitudes immediately above them, they scarcely present a pleasing contrast. Being in
point of fact, as is generally the case among the lower races of humanity, the mere
slaves and drudges of their lieges, it is but little to be wondered at that at an early
date after emerging from childhood they lose, as viewed from a European stand-
point, all of such little comeliness and attractiveness as they may have originally
possessed. The most notable, though by no means the most handsome, figure in the
group occupies the second place on the left. It represents a widow whose recent
bereavement is attested to by the special pattern of her coiffeur, her normally matted
hair being subdivided into pendant ringlets that are separately stiffened with rolls
of moistened clay.

The illustration added as a tail-piece to this Chapter, may be most appropriately
referred to on this page. It is the photographic replica of a hollow wooden cradle,
such as is customarily used by the native women of the Kimberley district of Western

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GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 15

Australia, for the reception and porterage of their infants. As not unexceptionally
happens with its homotype in modern civilisation—the more or less elaborate
perambulator—this infant receptacle, when not in demand for the more legitimate
purpose of its construction, is frequently employed for the baser purposes of deporting
supplies for the family commissariat. The specimen here figured, is a remarkably fine
and well-shaped example, measuring over three feet in length. It was obtained by the
author at Derby, in the neighbourhood of King’s Sound, and has been contributed by
him to the ethnological collections of the Oxford University Museum.

This short notice of a few of the more salient characteristics of the Australian
aborigines may be concluded by a reference to the photograph reproduced in Plate II.
It depicts about a score of the warriors of the Roebuck Bay district, Western Aus-
tralia, in one of their festal. dances, or so-called corroborees, clad for the occasion in
fullest ball-dress costume, and taken, in the majority of instances, literally ‘“‘on the
hop.” The shapes and proportionate dimensions of the several weapons previously
referred to, as also the physical development of the natives of this particular tribe,
are very clearly portrayed in the illustration.

The animal inhabitants of Australasia, other than homo sapiens, provide the
naturalist with a wide field for speculative interpretation and investigation. The mam-
malian class alone furnishes evidence of its high antiquity in the fact that, with the
exception of the Dingo, or wild dog, which there is strong reason to believe was
introduced by human agency, and a few rodents, all its members belong to the
primitive marsupialian order, or to the yet lower organised one of the monotremata.
This last-named group includes but two Australian specific types, the familiar Spiny
Ant-eater, Echidna aculeata, or so-called “ Porcupine,” of the Australian settlers, and
the yet more remarkable Duck-billed Platypus or Ornithorhynchus, Ornithorhynchus
paradoxus. Photographic representations of both of these very singular animals will
be found reproduced on Plate III. A third species, Proechidna Brugnii, very nearly
related to the ordinary Echidna, is, in company with the last-named species, indigen-
anid also to New Guinea. The essential external characteristic of the representatives
of this small but most interesting order is the peculiar beak-like modification of the
mouth and the accompanying rudimentary nature, or, as in Echidna, complete
obliteration of the teeth. The internal structure of the monotremata is yet more
remarkable, approximating in certain essential details to that of the Sauropsida or birds
and reptiles. This implied affinity has, within recent years, been more conclusively
established by the discovery that the young are produced from eggs laid by the

16 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

parent after the manner of the members of the above-named groups. The antiquity
of this monotrematous order is indicated by the circumstance that teeth most
closely resembling the temporarily developed ones of Ornithorhynchus have been met
with in association with certain obscure mammalian remains that occur as fossils in
the mesozoic strata of North America.

The natural food habits of both the Ornithorhynchus and the Echidna are such
as to prevent them from becoming forms with which the British public can hope to
become very familiar in the living state. The Ornithorhynchus is essentially an aquatic
animal. It is for the most part, though not strictly, nocturnal, and dependant upon a
pabulum of worms, fish spawn, mollusca and aquatic insects that cannot be easily
supplied in a state of captivity. All efforts, so far, even in Australia, have failed to
keep it alive for more than a few weeks, and no attempts to bring it to Europe
have proved successful. The authority who has cultivated, and published an account of,
the most intimate acquaintanceship with the Ornithorhynchus is, undoubtedly, the late
Dr. George Bennett, of Sydney. In his well-known work, “The Gatherings of a
Naturalist,” published in the year 1860, he has given a most interesting and widely-
quoted record of his extended experiences in the possession of numerous examples of
both young and adult individuals, neither of which, however, he was able to keep
alive for a long period. Dr. Bennett was also unsuccessful in solving that knotty
question relative to the reproductive phenomena of Ornithorhynchus, which had at. this
earlier date already attracted the attention of many eminent naturalists, and which was
only set at rest in the year 1884 by the investigations of Mr. W. H. Caldwell, who
then, for the first time, incontestibly demonstrated that both this type, as well as the
Echidna, were oviparous mammalia.

The Ornithorhynchus, or Duck-billed Platypus, has not fallen within the writer’s
purview to an extent that enables him to place on record any new data concerning its
natural habits. At the salmon and trout-hatching establishment on the river Plenty,
in Tasmania, this interesting animal had, unfortunately, to be systematically destroyed
on account of its too strongly developed proclivities for dieting on the jealously
guarded ova of the Salmonide. A wounded specimen, obtained from this source, which
survived for but a day or so, was the only living one that fell into the author’s
possession. While investigating and reporting for the Victorian Government upon the
fish and fisheries of the Victorian section of the river Murray, in the neighbourhood of
Echuca, a well-authenticated instance was reported to the writer of a lad who,

incautiously holding a male Platypus that had become entangled in his father’s nets,

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 17

received a severe wound from the animal. The Platypus, it appears, gripped the
boy’s palm between its opposed spurs, as though with a pair of callipers, and with
such force as to pierce the flesh on either side. The result was a festering wound,
which refused to heal for some months and deprived the lad for the time of the use of
the injured hand. The cicatrice of the scarcely healed wound was shown to the
writer, who has no hesitation in accepting this as an authentic demonstration of the
capacity of the male Platypus to use its spurs defensively. Much doubt has been
expressed upon this point in Natural History works, and with the exception of a
somewhat analogous instance recorded by Mr. Spicer, of a Tasmanian example, in the
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for the year 1876, little or no evidence
of an absolutely positive nature has been forthcoming. The spur of the male Platypus
is of a somewhat complex structure. In adult individuals it is as much as an inch
long, of hard, horny consistence, traversed throughout its length by a minute
canal, terminating in a fine longitudinal slit near the point and connected at its base
with the duct of a large gland situated at the back part of the thigh. The apparatus,
as a whole, in fact, resembles to a most remarkable degree the combined fang
and poison-gland of a venomous serpent.

In Flower and Lydekker’s ‘Mammals, Living and Extinct,” p. 123, from which
the above characters of the spur of Ornithorhynchus have been reproduced, the
evidence concerning its nature and functions are accepted as most strongly favouring
the interpretation that these structures are employed as aggressive weapons, after the
manner of the antlers of deer and other similar organs, in combats between contending
males. The peculiar incurved direction, however, in which the spurs are set upon the
hind feet and the ease with which, in life, they may be employed to grasp any object
of approximate proportions, has led the writer to believe that they are not improb-
ably employed, as are the claspers of the male members of the shark tribe, for the
secure retention of the female at the breeding season. The slipperiness of a Platypus
and the difficulty experienced in retaining hold of a struggling individual are well
known to those personally familiar with the living animal, and the natural advantages
of possessing some suitable prehensile structure are self-evident. The analogy of
function suggested between the claspers of the shark and incurving spurs of the
male Platypus allow of an even further histological comparison, the organs of the
shark being ossified appendages of the pubes which have, in like manner, large
secreting glands at their bases which communicate externally by tubular canals. The

supposed poisonous properties of the glands associated with the spurs of the male
Cc

18 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Platypus have not been practically demonstrated, and it would seem to be highly
probable that, as with many other animals, their functional import and activity are
intimately connected with the pairing season. The fact that wounds from these spurs
are difficult to heal may be explained by the circumstance that a puncture from any
blunt, conically pointed instrument may produce a similar effect.

Dr. Bennett, in his work previously quoted, makes a very brief reference to that
near living relation of the Platypus, the Echidna or Spiny Ant-Eater, commonly, but
incorrectly, associated by Australian colonists with the title of the “ Porcupine.” The
single example kept by Dr. Bennett does not appear to have ingratiated itself very
deeply in his favour, and is finally dismissed with the sentence, “So much trouble
was given by its burrowing habits-and spinal irritation, that its death was not regarded
with much regret.” A couple of specimens of the Tasmanian form, Echidna aculeata
var. setosa, were for some months in the author’s possession, and well repaid the care
and attention bestowed upon them. While for the first few days excessively shy,
presenting an impenetrable chevaua de /frise of sharp-pointed spines to all friendly
advances, and incorrigible burrowers in their endeavours to escape from captivity, they
soon showed themselves amenable to kindly influences. After a brief course of
domestication, they would follow their owner in the house or adjacent grounds, and
were quite accustomed to, and seemingly appreciated, being carried, thrown across
the arm, after the manner of a lap-dog. Having satisfied their hunger at an ants’
nest or with the artificial food, chiefly bread and milk or oatmeal, provided for them,
they especially delighted, when liberated in the garden, in spreading themselves out
at full length to bask in the sunniest spot they could find. In the house they
displayed an inquisitive turn of mind, peering into every crevice and climbing upon
and exploring every accessible article of furniture. This climbing proclivity, in point
of fact, occasioned the demise of one of the specimens, which, scaling and accidentally
falling from the back of a high chair, injured its spine to such an extent that it
shortly afterwards died from the effects.

An adjacent piece of uncultivated bush-land that abounded in ants’ nests
proved a most happy hunting-ground for the two Echidne, which, as recognised
members of the family circle, rejoiced in the respective sobriquets of “Prickles” and
“Pins.” The natural ant-eating propensities of the Echidna do not appear, so far, to
have been precisely defined. As clearly demonstrated by observations and experiments
made with the examples in the author’s possession, adult ants, pure and simple, do not

constitute its normal, or even an acceptable, diet. Placed in contiguity to a teeming

PLATE III.

Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

Fig. |. DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS, Ornithorhynchus puradoxus, p. 15.
Figs. 2-5. ECHIDNA OR SPINY ANT-EATER, Echidna setosa, p. 18.

Kies. 2-4. AUSTRALIAN MAINLAND. — Big. 5. TASMANIAN VARIETY.

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 19

ant track, they would, unlike the ant-eating lizard Moloch horridus hereafter described,
take no notice of it, appreciating the insects only under the conditions obtaining
in the nests or hillocks. These edifices they would soon tear open with their
powerful claws, exposing to view the white succulent nymphs, larvee, and pup, or
so-called eggs, upon which alone they concentrated their attention. A considerable
quantity of adult ants and also of earth is no doubt inadvertently consumed with
the specially sought pabulum, and it is this circumstance, added to the fact that this
adventitious material remains longest undigested, and is, indeed, frequently the only
thing found within the alimentary canal on dissection, that has given support to the
commonly-received opinion that ants, in the ordinary adult state, constitute the
Echidna’s food.

The domestic habits of the Echidne in the author’s possession were surprisingly
cleanly, and, notwithstanding the low status of the creature in the mammalian scale,
identical with those exhibited by a well-trained cat, rejectamenta being in a similar
manner buried beneath the earth by the deliberate rake-like action of the animal’s
fore-paws. In common with Ornithorhynchus, the male Echidna develops a large
horny spur, accompanied by a special gland, upon each of its hinder limbs.
As, however, in no instance yet recorded has the animal been known to attempt
to use these spurs aggressively, it may be inferred that, as surmised in the case
of the last-named species, they are subservient to some as yet imperfectly compre-
hended sexual function. Being, as compared with Ornithorhynchus, easy to keep
in captivity, and adapting itself more or less readily to an artificial diet of bread
and milk and minutely chopped boiled eggs, the Echidna is usually on view in the
menageries of the Australian Colonies, and has on one occasion been exhibited alive
in the London Zoological Gardens.*

The order of the Marsupialia, while representing a very decided advance in
both structure and affinities as compared with the Monotremata, are, next to this last-
named group, the most primitive of existing mammalia. The familiar and highly
characteristic physiological distinction of this Marsupialian order is the general

possession by the female animal of a pouch or “marsupium,” or otherwise a sphinctered

* While penning these lines, July, 1896, a fine living Echidna, 2. aculeata, has been imported to England
and secured for the Hon. Walter Rothschild’s admirably appointed Zoological Museum at Tring. Through
the facilities extended to the author by its fortunate possessor and the Museum Curator, Mr. E. Hartert, the
smaller photographs from life included in Plate III. have been added to this volume.

20 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

folding of the abdominal integument for the safe lodgment of the newly-born young.
These young are, furthermore, brought forth at a very early and rudimentary -stage
of their development, and there is not that pre-natal union with the mother through
the medium of an allantoic placenta that is the rule among all higher mammals. Ac-
cording, however, to the most recent investigations, a rudimentary development of this
embryological structure occurs in one of the Bandicoots, Perameles.

Within the limits of the Marsupialian order the modifications in form and
habits of its component members are almost as marked as those which are found
throughout the entire range of the higher mammalian groups of the Eutheria. True
carnivora are thus traced in such predatory types as the so-called Tasmanian tiger or
wolf, Thylacinus cynocephalus, and the Tasmanian Devil, Sarcophilus ursinus. These
two forms, while now living only in the southern island of Tasmania, were, as shown
by their fossil remains, formerly represented by identical or closely allied species on the
Australian mainland. A circumstance, however, of even higher interest and significance
is the discovery within the past two years of the fossil remains of a species,
Prothylacinus patagonicus, in the tertiary deposits of Patagonia, which apparently
closely resembled the Tasmanian Thylacine in habits and structure. These remains,
together with those of many other Marsupial types having distinct Thylacine and
Dasyurine affinities, have been figured and described at length by Florentino Ameghino
in the Brazilian “Bulletin of the Academy of Cordova” for the year 1894.

Passing on to the so-called Australian native cats or Dasyures, ‘usually dis-
tinguished by their profusely spotted plan of ornamentation, there may be said to be a
considerable approximation to the Viverrine or Civet and Ichneumon group of the
carnivora; while in Myrmicobius, a small Western and Southern Australian type, the
habits and correlated conformation of the attenuate snout and abnormally elongate pro-
trusible tongue closely correspond with those of the higher ant-eaters. The only known
existing species, Myrmicobius fasciatus—tfrequently misnamed a “squirrel” in those dis-
tricts of Western Australia where it most abounds—is of special interest, since it possesses
a larger number of teeth than any existing Marsupial. In this respect and also in their
character, the teeth of Myrmicobius coincide closely with those of certain primitive
mammalian types, such as Amphilestes, Amblotherium and allied forms, which occur in
the upper jurassic formations of both Europe and the United States.

The Bandicoots, Perameles and its allies, include numerous small forms, the
largest not exceeding a rabbit in size. Their habits are partly vegetarian and

partly imsectivorous. In the latter respect, as also in their general form and usually

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 21

much elongated contour of the snouts, they bear a not inconsiderable resemblance
to the shrews and certain other members of the higher mammalian order of the
Insectivora. The Australian badgers or wombats, genus Phascolomys, with their
thick-set bodies, short legs, and plantigrade gait, are commonly likened to members of
the bear family. Associated with this purely superficial resemblance they possess chisel-
like incisor teeth and other internal characteristics which more nearly approximate
them to the beaver and other of the larger rodents. It is of interest to note that
the remains of an extinct species of wombat, which must have equalled the tapir in
size, were discovered some time since in the pleistocene deposits of Queensland, and
were correlated by Professor Sir Richard Owen with the distinctive title of Phascolonus
gigas. Various species of wombats still exist both in Tasmania and throughout the
Australian mainland.

The general features of the extensive family of the kangaroos, Macropodide,
will be too familiar to need descriptive detail. In addition to the kangaroos, it
embraces the wallabies, wallaroos, kangaroo rats, and other allied- types, varying in
dimensions from the big “boomer” or “old man” kangaroo, which will over-top a
man when standing erect on ‘its hind feet, to diminutive forms which, as their name
implies, are not larger than ordinary rats. All the Macropodide are distinguished
by the preponderating length of their hinder limbs, upon which alone they progress
under any stimulus to rapid movement by a characteristic series of leaps and bounds.
Being essentially vegetarian in their habits, the larger species of the kangaroo family,
where abundant, so seriously tax the resources of the Australian pasture lands as to
necessitate the adoption of stringent measures to keep them in check. This untoward
necessity, combined with the high value set upon kangaroo skins, has contributed towards
the complete extirpation of the “ Boomer” throughout a large extent of the prairie-
like tracts of Australian pastoral land on which it abounded previous to the advent
of the settler.

The most remarkable members of this family group are undoubtedly the Tree
Kangaroos, belonging to the genus Dendrolagus, which to the form of the ordinary
terrestrial species unite the tree-frequenting habits of the opossums or phalangers. To
the three species of this genus originally reported from New Guinea, two additional
ones—Dendrolagus Lumholizi and D. Bennetianus—their native name “ Boongarry,”
have been recently discovered in North Queensland.

The transition from the Tree Kangaroos to the essentially arborescent

Australian Opossums or Phalangers, Phalangeridz, would seem, at first sight, to be

22 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

most natural. As. pointed out, however, by Flower and Lydekker, “Mammals Living
and Extinct,” p. 166, the resemblance between the limbs and habits of the Tree
Kangaroos and the Phalangers must have been independently acquired. The family
of the Phalangeridz: embraces many very dissimilar structural forms, including some
of the most beautiful representatives of their order. Almost all the species are
remarkable for the extreme softness and richness of their fur, the black Opossum,
Phalangista fuliginosa, from the colder climate of Tasmania, outrivalling the others
in this respect. For symmetry of form and grace and agility of movement,
however, the palm must undoubtedly, be given to their near allies the “Flying
Opossums,” or so-called “Flying Squirrels,” pertaining to the genera Petaurus,
Petauroides and Acrobates. Here we have a_ structural modification in all
ways identical with what occurs in the true Indian Flying Squirrels, Pteromys and
Sciopterus, of the order Rodentia, which consists of a parachute-like membrane
that extends between the fore and hind limbs. With this accessory locomotive
apparatus the flying Phalangers have little or no occasion to descend, as do the
ordinary opossums, to the ground between the component trees of the vast Eucalyptus
forests in which they take up their abode, intervening chasms of one hundred. feet or
more being readily surmounted with the aid of the extended parachute. The largest
species of Flying Opossum, Petauroides volans, has a body equalling in dimensions that
of a large cat, and with its thick fur and long bushy tail it bears a by no
means inconsiderable resemblance to the French or Persian variety of our domestic
Grimalkin. The portraits of a remarkably beautiful, albino example of this species
that was in the author's possession in Queensland, are given on page 25. It was
obtained near Brisbane. Although the fur throughout was a rich creamy white,
the eyes were not pink but retained the rich brown lustre of the normal
individuals. Being almost exclusively nocturnal or crepuscular in its-habits, the many
attempts to secure a successful photograph from life of this Opossum by daylight
proved abortive and the one here reproduced, with pendant tail, in the act of
feeding, was taken by the author at night, with the aid of a magnesium flash-lamp.

The abnormally long furry tail of this Flying Phalanger is not prehensile, as
with the majority of the ordinary opossums, and when the animal is leisurely
browsing, as in the portrait referred to, usually hangs laxly at full length. At other
times, when walking along or resting on a branch, this animal manifested the singular’
habit of coiling its tail in a tight revolute coil like that of a watch spring or a-
butterfly’s proboscis, as shown in the drawing from life, reproduced in the lower

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 23

figure on the same page. The author is not aware that this peculiar comport-
ment of the caudal appendage is exhibited by any other known mammal, though it
would appear to be to some extent approximated by certain of the Lemurs and in
the Saki monkeys.

The white example here figured and described, was a female, and, when
captured, had a half-grown male cub in its pouch. This young one, while having
white ears and a white breast, was otherwise of a dark Chinchilla orey tint, like the
more ordinary members of his species. A back view of this young individual, well
illustrating the great length and thickness of its beautiful fur, is reproduced in
Plate IV., fig. 4. Although this species has been frequently imported to Europe,
neither of these two Queensland individuals took kindly to any other diet than
the foliage of their native gum trees, and more especially the Queensland Peppermint
variety, Eucalyptus microcorys. Efforts were made to accustom them to a regimen of
fruits and farinaceous substances, with the view of bringing them to England. The
young animal unfortunately succumbed to the ordeal, and the white one was left in
charge of an ardent admirer, who guaranteed it a constant and unlimited enjoyment
of its native pabulum.

Among the several species of Australian Flying Phalangers, or so-called Flying
Squirrels, the little form known in many districts as the “Sugar Squirrel,” Petaurus
breviceps, is in many respects the one best adapted for making a domestic pet, and
is most justly alluded to in Flower and Lydekker’s volume, previously referred to,
as “the most beautiful of all mammals.” Its size is somewhat less than that of
the British Squirrel, its thick downy fur most comparable in colour and texture
to that of the Chinchilla, and its habits in captivity are most attractive and
endearing. Its range in the Australian Colonies is practically cosmopolitan, it
occurring in Queensland, the Southern Colonies, and as far north as the Kimberley
district of Western Australia. Although apparently. not originally indigenous to
Tasmania, it has been transported to and liberated there within recent years, and
is now tolerably abundant in the midland districts of that island-Colony. In
association with the several individuals kept at various times by the writer, it was
observed that the leaping, or so-called “flying” properties they so prominently
manifest, are somewhat erroneously represented.in the majority of works on Natural
History. In the figures given of this and other species of Phalangers taking their
characteristic leaps, the body is almost invariably depicted as assuming a horizontal

position, or, if inclined at any angle, in such manner that the head is the lowermost.

24 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

As a matter of fact, the position exhibited at such times is almost identical with that
assumed by a trained acrobat performing on the high trapeze, or that of the Langur
monkeys, as they have been observed by the writer, leaping across the intervening
spaces between the forest tree tops on the outskirts of the Botanic Gardens, at
Singapore. The head and shoulders, as represented in the photographic illustration
reproduced on this page, are always maintained at the highest level, with the fore
limbs outstretched and ready to grasp the first branch or other object reached.

That this is the true position maintained by the Phalangers during their flying

leaps was very practically demonstrated by one of the examples of the Sugar

Squirrel, Petaurus breviceps, obtained - - — —

from Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, vy y Lp

and presented to the author by Mr.

G. S. Streeter. This little animal

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

SHORT-HFADED FLYING PHALANGER.

Petaurus breviceps, SHOWING POSITION MAIN-
TAINED DURING ITS CHARACTERISTIC FLYING-
LEAP. ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE.

accompanied him for some time on his travels, usually sleeping in its cage throughout
the day, waking up to its characteristic activity as soon as the sun had set, and
sharing the full liberty of whatever apartment was allotted to its owner. At one
resting stage, a room some thirty feet long and over fifteen feet high was placed at
the writer’s disposal. The flying squirrel speedily signalised its appreciation of the
abundant space at command, by climbing up the curtains and cornices and thence
gaining access to the projecting frieze close to the ceiling. Arrived at this coign of
vantage, the little fellow delighted in launching himself through the air, with limbs

and patagium outspread, to objects at the most remote end of the room, the author’s

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 25

person, if standing up to receive him,
being a favourite goal to aim at. In
all instances, as on other occasions
noted, the oblique attitude previously
attested to, was in no way departed
from. This same individual distinguished
himself one day in this apartment by so
utterly disappearing, instead of return-
ing as usual to his nest to sleep, that
he was given up for lost. Towards
dusk, however, Master Tiny, as he was
familiarly known, quietly emerged—like
Minerva springing from the head of
Jupiter—from the summit of one of the

stereotyped hollow China dogs that

adorned the hotel-room mantelpiece. A

small hole had been accidentally broken

in the back of the head of this ornament, and into this the
little Phalanger had managed to squeeze himself. In fact, so
long as the opportunity lasted, he now regularly repaired to this

singular dormitory for his siesta, doubtless regarding it as a

W, Saville-Kent, Photo.

WHITE INDIVIDUAL OF LARGE FLYING
PHALANGER, Petauroides volans, WITH TAIL
PENDULOUS AND IN ITS CHARACTERISTIC
SPIRALLY ENROLLED STATE. p. 22,
ONE-FIFTH NATURAL SIZE,

W. Saville-Kent, del.
D

26 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

more appropriate substitute for his native hollow-tree branch than his elaborately
constructed cage.

Another member of the superlatively-beautiful family of the Phalangistide is the
exquisite little Pigmy Flying Mouse or Phalanger, Acrobates pygmus, of less dimensions
than the common mouse, furnished with a parachute, and having the hair on its tail
pinnately disposed like the barbs of a bird’s quill feather. According to Gould, this
species also makes a charming pet, and the author regrets not having had the oppor-
tunity of making its personal acquaintance. The Cuscuses or typical representatives
of the genus Phalanger, while belonging to the Australian region, are now limited in
their distribution to New Guinea, and other islands of the East Indian Archipelago as
far west as Celebes. Though not hitherto recorded from the locality, the author on
one occasion observed an example of these animals in the woody scrub of Thursday
Island, Torres Straits. This island is but little over seventy miles from the nearest
land of New Guinea, but it may at the same time have been an escaped pet, the
species being not unfrequently brought in the boats trading between the two islands.
In general form and the remarkable slowness of their movements, the Cuscuses have
much in common with the Lemurine Lorises of the genus Nycticebus. The possession
of a long prehensile tail, like that of the ring-tailed Opossum, Pseudochirus, is
necessarily a prominent external feature in the Cuscus that is conspicuous for its
absence in all the Lorises.

The typical little Australian Bear or Koala, technically known as Phascolarctos
cinereus, may be appropriately styled by way of contrast to the Flying Phalangers,
the most droll and bizarre of living mammals. In Natural History works, it is
generally represented with drooping head and a most sad and woebegone facial
expression. This, however, is a gross injustice to the little fellow, who, as seen under
the natural conditions represented in the photographs from life in Plate IV., is a
most contented and happy-looking little mortal. The habits of the Koala, like those
of the more typical Phalangers, are essentially arboreal. It is, however, a very slow
and leisurely-moving animal, contenting itself with abiding in and browsing upon the
leaves of one Eucalyptus tree for days and weeks together, and rarely descending to
the ground. In general form, in the complete absence of an external tail, and in its slow
movements and arboreal habits, the Australian Koala is somewhat suggestive of the South
American Sloths, Bradypodide. This suggested analogy, is, of course, entirely super-
ficial, for the sloths, while belonging to the true, Edentate, order of the Eutheria,

possess that essential anatomical organisation that characterises all members of the

PLATE IV.

Collotype, Wig S, Ltd. WW. Saville-Kent, Photo.

Figs. 1-3. AUSTRALIAN BEAR OR KOALA, Phascolarctos cinereus, p. 20.
Wie 4 WELYING PHALANGER, Petauroides volans, p. 29.

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. oT

higher mammalian groups. As, moreover, has been already mentioned on a previous
page, a nearer structural approximation to the Eutheria in the matter of placentation
has been recently found to obtain in one of the Bandicoots, Perameles, than occurs
in any other known marsupial type. Although feeding naturally, like certain of the
Phalangers, almost exclusively upon the foliage of various species of Eucalyptus,
Phascolarctos, while young, adapts itself fairly readily to a milk or farinaceous diet,
and has, on one or two occasions, been successfully brought to Europe. ' At a more
advanced age, however, it appears to pine for its native forests and accustomed food,
and cannot, as a consequence, be induced to become a permanent resident in this
country.

Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the veteran superintendent of our Zoological Gardens,
imparted to the author the intelligence of a tragic fate that befel the last Koala exhibited
in the Regent’s Park Menagerie. At night it was usually brought into the house and
had the run of a room which, among other furniture, contained a large swing dressing
glass. One morning the little animal was found crushed to death beneath this mirror,
upon which it had apparently climbed and overbalanced with its weight. The further
information that this specimen was a female, evoked the suspicion that, after the
manner of its sex, personal vanity contributed a by no means inconsiderable share
towards the compassing of its untimely end. The female Koala produces but one
cub at a birth, and this, so soon as it is old enough to leave the pouch, is transferred
to and carried about on its mother’s back, to which it clings with great tenacity.
The very characteristic portrait of a mother and cub represented in Plate IV. fig. 1
originally appeared in the pages of the “Australasian,” and to the. editor of that
excellent journal the author is indebted for the privilege of reproducing the picture
in these pages.

Notwithstanding its conspicuously tranquil facial expression, the little Koala or
Australian Bear is credited with the reputation of giving way, under provocation, to
fits of ungovernable fury. As is a familiar fact to all Australians who are acquainted
with the species in its native haunts, two individuals quarrelling, as they are somewhat
prone to, can easily give points to our domestic tabby in making night or even day
hideous with their denunciatory language. The singular attitude assumed by Phasco-
larctos when sleeping, is characteristically illustrated by Plate IV., fig. 3. It
corresponds to a remarkable degree with that exhibited under the same conditions, by
the “Potto” of the Lemurine genus Perodicticus, as portrayed in Lydekker’s “ Royal
Natural History.” When thus contracted into a homogeneous furry ball and clinging

28. THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

high in the air to a perpendicular branch, the animal may be readily mistaken for a
big bunch of moss or for one of those large gall-like excrescences of frequent
occurrence on many species of Eucalypti. It may be suitably recorded here that the
fossil remains of several extinct forms apparently allied to the Koala, but of huge
comparative proportions, have been unearthed from the Australian tertiary deposits.
Koalemus is one of these, as also Thylacaleo, formerly interpreted by Owen to be a
large, carnivorous mammal, which in accordance with its presumptive habits must have
represented “one of the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts.” The further
light of more recent investigation has, however, conclusively demonstrated that this Bogie
Carnivor was a peaceable vegetarian marsupial, uniting in its ponderous ungainly carcase
the combined structural characteristics of both the Phalangers and Kangaroos.

A still larger extinct form, which also appears to have possessed the structural
characters of both the Phalangistidsee and the Macropodide, is the huge Diprotodon
australis of Owen, the remains of which have been found in abundance in the
tertiary deposits of both Queensland and South Australia, and are. most richly
represented in the fossil collections of the Adelaide Museum. As shown by its
skeletal elements the body of this, the largest of recorded marsupials, must have
equalled that of a Rhinoceros, while its habits were probably closely allied to those
of Megatherium and others of the extinct giant sloths of South America.

The exploration of the arid tracts of Central Australia has within the past
few years been rewarded by the discovery of an entirely new and highly interesting
modification of Marsupial morphology. This mammalian novelty is represented by a
singular little creature possessing the burrowing habits and much of the co-ordinated
structure of the European mole. Upon it the scientific name of Notoryctes
typhlops has been conferred by its original describer, Dr. E. C. Stirling, F.R.S., the
accomplished lecturer on Physiology at the Adelaide University and the Hon. Director
of the South Australian Museum. Excellent illustrations and copious descriptions of
the general aspect, habits and structural features of this mole-like Marsupial, or
Pouched Mole as it is popularly designated, are contributed by Dr. Stirling to the
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia for the year 1891, whence
the accompanying figures and descriptive details are, with cordial acknowledgments,
appropriately reproduced. The total length of the little animal scarcely exceeds
five inches, and it is covered by a long soft lustrous fur of a generally light fawn
colour, but which inclines in some parts to a glistening. golden hue, and in others to

a considerably lighter silvery tint. As shown in the illustrations overleaf there

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 29

is little or no trace of a separate neck, the front of the snout is protected by
a hard horny shield, and there are no visible eyes, the somewhat eye-like spot
occupying a remotely posterior position in Fig. 2, representing the external ear-
opening as purposely exposed to view by the brushing aside of the surrounding fur.
The peculiar modifications of the tail, feet, and the extraordinary development of the
third and fourth claws of the fore limbs for fossorial purposes, are distinctly shown
in both of the accompanying figures.

Regarding the observed habits of the Pouched Mole, it would appear that it

is by no means as permanent a subterranean dweller as the typical Moles, Talpa and

Fie. 1 Fic. 2.

AUSTRALIAN POUCHED MOLE, Notoryctes typhlops. ¥IG. 1. VENTRAL. FIG. If, LATERAL ASPECTS, AFTER DR. J. E. STIRLING.
TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE, p. 28.

its allies. It frequents the sandy spinifex lands in the neighbourhood of the Finke
River water course and the Alice Springs Stations in the southern part of the
Northern Territory of South Australia, distant from Adelaide about one thousand
miles. The capture of the first example obtained was due to the observation on
the surface of the sand of peculiar trails which, on being followed up, resulted in the
discovery of the animal reposing under a tuft of the Spinifex or Porcupine grass,

Triodia trritans. Further observation elicited the fact that its usual habit was to

30 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

travel underground for from a few feet to many yards at a depth of not more than
two or three inches below the surface, its presence and position at such times being
revealed by the raising and cracking of the surface of the sand. All efforts to keep
the animal alive for a longer period than three or four days have so far failed, the
chief difficulty being apparently the food question. The remains of ants were found
in the intestines of the first example dissected, and another specimen, while in
captivity, is reported to have devoured one of the coleopterous grubs that burrow
into and feed upon the roots of the acacia trees, thus demonstrating its normal
insectivorous predilections. Not improbably, as is the case with the Echidna, as
observed by the author, the favourite food is the tender larval and nymph forms of the
ants that would have to be sought for underground, either by burrowing or by the
scratching away of the superimposed earth’s surface. The experiment of placing
adult ants with Notoryctes as a tentative food supply was by no means successful,
the animal itself, according to Dr. Stirling, apparently running the greater risk of being
eaten. It is much to be feared, under the circumstances so far recorded, that but
little chance exists of this interesting little marsupial being established as a permanent
tenant of the London Zoological Gardens.

Of the remaining terrestrial vertebrate fauna of Australia, it will hardly be
anticipated that any group would possess the remarkable individuality that is exhibited
by the Class mammalia.. Numbers of birds systematically migrate, while reptiles,
amphibia, and their ova can be transported on floating driftwood. As a conse-
quence, we find a very considerable infiltration of Indo-Malay representatives of each
of these classes, in the northern, or tropical, Australian districts more especially.

The highly characteristic Monitors or Varani, the largest of Australian Lacertide,
popularly called “Goohannas,” are thus found to be generically identical with forms
inhabiting India and North Africa; while a water-frequenting species, Varanus
salvator, growing to a length of six or seven feet, is specifically the same as the
Indian and Malay type. There are a number of smaller forms, such as Geckos,
Skinks, and other lizards, which possess a similar tropical Indo-Australian distribution.
Australia, at the same time, produces several very remarkable Lacertilian types that
are found nowhere else outside its limits, as is made evident in a succeeding chapter
that is specially devoted to representative members of this animal group. Concerning
prehistoric types, it is of interest to record that Australia formerly produced species of
Monitors or Varani, and their allies, that are estimated to have been three or four times

larger than any existing species. One of these, Megalania prisca, was at least

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 31

over 20 feet in length. As originally described by the late Sir Richard Owen, this
huge monitor was accredited with having been armed with horns and spikes of the
same character, and bearing the same proportion to the creature’s body, as those of the
little spiny lizards, Moloch horridus, illustrated and described at length in Chapter ITI.
Had that interpretation been correct, this reptile in the flesh would have undoubtedly
represented one of the most formidable monsters that ever trod the earth. The
acquisition of further material, however, has demonstrated that the fossil remains of
two very distinct reptilian types had been obtained from the same source, and that,
while a huge monitor, for which the name of Megalania has been retained, undoubtedly
existed, the horned head and tail cuirass, previously supposed to have belonged to the
lizard, were the property of a large species of turtle. Upon this Chelonian the name
of Miolania Oweni has been since conferred by Mr. Smith Woodward, of the Geological
Department of the British Museum.

Reference has been previously made in this Chapter to those bird species to
whom special importance is attached, with allusion to the peculiar distribution of either
themselves or their allies. Apart from these considerations, there are many forms which
are of high interest, regarded from the point of view that they are strictly and
exclusively Australasian. The Emu, as one of those forms, has already received
notice with reference to the suggestive testimony afforded by the surviving allies of
the same Struthious order.

A little group of birds that is most essentially Australasian, and probably
represents a very primitive stock, is that of the Mound-builders or Megapodide. There
are three distinct generic types belonging to this family group, all of which agree with
one another in their very remarkable habit of constructing huge mounds of earth,
leaves and other vegetable substances, within which they deposit their eggs and then
leave them to be hatched out by the natural heat generated by the decaying matrix.
Of the three known species, the Megapodium or Australian Jungle Fowl, Megapodium
tumulus, is abundant in the coastal districts of Northern Queensland and South
Australia, and also in New Guinea and the intervening islands of Torres Straits. This
Megapodium is a plain-looking bird, of mixed grey and brown hues, about the size of
a small fowl, and remarkable for the apparently disproportionate dimensions of its
thick legs and feet. It is with these abnormally large but most serviceable feet that
the birds collect together the materials of their mound-like nests, which may be as
much as fifteen feet high and sixty feet in circumference. A characteristic photo-

graph of one of the nest. mounds of this species, taken by the author at Goode

32 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Island, in Torres Straits, in close proximity to a miner’s tent, which it greatly
exceeds in dimensions, is given on this page.

The second species of mound-builder is the Talegalla, or so-called Brush or
Serub Turkey, Zalegalla Lathami. This bird is larger than the preceding, the male
being the size of a turkey, which it much resembles in shape, while the head and
neck are bare of feathers and ornamented with a fleshy wattle much after the manner
of typical members of that group. While met with most abundantly in the thick
scrubs of the extreme north, the area of distribution of the Talegalla extends much
further south than that of the preceding type. The habits of this species are
essentially gregarious, many birds usually combining towards the construction of the
huge mound-like nest; and as many as a bushel of eggs, which are most excellent
eating, are not unfrequently abstracted from a single mound. As with the preceding
species, the Scrub Turkeys use their powerful feet only in the construction of their
nest, grasping bunches of leaves, grass, and all other available substances with one

foot, and throwing it backwards towards the selected spot. In this manner they

W, Saville-Kent, Photo,
ee) a ; ai eS 7 os
MINER’S TENT AND NEST-MOUND OF AUSTRALIAN JUNGLE FOWL, Megapodium tumulus, GOODE ISLAND, TORRES STRAITS, p. 31

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 33

commence from the outside area of a very considerable space, and gradually work
in towards the centre. Examples of this species, were some years since successfully
kept at the London Zoological Gardens, and exhibited there their characteristic nest-
building habits, and deposited eggs, which were duly hatched. It was observed, under
these artificial conditions, that the male bird paid considerable attention to the eggs
when deposited, always maintaining a perpendicular, cylindrical opening in the centre
of the nest-heap for the purposes of ventilation. The young birds, as soon as hatched,
were for the first: twelve hours kept covered up in the material of the mound, but
on the following day emerged with their wing-feathers well developed, but encased in
membranous sheaths, which soon burst, leaving the limb completely free. On the
third day the young birds were capable of strong flight. The relatively large size of
the eggs, and the egress of the birds from them in a more highly advanced state of
development than obtains with any other known species, is common to all of the
members of this remarkable family, and is held to be a fact indicative of their
remote ancestry. In the case of Megapodium, it has been observed that the mound-
constructing instinct is so strongly ingrained by heredity, that young birds taken
fresh from the nest, and confined under favourable conditions, have at once commenced
to construct mounds after the characteristic manner of their tribe.

The third member of the Megapodide or Mound-builders is the handsome bird
Leipoa ocellata, known in South Australia as the Leipoa or Native Pheasant, and in
Western Australia as the Gnow. This species has much the form of a pheasant, but
in its shorter tail and ocellated markings more nearly resembles the Indian Tragopan,
Ceriornis Lathami. The mound constructed by the Leipoa is relatively small, compared
with that of the Talegalla and Megapodium, rarely exceeding eight or nine feet in
diameter, and two or three feet in height. A larger quantity of sand and soil
being, moreover, mixed with the vegetable substances, it acquires so much more solid
a consistence that it may be readily mistaken for an ant-heap. For the table this
species is esteemed more highly than the two preceding forms, the eggs also, of which
about a dozen are deposited in a single nest, being greatly prized.

One of the most essentially Australian bird groups is that of the Bower Birds,
usually relegated by ornithologists to a position near the Starlings, and remarkable, as
in the case of the Megapodide, for their architectural propensities. In this instance,
however, the edifice raised is a supplementary structure in no way associated with the
nidamental functions that characterise the mound of the Megapodide, for which

purpose an ordinary nest is constructed. The Bower Birds, in point of fact, possess
E

34 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

highly advanced esthetic tastes, and erect their so-called bowers as combined playing
halls and veritable museums of arts and natural history wherein they collect together
every transportable object that takes their fancy. The location of these bowers is on
the ground, usually in the dense scrub or within the sheltering shade of an
appropriate bush. The basis of the bower consists of a rough platform of sticks.
Upon this is raised on either side a series of vertically disposed twigs, which,
meeting at their apices, form a sort of arched corridor that may be two or three
feet, in length. The furniture and decorations of the building have now to be added.
To accomplish this object the whole of the ground inside and around the bower is
bestrewn with the variety collection previously referred to. Shells, bones (often
including small skulls), pieces of glass, pottery, and fragments of human wearing apparel,
are indiscriminately pressed into service, and mixed in ever varying proportions.
Gaudy parrots’ feathers, pieces of coloured cloth, or other brightly tinted substances
are regarded with especial favour, and when obtained are usually inserted among the
interstices of the interlacing branches of the bower’s superstructure. The bower, when
completed, is regularly resorted to by its architects as a recreation ground, more
especially in the early mornings, when, if cautiously approached, they may be seen
chasing one another in wanton play, to and fro, through the arched corridor and
around the decorated grounds. The same bower is maintained in a state of repair
' and frequented by the same pair of birds for several successive seasons, while such
continual additions are made to the “museum” collections that they not unfrequently
accumulate to the extent of several barrow loads. Among the many known species of
Australian Bower Birds, the Satin Bower Bird, Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus, and the
Spotted Bower Bird, Chlamydera maculata are the most familiar. Each of these birds
is about the size of an English thrush. In the first-named species the male is a
rich satiny-black with a purple gloss, and the female bird a deep olive green. The
Spotted Bower Bird, as its name implies, is distinguished by its mottled plumage, which
is a mixture of soft greys and browns. These quiet tints are, however, diversified
by the presence, on the back of the head, of two small patches of longer, silky
feathers of brilliant rose-pink, which are particularly conspicuous in the male bird.
The Birds of Paradise, Paradisidee, which are usually allocated, in systematic works,
to a position adjacent to the Bower Birds, while most abundantly represented in New
Guinea, and the adjacent islands of the Malay Archipelago, possess one Australian
species that is commonly associated with this group in the popular mind, though
strictly belonging to the Hoopoes, Upupide. This is the so-called Rifle Bird of

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 35

Queensland and New South Wales, Ptiloris paradiseus. Its size averages that of
an ordinary pigeon; the body is a deep velvet black, with purple reflections; the
breast and abdomen are of the same colour, with olive green edges to the feathers ; the
top of the head and the throat are covered with smaller, scale-like feathers that
glitter with that brilliant metallic green sheen that is so characteristic of the breasts
of humming birds, and many of the typical Birds of Paradise, the two central feathers
of the tail being of the same resplendent hue. The two closely allied New Guinea
species, Epimachus magnus and £. albus have been justly described as among the
most lovely bird forms that inhabit the face of the earth. The metallic tints of the
head and throat in Ptiloris is, in these instances, more extensively distributed, being
associated in the former type with a long, resplendent tail, and erectile ruffles
developed in the neck and shoulders. In £. albus, which is known in the trade as
the Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, there is also a crested metallic tinted collar.
In addition to this, the tail is reduced to twelve wire-like elements which represent
the shafts only of the ordinary feathers, while the whole posterior half of the body
is enveloped in a mass of long, curled and silky plumes of a pure white hue.

The list of notable Australian birds would be incomplete without brief mention
of the well-known Lyre Bird, Menura superba. The extraordinary lyre-form develop-
ment of the tail feathers of this remarkable bird is too well known to need elaborate
description. Such, in fact, is the popular demand at the antipodes for this tail-
plume for decorative purposes, that the extermination of the bird has been accom-
plished in many districts where it was once plentiful, and its ultimate extinction
is threatened if measures are not taken to restrain its present wholesale persecution.
The contour of the Lyre Bird, with its long neck and stout, gallinaceous feet, is by
no means unlike that of a peacock, and the wonderful tail, which is possessed only
by the male bird, fulfils a corresponding rdle of vain display. Like the Bower Birds,
the Lyre Bird is an architect, but it is content with a raised earthen mound or
platform only, upon which it is accustomed to execute innumerable antics, spreading
its wings and erecting its tail, for the fascination of a train of female admirers, or for
its personal delectation, after the manner of the true peacock tribe. One bird not
unfrequently possesses several of these dancing, or “corroboree” mounds, as they
are styled by the colonists, situated at some little distance from one another, to
which, when disturbed, it successively repairs. As with the Peafowl, it is only
the adult male Lyre Bird that develops the characteristic tail, the females and

young males being clad in a plain brown plumage, without any special points of attrac-

36 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

tion. For a short period of the year, moreover, commencing about January or
February, the adult male loses the characteristic plumes of which he is so demon-
stratively proud, and is not then to be distinguished from his more homely mate.
A second, somewhat smaller, species of Lyre Bird, in which the tail is shorter
and less handsomely marked, is also found in the mountain districts of New
South Wales, and has been associated by Mr. Gould with the title of Menura Alberti.

Anterior to the discovery of Australia, that rara avis in terris, of Juvenal, a
“Black Swan,” was regarded much after the manner of the Phoenix, as an ornitho- °
logical paradox. The Phcenix has not yet been accommodated with a local habitation
and a scientific name, but the Black Swan, Cygnus atratus, is, as is well known,
one of the most characteristic bird species of the southern districts of Australia. It
figures, as did the Lyre Bird formerly for New South Wales, as the emblematic
national animal type on the postage stamps, and also on the banner of Western
Australia, formerly known as the Swan River Colony. The species is now almost as
familiar in English ornamental waters as the white varieties. Though perhaps not
quite so graceful in its form and movements as the typical Mute Swan, Cygnus olor,
it is, with relation to the pleasing contrast afforded by the bright scarlet bill and,
excepting the white wing primaries, exquisitely shaded dark satiny crenulated
plumage, regarded by many as the more handsome bird. In contradistinction to
the White or Mute Swan, so-called with reference to its silent habits, the black
species produces very pleasing flute-like notes. This is especially effective heard
during the silent watches of the night, and produced by large flocks assembled in
a neighbouring lagoon or passing overhead. The Gippsland Lakes, in Victoria,
afford very favourable opportunities for observing the Black Swan in vast numbers
under its natural conditions and in all phases of growth. The passenger and
trading steamboats traversing these lakes pass close to the floating flocks, and during
the breeding season almost run down stray broods of the little Cygnets. This
observation applies with equal force to the long navigable reaches of the Murray
River. To the lover of bird life, a steamer trip through this last-named magnificent
water-way yields a unique and almost inexhaustible delight. At certain seasons of
the year—spring and summer months—when the waters are out and the forest-lands
on either side for hundreds of miles are one vast network of lakes and shallows,
birds, chiefly of the natatorial and wading orders, are present in countless thousands.
Black Swans, Ducks of many varieties, Teal, Cranes of various descriptions, including,

in drier spots, the familiar “Native Companion,” Grus australasianus, Spoonbill,

LISUM-HLYON ‘stusadna pruosuppy THULHILLOd uo avdova

‘99g » Lg “Ud “VITVULSAV

‘A ALVId

GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY. 37

Curlew, and many others, abide upon the banks or disport in the open water, while
an advance guard of screaming Cockatoos, Ibises, Hawks, and other of the wilder
species, herald the approach of the intruding steamboat to their feathered kinsfolk
higher up or lower down the stream.

So considerable a space has been devoted to certain more notable Australian
birds, such as the quaint More-porks, Piping Crows or Colonial Magpies, Giant King-
fishers, and other less prominent types, in a succeeding chapter, as to obviate
the necessity of further comment on them here. ‘This observation will apply also
to the fish tribe, which has already received a share of notice with reference to the
several peculiar Australian types that, by virtue of the geographical distribution of
their nearest allies, point towards the pre-existence of a large central Antarctic
Continent whence many of the inhabitants of the more widely separated regions
of Australia, Africa and South America would appear to have primarily migrated.

The flora or plant life of Australia is as strikingly distinct in-its character as
the animal races. The vast forests of Eucalypti, embracing some 150 known species,
which form so characteristic a feature of the greater portion of the tree-producing
areas of Australia, represent in themselves a most ancient lineage, non-existent at
the present day outside the Australasian region, but whose members, as fossil deposits
teach us, formerly constituted a dominent feature in European forestry. The Bankseas,
Hakeas, and numerous other of the essentially Australian Proteacee, tell the same
tale, and further evidence in a similar direction might be adduced from the characteristic
Grass-trees, or “ Blackboys,” Xanthorracee and Cycadacee. The Heath tribe, Epacride,
spice-perfumed Boronias and numerous other Diosmez, which clothe the more open
moorlands of Temperate Australia, are also to a preponderating extent unique. In
the tropics again the very characteristic Baobab or Bottle-tree, Adansonia rupestris,
peculiar to the northern territory of Western Australia, is of special interest with
relation to the fact that, in common with certain animal types previously referred to,
its nearest ally, Adansonia digitata, is indigenous to tropical Africa. A characteristic
representation of the Australian Baobab in full foliage is given in Plate V., while a
fuller reference to and additional illustrations of both this and other types of
Australian vegetation are relegated to a succeeding Chapter.

Material evidence yielded by the vegetable kingdom in support of the notogeal
continental interpretation is contained in Mr. H. O. Forbes’ Paper on the Chatham
Islands previously quoted. Taking plant groups that are confined, or nearly so, to

the Southern Hemisphere, Mr. Forbes remarks :—‘“ Among the Saxifragez, a genus

38 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Donnatia, is distributed only in New Zealand, Chili, and Fuegia. Of the 950 species
of Proteacez, only 25 cross to the north side of the Equator, otherwise they are
distributed to all the southern continents with Madagascar, Tasmania, New Zealand,
and New Caledonia. The Monimiacee, with 150 species, have the same distribution ;
one genus, Laurelia, being common to Chili and New Zealand. The genus
Cryptocarya, of the Perseace, is common to New Zealand, South Africa, and South
America. Of the Cypress sub-family of the Coniferee the genus Callitris is found in
Africa, Madagascar, and Australia, and Fitzroya in Chili and Tasmania. Todea
barbara occurs at the Cape of Good Hope and in Australia; Lomaria alpina at the
Cape, Australia, and South America; Fuchsia and Passifora in New Zealand and
South America.” Respecting the last-named genus, Passifora, Mr. Forbes might also
have included Australia, no less than five indigenous species being recorded in Baron

von Mueller’s systematic “ List of Australian Plants.”

HOLLOW WOODEN CRADLE USED BY THE NATIVE WOMEN OF THE KIMBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 14,

Poephila mirabilis et PGouldii, Nat.size. p.55.

Waterlow & Sons,Lud Chromo

AUSTRALIAN: GOULDIAN FINCHES,

gulemans, del. et pink

“ CHAPTER WV &
®IRDS.

i ‘ :
‘ W, Saville-Kent, Photo.

“DULCE DOMUM.”

HE Avifauna of Australia is too ex-
tensive a theme to deal with com-
prehensively in a volume of the

present pretensions. The late Mr. John Gould’s magnificent Monograph and _his

smaller Manual upon this subject may, moreover, be appropriately recommended to all
those who desire to possess a fuller knowledge of the wealth of bird-life that is so
eminently distinctive of the Australasian Continent. In the present Chapter the writer
proposes to draw attention to a few special types only with which he made an
intimate friendship during his residence at the Antipodes. The recorded account of
these foregatherings will, he trusts, result in enlisting an increased share of public
interest in their favour.

By concentrating attention upon some selected species and making its varied

aspects and habits a special study, one is astonished to find in the long run what a

different conception of the animal is arrived at from that where the acquaintanceship

40 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

has been limited, possibly, only to the contemplation of the inanimate body, the
mangled trophy of the sportsman’s gun. Having this manifest truism distinctly
in view, the writer made the investment in the streets of Brisbane, Queensland, a
few years back, of a pair of young Australian Fern-owls, or Goat-suckers, Podargus
strigoides, popularly known throughout the length and breadth of the Australian
Colonies by the respective titles of the ‘Mope-hawk” or “More-pork.”* The
former of these two appellations has been probably conferred upon the bird with
reference to its somewhat hawk-like aspect and at the same time retiring habits, it
being, like other members of its tribe, strictly crepuscular. The second title, “ More-
pork,” by which this bird is the more commonly known, has a very different and,
as it so happens, an entirely mis-applied derivation. To travellers through the
vast solitudes of the Australian bush, and to all settlers residing within a reasonable
distance of its virgin forests, the weird notes at night of an owl-like bird, which
repeats at intervals in melancholy and mournful measures the words “ More-pork,”
“ More-pork,” is a familiar phenomenon. In the search for the author of the doleful
strains, it commonly happens that a representative of the species, Podargus strigoides,
now under notice, is discovered in the neighbourhood. It has even been asserted
that the bird has been shot in the very act-of uttering the fateful words that sealed
its death warrant.

In a conversation held some years since with Dr. E. P. Ramsay, the late Curator
of the Australian Museum, Sydney, and a most enthusiastic ornithologist, that authority
assured the author that he had fully satisfied himself that the night-bird that emitted
the “More-pork” note was a true owl, the technical name of which is Vinox boobook.
The author can as unhesitatingly affirm that Podargus is absolutely innocent of
giving voice to the note imputed to it. As hereafter shown, it possesses a vocabu-
lary of many tones, but none of these can be interpreted by the widest stretch of
imagination into the invocation for pork generally attributed to it. A name, how-
ever, once affixed by popular fiat to a bird or beast is practically as unalterable as
the laws of the Medes and Persians, and so Podargus strigoides and its allied variety,

P. Cuvieri, will doubtless be associated in Australia to the end of time with its mis-

* With reference to the wide gape of the bill, or in other words distinctly “open countenances,” which
the Podargi share in common with their near allies the true Goat-suckers, Caprimulgide, Mr. Gould has
conferred upon the members of the genus, in his previously mentioned Monograph, the highly expressive

sobriquet of Australian “ Frogmouths.”

BIRDS. 41

applied title of the “More-pork.” Unfortunately, as an outcome of the popular error
rife in regard to the vocal talents of this bird, another gross injustice is rendered it
from a social standpoint. Attributing to Podargus the eerie, melancholy call-note of
the Boobook Owl, it is, as attested to in Mr. Gould’s original description, with
reference to this note, commonly regarded by the uneducated settlers as a bird of
ill-omen and, if not persecuted on that account, held in high disfavour. It is trusted
that the testimony here recorded concerning the author's specimens will assist somewhat
towards the dissipation of this most unmerited prejudice.

To return to our own particular, not “ Moutons,” but “More-porks,” the birds, a
pair of them, were purchased in the first instance as big balls of fluff, wherein the gleaming
of their glorious golden eyes yielded the only sure indication of their correct topography.
The company with which they were first consorted was of the most heterogeneous
description, consisting of young Parrots, Cockatoos, Magpies (Piping Crows), Butcher-
birds and many others. The accommodation provided in the hawker’s van, in which
the birds paraded the streets of Brisbane, was far too limited to permit of such a
luxury as a separate compartment, and hence our More-porks were imprisoned with
a mixed assemblage of the various species above enumerated. To this ill-assorted
company, and more especially that of the screeching Parrots, they manifested the
most distinct antipathy, and, shrinking into the darkest corner of their noisy cage,
sought temporary respite from the madding crowd.

The rescue of the poor Podargi and their translation to an independent home,
where they were altogether freed from the discordant voices and more unwelcome
hustlings of their former comrades, soon wrought a marvellous change in their aspect
and comportment. From this time forth, for no less a period than five years, these
two birds occupied the position of familiar household pets, and rewarded all the
care and attention bestowed upon them by the concession of an undreamt-of insight
into their most marvellously Protean moods and tenses. Fortunately, about this
time, the chance gift to the writer of a very modest form of camera opened up
his mind to the great possibilities afforded by the photographic art for accurately
recording and delineating the remarkably divergent aspects and attitudes which these
Podargi were capable of assuming. As a means to this definite end, photography
was accordingly taken up, and with such a fair measure of success in the
accomplishment of the object as is testified to by the illustrations of these pages.
While the thirty or more replicas included in Plates VI. to X. may be said

to embody presentments of the most conspicuously distinct variations of contour
F

42 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

and attitude the birds exhibited, these represent the outcome of but a fractional
portion of the numerous “sittings” with which they consciously and unconsciously
favoured the writer. A glance at these Plates without a reference to the accom-
panying context might very pardonably convey to the reader the impression that
these likenesses represented the portrait gallery of an extensive aviary, in place, as
is actually the fact, of their depicting the multifarious aspects of but a single pair
of birds.

Before proceeding to a systematic analysis of the special attitudes and emotions
of the Podargi that are here recorded by the camera, a few explanatory words
appear to be desirable. The photographs reproduced in Plates VIIT. and IX. owe, it
may be observed, their in many instances legendary and artistic embellishments to the
circumstance that, on account of their quaintness and suitability for the purpose,
they have, with the able assistance of the London Stereoscopic Company, been
adapted by the writer as ornamental designs for note paper and menu cards. In
all instances these photographic replicas have also been much reduced in size,
having been originally taken as whole or half plate negatives as illustrated by the
examples reproduced in Plates VI. and VII.

The most typical presentments of the normal form and aspect of Podargus strigoides,
when in a state of complete repose, are probably afforded by the photographic like-
nesses reproduced in the two Plates just quoted. In these portraits an essentially hawk-
like aspect is predominant. At the same time the delicate mottlings of the plumage, which
in their pencillings and gradations of mingled greys and browns wonderfully resemble the
pattern and tints of the tree branches on which the birds are accustomed to perch, are
very distinctly shown. This notable correspondence of the bird’s plumage with its
environment is habitually utilised by Podargus in a remarkable manner for the purpose
of concealing itself from the observation of recognised enemies or possible assailants.
Should, for instance, a hawk appear in sight or any other object of an apparently
unfriendly aspect, this bird will at once straighten itself up stiffly and, with its mottled
feathers closely pressed to its body, assume so perfect a resemblance to a portion
of the .branch upon which it is seated that, even at a short distance, it is almost
impossible to recognise it. Under these conditions, in fact, it so readily escapes
detection that several instances have been related to the writer in which people
have actually placed their hand on the bird, when seated on a rail or log fence, before
being conscious of its presence. Trusting in its wonderful mimicry of nature, it will

thus remain stiff and motionless, and not attempt to fly away until forcibly removed.

Collotype, W. & S, Ltd.

AUSTRALIAN

‘“MORE-PORKS”

OR

FERN OWLS. Podargus strigoides.

WV.

Fea ee a

PLATE

Saville-Kent, Photo.

Vi.

44 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

bird under the influence of conflicting emotions. Taking as the extreme in one direction
the attenuate, rigid aspect of the bird already described and illustrated by Plate IX.,
fig. 15, and placing against this, as its antithesis, such forms as those presented by
Plate VIII, fig. 6, and Plate IX., fig. 18 (which are all photographic presentments
of the same individual), the impression would certainly be conveyed to anyone not
cognisant of the fact, that the two portraits represented absolutely distinct species.
In a less marked degree a corresponding diversity of aspect is found also among many
other figures in this pictorial series.

Special external influences were productive of the somewhat remarkable
posturings illustrated by the two figures last quoted. Both of them are indicative of

strong emotional excitement. There

is thus represented in Fig. 6 an
attitude which was commonly as-
sumed by the male bird by way of
a greeting to the writer at first

sight of him on his returning home

ILLUSTRATING REMARKABLE DISPARITY IN SIZE AND ASPECT
OF PODARGI UNDER CONTRASTING EMOTIONAL INFLUENCES,

after some days’ absence. The bird’s

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
manifestations of pleasurable excitement under the foregoing conditions were on all

occasions most unmistakeably demonstrated.
In Plate IX., fig. 13, the erected condition of the feathers is somewhat

analogous, but the facial expression, if it may be so designated, typifies a very

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

Collotype, W. & S. Ltd.

AUSTRALIAN “MORE-PORK,” Podargus strigoides. (Mate Birp).

BIRDS. 45

distinct emotion. In this instance defiance, together with a certain amount of terror,
enters into the composition of the excitement manifested. The assumption by the
bird of this remarkable pose was first observed by the writer in connection with the
chance opening of an umbrella in its presence. The necessary domestic parapluie
would appear to exercise a very awe-inspiring influence upon fere nature generally.
We have a dim boyhood’s recollection of a story in which a royal Bengal tiger was put
to ignominious flight, when on the point of making its fatal spring, by a lady who had
the presence of mind to suddenly unfurl her umbrella in the animal’s face. In the
case of the Podargus it possibly mistook the offending article for some huge form of
bat, somewhat resembling, though far surpassing in size, the Flying Foxes, Pteropi,
which share with it its natural haunts, but whose too familiar approach it would
undoubtedly resent. However this may be, though familiarity in the long run bred
contempt, for a long while the production and sudden opening of an umbrella elicited.
a like emotional manifestation, one of which occasions was turned to good account in
securing the photograph reproduced.

Some of the most remarkable of the many metamorphic phases exhibited by these
two Podargi, in which the erection of the feathers was a conspicuous feature, was
manifested in the presence of a rain shower. On such occasions, humouring the birds
most plainly suggested desires, they were usually allowed to enjoy a shower bath.
Then, whether clinging to the perch or to their owner’s wrist, they would pass through
the most extraordinary evolutions. Every feather would stand on end, imparting to
the birds the largest possible dimensions. The wings, separately or collectively, would
be elevated or depressed, the bird meanwhile balancing its body first on one side and
then on the other in order to expose all parts to the welcome rain, and even hanging
head downwards to accomplish its purpose. Satisfactory photographs during falling
rain, and of such excitedly restless subjects, in order to record some of the more
bizarre attitudes assumed by these birds while enjoying their shower bath, proved
somewhat difficult of achievement. A few of the most successful shots, out of
many attempts, reproduced in Plate X., will communicate some idea, however, of
their quaint appearance. In the last but one on the list of these figures, No. 9, head,
wings, and tail appear to be mixed up in the most inextricable confusion.

A jocose friend having suggested to the author the peculiar fitness with which
these “Rain bath” photographs would lend themselves to a humorous interpretation,
we have indulged his whim to the extent of supplementing the formal title by a

second, with which, in harmony with textual renderings of the respective figures, the

46 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

collective one of “Autumn Manceuvres” might be associated, and the male bird—in
pursuance of the foregoing suggestion—having authoritatively persuaded his companion
to yield him the monopoly of the perch, a drill performance follows, in which the routine
exercises of “shoulder arms,” “ground arms,” “trail arms,” “reverse arms,” &c., are
faultlessly executed, and culminate finally in the assumption of an attitude of the
most rigid “attention.”

Glancing briefly at the remaining figures illustrative of the special habits or
attitudes of these Podargi, reference may be made, among others, to Fig. 18, of Plate IX.
In this instance the birds are sound asleep, literally “caught napping” in broad day-
light. It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that to sleep throughout the day
and be awake all night, after the manner of ordinary owls, by no means represents
the customary habit of this species. As in the case of the British Fern-owl or
Goat-sucker, Caprimulgus, Podargus is essentially dusk-loving, or crepuscular. On
several occasions when the birds were visited in the middle of the night they were
found to be as sound asleep as any ordinary diurnal species. While occasionally
sleeping for a short interval, as in the instance portrayed, they are for the most part
wide-awake, though not actively disposed, during the day. It is on the approach of
dusk and throughout the twilight hours, however, that they display most energy.
Indulging their very distinctly manifested inclinations, it was customary at these times
to give them a free run in the garden or to carry them about hawkwise, but untethered,
on the hand. For safety’s sake, and to guard against the possible chance of their
straying into neighbouring premises where cats or other enemies might assail them, it
was considered desirable to keep one of each of their wings cut. On such occasions,
however, as their feathers were allowed to grow sufficiently long to be serviceable,
the only use they made of them was to fly to or after their owners.

An explanation of the remarkable tameness and domesticity exhibited by this
pair of Podargi is probably to be found in the circumstances relating to their
commissariat ; cupboard-love, the world over, is the most persuasive of moral levers.
The difficulty of keeping these birds in captivity has been recognised at most of the
various Zoological Gardens where the attempt has been made. The chief obstacle
encountered in all instances has been the food question. The natural pabulum
of Podargus consists almost exclusively of insects, including moths, beetles, and
more especially the large Heteropterous Cicade which abound in the Australian
Eucalyptus forests, and which in their sleeping positions on the tree trunks and
branches fall an easy prey to these crepuscular birds. Living-insect-food being

PLATE VIII.

stilly night.”

< “OR in the
ra jj

TW. SAVILLEKENT Ps

AVILLE-KENT 22.

S "ROBIN IS SHY. < ' 4 : & . ay its ES
; : oy W DULCE. DOMUM.

DARBY mn JOAN? |

AUSTRALIAN “MORE-PORKS,” Podurgus strigoides. TLLUSTRATING PROTEAN ASPECTS—

PLATE IX.

Pree qe
MD) a BE

—ASSUMED UNDER VARYING EMOTIONAL INFLUENCES.

48 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the ordinary metal kind made for parrots. Previous to this addition, which was most
appreciated, the metal perch was, as shown in the lower figures of Plate X., adapted
for the better prehension of the birds’ feet by a close splicing of whip-cord. Other
portable perches were extemporised by a rough log fastened transversely across a
shallow wooden box, or raised to a convenient height by a small block only at each
end. In no instances were the birds fastened to their perch. During the day time they
rarely manifested any inclination to leave it, and when taking exercise in the evening
systematically returned to it after making brief excursions in the immediate vicinity.
It was only for their ocean travels that a cage had to be provided, and
even under these conditions they occupied their cage only at night. The two
illustrations of this series, Plate IX., figs. 19 and 20, in juxtaposition depict
incidents on the birds’ voyage from Brisbane to London. In the latter one, seated
on their long box perch, they are comfortably ensconced in the top berth of their
owner's cabin that was placed at their disposal. This tedious voyage was safely and
happily accomplished, though not with entire exemption from that common lot which
befalls most sea-farers, whether mortals or “more-porks,” at some one or other of the
more tempestuous periods of their earlier voyages. Fig. 19 of the same Plate, with its
attached legend, obviates all necessity of lifting the veil upon later harrowing details.
Among the remaining photo-reproductions of these Podargi inviting notice,
that of Plate VIII., fig. 2, is of special interest. It represents an episode in the
birds’ domesticated career wherein they

evinced a most energetic determination to

construct a nest and enter upon the cares

W., Saville-Kent, Photo.
NEST BUILDING EXTRAORDINARY, p. 49.

BIRDS. 49

of housekeeping. Unfortunately, being birds of the same clutch and the female some-
what a cripple in consequence of a fall in her early days, no definite results were
arrived at. With each returning spring, nevertheless, the nest-building instinct was
strongly manifested and afforded both themselves and onlookers intense amusement.
The male bird, more particularly, would take straws or any suitable material offered
him from our hands and weave them assiduously into the substance of the nest-
foundation provided them in the shape of a few sticks secured around the rim of a
shallow box lined with a little hay. Taking turn and turn about, the two birds would
spend several hours each day in the modelling or reconstruction of their nest and
subsequent occupation of it in quiet content. Their happy and philosophical contem-
plation of the bantam eggs experimentally introduced for artistic effects is faithfully
portrayed in the figure last quoted.

The vocal notes of Podargus, briefly referred to on page 43, with reference
only to the one expressed as a signal of alarm, invite some further notice. The
ery commonly attributed to this bird and with which its popular: title of the
“More-pork” is associated has, as already explained, no foundation in fact. In
addition to the characteristic alarm note the two examples in the possession of the
writer gave expression to several very distinct vocal utterances, each of which
possessed a special application. In their early youth or babyhood, their vocal powers
were limited to crowing and gurgling noises, much akin to those common to young
owls of the ordinary type. These, like the infantile expletives of homo sapiens,
vanished with their advancing growth. For the benefit, nevertheless, of those specially
interested in infantile language, avian or otherwise, we tentatively reproduce that
variation of their baby-phraseology which presented itself to our mind as being the
most articulate. Rendered as phonetically as possible in written characters the words,
if such they can be called, “m-mow, wow, wow, wow-wow,” repeated in unvarying
cadence and with but rare cessation, represented that infant cry. To the Australian
maternal mind the interpretation of this hieroglyph will probably take the form of
a continued appeal for “tucker,” and that interpretation will probably be correct.

In its adult state, the most ordinary vocal sound produced by Podargus is a
soft soothing cooing note not unlike that of a dove, but with a different accent and
capable of easy phonetic reproduction by the repetition of the words, “hoo-doo,
hoo-doo,” but with somewhat varying timbre and rapidity. These notes were always
produced under conditions of placid contentment and were most energetically

expressed by the birds when waking to more. vigorous life on the approach of
G

50 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

twilight and also during their enjoyment of a rain-bath, as described on a previous
page. Imitating this note, the author found it possible to establish quite a friendly
interchange of greetings with examples of this bird which occupied cages in various of
the Australian Zoological Gardens, and to whom the advent of an_ individual
sympathetically versed in Podargian language was distinctly welcome. The trans-
formation from listless melancholy apathy to an attitude of pleasurable excitement
and eager expectation was on many such occasions most conspicuous; so much so
that one left them deploring the absence of power to open their prison doors and
let them free—it seemed so like deserting companions in adversity.

Another very distinct vocal note to which the Podargi gave utterance was
manifested with relation only to the near approach of other birds towards whom they
entertained no hostile but apparently friendly sentiments. If, for instance, their
comrade the Butcher-bird came near them he was always greeted with this note,
which was a combined quacking and chattering sound, difficult to place phonetically
on paper, but which may be approximately rendered by the, to the human mind,
inane words, “quackaty-quack, quackaty-quack.” Sparrows hopping on the lawn or
perched on neighbouring bushes were vociferously hailed in the same language, under
the impression, possibly, that they were poor relations of the Butcher-bird. The most
remarkable incident, however, associated with this vocal note was the circumstance
that it constituted the greeting of welcome which was commonly accorded to my
wife on her first appearance in the morning, and less frequently on other occasions.
This form of salutation was not extended to myself or to any other personal
acquaintance, and the only plausible interpretation that can be attached to it is
that, borrowing a scriptural metaphor, these birds appraised the value of my better
half's company as equal to or beyond that of’ many sparrows, and greeted her
accordingly.

The fourth and last vocal sound, yet unreferred to, uttered by the Podargi,
bore relation to their mating instincts, and was of a very singular character. During
the nest-building season this amatory song, as it may be designated, was frequently
indulged in by both birds and may easily be described. It resembled simply a
repetition of the words “toot, toot, toot, toot,” repeated with comma, or staccato,
intervals for a space of two or three minutes, or even more. Then suddenly,
as though the accumulated words had all been wound up on a spring which now
over-reached its utmost tension, they all ran down again with a rush, but with

gradually diminuendo and finally piano and pianissimo expressive force.

PLATE:

WW, Saville-Kent, Photo,

AUSTRALIAN “MORE-PORKS,” Podargus strigoides. RKAIN-BATH MANCIUVRES. p. 45.

BIRDS. 51

While few, if any, other of the many Australian bird pets kept by the writer
rivalled the Podargi in the interest evoked by their Protean aspects and engaging
habits, certain of them exhibited, under domesticated influences, traits and peculiarities
that invite attention. Among the more conspicuous of these, an example of the
Queensland Shrike or Butcher-bird, Cracticus torquatus, lays claim to brief notice,
with reference, more ‘especially to the pathetic circumstances that attended its decease.
Various species of this Shrike genus inhabit all of the Australian Colonies, but
are chiefly confined to their southern, temperate, limits. The loud garrulous song
of certain of these species—which consists of a rapid alternately descending and
ascending scale on a gamut of a few notes only, with harmonious intervals—has won
for them in those colonies, such as Tasmania, to which Dacelo gigas is not indigenous,
the local appellation of the “Laughing Jackass.” All of the species are very readily
tamed, and, being in captivity inveterate mimics, with marked whistling and talking
tendencies, are in considerable favour as domestic pets.

A young Queensland Shrike was obtained by the writer at the same time and
from the same travelling caravan which supplied the Podargi. It early developed its
special whistling properties, and these were so trained that within a few weeks he
rehearsed the first stanzas of the Cambrian air “The Rising of the Lark” with a
vigour and correctness that would have won for him honourable mention, if not a
prize, at a Welsh Eisteddfod. This became the customary merry reveillé with
which from his cage in the verandah he was accustomed to rouse the household
in the early morning. The courage and spirit of these birds is notable; they will
readily attack and drive away Hawks, Piping Crows, Gymnorhina, and almost any
larger birds that happen to poach upon their preserves. In captivity they evince
the strongest likes and dislikes to individual people. In the example under
notice children became a special subject of hostility, msomuch that it was
found desirable to confine him to his cage when young people were about, upon
whom otherwise he was disposed to unpleasantly exercise the aggressive prowess of
his sharp beak. Allowed to run loose in the garden during the greater portion of
the day, he developed a marked penchant for English sparrows, which to the
Australian settler’s sorrow have been introduced and have multiplied to a ruinous
extent around the greater number of the leading industrial centres. The captured
sparrows he was accustomed, after the manner of his kind, to store up for a future
banquet in some conveniently accessible spot, such as the forked branch of an
adjacent bush, or may be betwixt the bars of his roomy cage. To approach his

52 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

extemporised larder on such occasions was to incur his most vehement indignation.
He would fiy at the intruder, attacking him fiercely with beak and claws, all the
time giving utterance to a torrent of “ chatteration,” which, to polite ears, would
probably not bear free translation. With a captured sparrow or any other trophy
of his bow and spear, these pugilistic manifestations were all in the grimmest earnest.
The bird, however, was brimful of fun, and nothing pleased him more on other
occasions than a mock battle on the same lines, with as much noise, but as it were
buttoned foils, over say a piece of rag or an empty banana skin, which, pushing
out or snatching away from between his cage bars, he would dare the writer to steal
from his clutches. In other ways this bird was most gentle and tractable with his
owner. Among the little tricks he indulged in, he would lie on his back in his cage
stiff and rigid as though he were dead, allowing himself to be picked up and swung
to and fro by his legs, as though on a pendulum, without moving a muscle. This
little trick was acquired by him so easily and in so natural a manner that it favours
the suspicion that it represented a hereditary, instinctive habit occasionally resorted
to by these birds as a stratagem wherewith to lie in wait for and capture the birds
and other small animals upon which they naturally prey. The author is indeed
inclined to believe that the sparrows this bird captured in the garden were taken
by some such stratagem, for, his wing being cut, he would scarcely have caught
one of these alert birds on even terms. He was, however, never seen in the act.

As with many birds and other creatures capable of forming strong attachments,
jealousy was with this Shrike a ruling passion, and proved his ruin. With the
Podargi, through uninterrupted early association, he was on the best of terms. In
an unlucky hour, however, the writer consented to take temporary charge of a
neighbour’s Piping Crow, the so-called Australian Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicens. With
the arrival of that Magpie the Butcher-bird’s peace of mind received a shock, though
unrecognised at the time, from which it never recovered. No sooner did he
commence a bar of his favourite air than the Magpie would at once overpower it
with a louder and, for the occasion, harsher note, and this unfriendly stratagem,
continually repeated, had the effect, in the long run, of entirely silencing his song.
Further than this, the Butcher-bird now began to mope, and lost his appetite and
more winning ways. The recognised cause of his discomfiture was removed, but
unfortunately too late. All attempts to resuscitate his health proved fruitless, and,
affectionately responding to our caresses to the last, he peacefully passed away.
Surely, as the elder Agassiz has previously suggested, there will be a resurrection

BIRDS. 53

for our departed dumb friends, for heaven without them would lack to many the
highest potentiality of happiness.
The true “ Laughing Jackass,” Dacelo gigas, of the Australian Colonies will be

a familiar object, both with regard to its form and its extraordinary vocal powers, to

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

NORTH QUEENSLAND LAUGHING gAcKass, Dacelo Leachii.

all visitors to the Zoological Society’s Gardens in Regent’s Park. To other than lay
readers it is scarcely necessary to explain that this bird is a giant member of the
Kingfisher family, so modified in its habits that it will thrive in an entirely waterless
country, feeding there upon snakes, lizards, insects, and small birds in lieu of fish.
The above-named largest and best known species of the genus is plentifully met with
throughout the southern colonies of Australia, excepting Tasmania, and farther north
is represented by several allied species of scarcely less dimensions and frequently more

brilliant plumage. One of these species, Dacelo Leachii, obtained by the writer from the

vicinity of Normanton, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, North Queensland, yielded during
its some months’ membership of the family menagerie several very characteristic

camera studies. One of the most interesting of these, reproduced on this page,

represents the bird in the act of having killed and snapped up a mouse, whose

delicacy of flavour he is anticipating by meditative contemplation preparatory

to swallowing it whole. This species of Dacelo is conspicuous for the brilliant

54 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

turquoise blue feathers developed by the adult male bird in patches on the wing
coverts, and also above the base of the tail. In this direction it more nearly
approaches the yet more magnificent Sawromarpus gaudichaudi of New Guinea on the
opposite side of Torres Straits.

The vocal accomplishments of the species here figured differ essentially from those
of the- familiar D. gigas, and so much resemble the most characteristic note of the
Australian Crane, or so-called “ Native Companion,” Grus australasianus, that the writer
on first hearing it in York Peninsula attributed it to that species. The sobriquet of
“Laughing Jackass” would appear under these circumstances to be somewhat inappro-
priately applied to this type. It can scarcely be said to laugh, and its “smile,” at
close quarters, is so loud and ear-piercing that unsympathetic neighbours most
uncharitably defined it as a compromise between the shriek of a locomotive engine
and a policeman’s rattle.

The Kingfisher family, Alcedidee, is most richly represented throughout Australia,
from the relatively huge Dacelos to the pigmy tropical Queensland species, Alcyone
pusilla, scarcely two inches in length, including as members in the same district
the remarkable Raquet-tailed Kingfisher, Tanysiptera sylvia, in which the two central
tail feathers are so prolonged that they may equal or exceed twice the total length of
the bird’s body. Many of these Australian Kingfishers are further interesting from the
fact that in lieu of river banks they burrow holes and construct their nests in the
hills of the White Ants or Termites that form the subject of a subsequent Chapter.
In Plate XXII, fig. B., an illustration is given of a termite nest, showing the burrow
entrance of the Raquet-tailed species above-mentioned.

The very commonly expressed assertion that Australian birds are devoid of
song is by no means supported by facts, as anyone who is extensively acquainted
with the various districts of the Island-Continent will testify. Few, if any, European
birds produce a melody as rich and varied as the several species of so-called Magpies
or Piping Crows, Gymnorhinew, already alluded to. Among the smaller birds there
are several species somewhat resembling the English reed warbler, and one of
these, Acrocephalus australis, is, indeed, specially mentioned by Gould as possessing a
stronger and more melodious song than its European congener. Allied to these again are
the many varieties of so-called White or Silver Eyes, genus Zosterops, which are veritable
garden warblers, in habits, note, and aspect. As with the European birds, to whom
they are here compared. they take a considerable toll from soft fruits such as goose-

berries or grapes, but in compensation destroy a vast number of insect pests. Some

BIRDS. 55d

half-a-dozen adult birds of the common Tasmanian species, Zosterops dorsalis, came into
the writer’s possession and were experimentally liberated and supplied with food in a
large glass-enclosed verandah, where they had abundant room to enjoy full flight. It
was noted then how diligently they sought out and devoured the aphides with which
many of the plants in the flower-stands were affected. By the time this source of
supply was exhausted the birds had become so tame and accustomed to the writer’s
presence that, on his bringing a green branch in from the garden, they would pitch upon
it while held in his hand, and search for and appropriate its insect treasures. An
observation recorded of these experimentally domesticated birds was the circumstances
that they always burst into the fullest song when the rain was pattering on the
verandah roof. Wild individuals roving freely in their native haunts were observed
to sing most vigorously in a similar manner during falling rain.

Apart from the generally expressed, but by no means correct, statement that
no Australian birds are songsters, the assertion that the brightest members of the
feathered tribe are mute or productive only of discordant sounds is accepted as a
universal truism. As obtains, however, in the case of most general rules, several
more or less conspicuous exceptions occur. In this special association a remarkably
brilliant one is yielded by the avifauna of North Australia. Writing of the beautiful
Grass, or Gouldian, Finch, Poephila Goulde, in his monumental work, the
“ Birds of Australia,” the late Mr. John Gould remarks: “It is beyond the power
of my pen to describe, or my pencil to portray, anything like the splendour of the
changeable hue of the lilac band which crosses the breast of this little gem, or the
scarcely less beautiful green of the neck and the golden yellow of the breast; the
latter colour is only equalled, certainly not surpassed, by the crest feathers of the
Golden Pheasant. Whenever this bird becomes so far common as to form a part of
our preserved collections, or to add a living lustre to our aviaries, it cannot fail to
become a general favourite.”

Since the publication of Mr. Gould’s work in 1848, this finch and the yet more
brilliant Scarlet-headed species or variety, the Poephila mirabilis of the same authority,
have come to be imported extensively into the English market, and, though somewhat
high in price, are at most times procurable at the first-class dealers.

Much of the otherwise necessarily elaborate description of the marvellous tints
of these most exquisite little finches may be saved by a reference to the coloured
Plate, Chromo II., facing page 39, which has been specially executed for this work
by the talented bird artist, J. G. Keulemans, from living specimens in the author's

56 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

possession. In this illustration a pair of the black-headed variety, the original Poephila
Goulde, occupy a position side by side of one another in the lower portion of the
picture, while two males and a female of the red or scarlet-headed race, the typical
Poephila mirabilis, are depicted immediately above them. The females of both these
species or varieties are readily distinguished, in their adult garb, by their relatively
sober tints which to many tastes are more pleasing than the brilliant contrasts presented
by their partner’s plumage. The rich violet and cadmium yellow, common to the
breasts of the males of both types, is replaced in the females by a delicate satiny
lilac-pink and pale primrose. In P. mirabilis, the brilliant scarlet-carmine head
adornment of the male bird is represented in the females by a patch of feathers of a
darker ruby red, which would appear to rarely occupy as extensive an area as obtains
in the male. In both varieties it is further notable that the bright grass green
plumage of the back in the male individuals is replaced by a darker grey or olive in
the females, and there is also in the latter sex a corresponding relative softening of
the tone of the narrow band of colour which encircles the head immediately behind
the black or scarlet, and which, in the male birds, placed in different lights, reflects
the most brilliant tints of emerald green or turquoise blue. In a second larger picture
of these Finches, executed for the author by Mr. Keulemans, the birds, some dozen in
number, are posed in a semi-circle, and constitute so perfect a prismatic arch of
colour that the painting has been appropriately entitled “An Avian Rainbow.”

Mr. Gould’s personal acquaintanceship with these tropical Australian finches was
limited to the possession of preserved skins supplied to him by his agent and co-
adjutator, Mr. Gilbert, from whom he also received a few meagre data relating to
their habits. Had Mr. Gould lived but a few years longer and availed himself, as he
probably would have done, of the opportunities that would have been at his disposal of
observing the living birds, he would doubtless have placed on record an account of
some of the phenomena chronicled in this Chapter.

Anticipating that full particulars concerning these birds would be probably
included in Dr. A. G. Butler’s Monograph of “Foreign Finches in Captivity ” (Reeve and
Co.), of which six parts have been published, the author consulted that work. Although,
however, containing much information relating to the many attempts, few of them
successful, to breed these finches in this country, and the testimony recorded by various
authorities concerning the specific distinction or otherwise of the Black and Scarlet-headed
forms, the work makes no mention whatever of their pronounced vocal talents and

remarkable terpsichorean accomplishments. Dr. Butler’s omission of reference to these

BIRDS. 57

phenomena is doubtless to be accounted for by the fact that his personal experience with
these finches was apparently limited to their maintenance in an aviary, in company with
a variety of other birds. In accordance with the writer’s experiences, these finches will
only manifest their natural habits and propensities to their fullest bent when, under
conditions of untrammelled liberty, and a temperature coincident with that of their
native habitat, they are consorted exclusively with individuals of the same species. In
addition to making the acquaintance of these Poephile in their native haunts, in both
Queensland and Western Australia, the author is at the time of writing, and has for
about a year past been, the happy possessor of half-a-dozen living specimens. One
pair of these represents the scarlet, and the other two the black-headed, varieties.

As attested to in a previous paragraph, considerable doubt still exists among
ornithologists as to the possession by these red and black-headed finches of a sound claim
for separate specific recognition. When first discovered, the scarlet-headed form was
supposed to represent the male, and the black-headed one the female, of the same specific
type, and there are those who still hold to the opinion, and who assert that any gradation
between the two may be produced. One fact—that the two forms are, as has been
personally observed, commonly, if not usually, found in the same flock—lends much
strength to this hypothesis. On the other hand, while the immature individuals of
both forms do present what appear to be intermediate links, the author, in common
with other observers, has experienced no difficulty in relegating the adult birds to
their respective category. This is more especially easy of accomplishment in the case
of living examples, and where their respective vocal talents furnishes a ready clue
' to their sexual identity. Whichever of the two interpretations, however, may be the
correct one, these birds constitute a most puzzling evolutionary conundrum. For if
they be two separate species or even merely sub-species, how is it that, consorting
in the same flocks, and living under precisely parallel conditions and environments,
they have come to acquire their very definite colour distinctions? If gradations
between the two were of more or less common occurrence, the circumstance would
not be so remarkable, there being other birds—notably the Ruff, Philomachus pugnax—of
which it is asserted that two male birds are never precisely alike in colour, though, on the
other hand, every phase of variation occurs between the most extreme types.

The evidence concerning the specific distinctness of these Poephile adduced by
the latest authorities, and recorded in Dr. Butler’s book, most strongly favours the
interpretation that the scarlet and black-headed individuals are variations only of the

same bird, for which the title of Poephila mirabilis, as first applied to the scarlet-
H

58 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

headed type, is specifically retained. The black-headed bird is accordingly distinguished
by the name of P. mirabilis var. Goulde, while a third accredited variety, in which
the scarlet or black area of the head is replaced by yellow, has received the
title of P. mirabilis var. armitiana. Since, however, this yellow-headed type has
been met with only among examples bred in confinement, there is every reason
for anticipating that this form is only a weak and imperfectly developed phase of the
red-headed species. According to some of the writers quoted by Dr. Butler, scarlet-
headed birds may result as the offspring of black-headed parents or vice versd, while
by others it is maintained that they breed perfectly true to their race. Mr. Abrahams,
one of the oldest and most extensive importers of these Australian finches, quoted by
Dr. Butler, attests to experiencing no difficulty whatever in relegating the adult birds
to their respective race. Previous to their first moult the young birds of both races
and sexes are a dull grey-green throughout, but after this period the distinctive red
or pure black feathers begin to make their appearance, and become more conspicuously
developed with each successive moult.

Leaving the settlement of their specific distinction or identity to ornithologists,
an account of the very interésting traits, or, it might be written, accomplishments,
that both the red and black-capped Poephile share in common, may be proceeded
with. In Gould’s standard work and other books on birds, copied from that authority,
the only sound attributed to them is a mournful piping added to a double twit. This,
as reported to Mr. Gould by his agent, Mr. Gilbert, is all that a traveller or collector
would probably hear of them in their wild state, under which conditions, at first
alarm, they usually utter these warning notes—the male piping and the female
twitting—while they fly for refuge to the tree tops. Under domesticated influences,
however, all fear is soon cast aside, and though the females never distinguish
themselves as vocalists beyond the aforesaid twitter and a few supplementary
notes, the males unburden themselves incessantly in song. This song is not a loud
one, but remarkable for its sustained volume and most peculiar timbre. To the
writer and others enjoying with him the privilege of the first rehearsals, the most
appropriate simile that this Poephila’s song suggested was that of a whole choir of
birds, such as a company of swallows, singing in a distant grove. The notes, though
small and feeble, are very clear and sweet, and come pouring out in so rapid a stream
that it is difficult to realize a single one only is emitted at a time. So deceptive, in
fact, is the effect produced, that an uninitiated listener, soon after they were first
brought home, announced to the author that three or four of the birds had been

BIRDS. 59

singing simultaneously, and that all of them commenced together after a preliminary
signal note from one individual. As a matter of fact, there was only one singing bird
at that time, and a wee piping note, as though from a Liliputian boatswain’s whistle,
is the customary prelude
to the male bird’s song.
It will seem to
many readers, probably,
very much like romancing
when to the substance of
the foregoing paragraph
the information is added

that these birds dance as

well as sing,—and not INTRODUCTORY SALUTATIONS.

only this, but one will pipe and the other dance, or both will dance and sing together,
or vary their most amusing performances in a variety of manners. The discovery
of the terpsichorean accomplishments of these Poephile was made very soon after
giving them their liberty in a small congenially heated room supplied with convenient
perches. Accustomed at first to sleep in a cage at night, the primary act that
usually followed their liberation in the morning was the repairing of the little flock to
their favourite top perch. After a brief interval, two of the males, a scarlet and a
black-capped individual found themselves next door neighbours, and the ball, or more
strictly speaking, the pas de deux
began. As is de régle at such
functions associated with human
participants, there was a cere-
monious preliminary interchange of
courtesies, which was in itself a
remarkable performance. Both
birds, turning towards each other,
would bring their beaks down nearly
to the level of the perch, and while
retaining them in this deflected

position, vibrate their heads with

great rapidity, at the same time

W. Saville-Kent, del,

eon acaie au uttering their somewhat plaintive

60 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

piping note. This head-quivering would continue for several seconds, or even minutes,
and then, stretching themselves up to their full heights, they would commence
hopping up and down on their perch, exchanging meanwhile their former plaintive
note for the hilarious warble previously described. This hopping-step, with both feet
at the same time raised clear of the perch, was performed with the most even rhythm,
while the grotesque aspect of the performers was frequently enhanced by their flexing
their tails at a stiff angle towards the right or left. Some slight idea of the attitudes
assumed by the finches in the course of the above-described performance is given
in the diagrammatic illustrations overleaf. In the first of these the preliminary
ceremonial of bowing and head-shivering is depicted, while in the second one the
dance is in full swing. To add to the grotesqueness of the spectacle the favourite
object usually selected by the birds for their performance was, as delineated in the
illustration, the long-pointed beak of a stuffed Australian Gannet, which adorned the
top of a bookcase in the author’s study.

Considerable diversity is manifested in the dancing manceuvres of these
Poephile. While two male birds more frequently dance and sing together in the
manner just described, it sometimes happens that one of the two will maintain the
bowing and quivering action and piping note while the other dances and sings, or one
will continue piping to the other’s dance, maintaining at the same time an attitude simply
of apparent fixed attention. Sometimes, but not so frequently, the writer has observed
a male and female bird take part in one of these performances. In such instances,
however, the female usually only participates to the extent of bowing, vibrating her
head, and piping. She does not dance and neither does she sing.

It is only quite recently (May, 1896), that an instance has fallen under
observation in which a female bird has participated more extensively in the
terpsichorean exhibition. This female is of the black-headed race, and has paired
with a male of the same colour. She customarily indulges several times a day in
this phenomenal pastime, and is not unfrequently the initiator of the sport. On these
occasions she will commence bowing and shivering her head to her mate, but only
for a brief period. So soon as he responds in like manner, she discontinues this
action and pipes only a single plaintive note at rhythmical intervals to his head
shaking. This may continue for several minutes, but as soon as he elevates his
head and begins to dance, she introduces a new element in the form of expanding
and vibrating her tail with extreme rapidity, and at the same time exchanging her

previous piping note for a diminutive clucking or croaking sound. The male bird

BIRDS. 61

usually breaks off abruptly and flies away after sustaining his dance for one or
two minutes. The performance as shared in by both the male and female birds,
as above described, no doubt represents the fullest development of the singular
phenomenon.

The other two male birds, scarlet and black-headed varieties, in the author's
collection, are at the present time, although provided with mates, utterly indifferent
to feminine blandishments, but are most devotedly attached to each other, dancing
together or warbling to one another alternately, while the other extends his head and
neck towards his companion in an attitude of the most rapt attention. These two
inseparable friends were, it must be confessed, a few months since at daggers drawn,
the disturbing element being, as might be anticipated, a lady bird. Since, however,
the removal by death of that or these particular bone or bones of contention, peace
has been restored to the camp, and, like burnt children who dread the fire, they
have apparently forsworn, for the love of each other's company, all further dealings
with the fairer sex.

One of these male Poephile, when first received by the author in August,
1895, while the finest individual and the most persistent songster, was, it may be
mentioned, remarkably cross-grained. If set at liberty with the others, he maltreated
and tyrannised over them unmercifully, and would not respond to any friendly over-
tures. Consigned, however, to durance vile, while they were at liberty, he would,
if they alighted on or near his cage, both dance and sing to them, and he would also
do the same to a preserved skin of his own species if held near him. It is this bird
which has recently become very sociable, and the most devoted companion of the
scarlet-headed male.

While no mention whatever is made of either the singing or dancing accomplish-
ments of these Poephile in Dr. Butler’s Monograph, a reference is made to certain other
types in which a so-called love dance is indulged in by the male bird for the delectation
of his mate. The well-known White-headed Finch or Diamond Sparrow of New South
Wales, Steganophora guttata, is among the forms notable for this peculiarity. The
male, when courting, stretches his neck up to an extravagant height, draws in the
breast, and expands the chest and abdomen in such manner as to somewhat resemble
an oil flask, and bobs up and down on his perch with, may be, a grass-stalk in his beak,
and giving voice to his song, which is described by Dr. Russ as consisting of a flute-
like call-note and a monotonous bass one. The author has also observed a very
similar exhibition by the Firetailed Finch, Estralda bella, further referred to in

62 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

a succeeding page, which in some respects bears a considerable resemblance to
Steganophora. No members of the finch tribe, however, as so far observed and described,
would seem to possess any approach to so varied a répertoire of song and dance as
do the Gouldian species, which, added to their marvellously brilliant colourmg and
merry sociable habits, qualifies them for occupying a foremost rank in the estimation
of all bird-fanciers.

Some highly interesting examples of the dancing of birds other than finches are
recorded in W. H. Hudson’s fascinating book “The Naturalist in La Plata.” The per-
formances there chronicled are, however, chiefly associated with larger birds, such as Rails,
Pheasants, and Lapwings, and a number of individuals mostly acting in concert. Quoting,
however, another author's treatise, Mr. Bigg-Wither’s “Pioneering in South Brazil,”
Mr. Hudson’s volume makes reference to a small bird of the size of a tom-tit, with
blue plumage and a red top-knot, known to the natives as the “dancing bird.” It
assembles in flocks on the ground and adjacent shrubs, and, while one warbles, all the
others keep time with wings and feet in a kind of dance, at the same time twittering
an accompaniment. There can be but little doubt that the dancing performances of the
Poephile here described are, to a large extent, purely sportive, and indulged in for their
individual amusement, quite independently of the mating season or any inherent desire to
commend themselves, from an esthetic point of view, to the notice of the female members
of the flock. As stated in a previous paragraph, these finches can now be almost
always obtained in London at the leading dealers, so that any interested in this
subject can readily obtain specimens and observe for themselves. To keep these
little tropical finches in health, it is, of course, desirable to make provision against
their being exposed to too low a temperature, and more especially against draughts ;
while, in order to witness the interesting phenomena here recorded of them to full
advantage, it is essential that they should be allowed abundant liberty. The accom-
modation provided for the author’s specimens, and under which they have thriven
remarkably well, is the free run of his study, a sunny, well-lit room ‘some eighteen
feet by twelve, and eleven high, in which abundant provision for fresh air and
ventilation is imsured by the fitting of movable wire-netting screens to the window-
sashes. Perches and other congenial playing and resting objects are placed for the
birds on the top of two book cases, including, among other items, several hollow
cork-bark cylinders, within which one pair has already commenced to build a nest.
A couple of small cages being kept on the table with open doors with supplies
of food and water and shell sand, they repair to these systematically for their

BIRDS. 63

meals, and can, under such conditions, be easily shut in for transport or temporary
confinement when any special necessity may arise. Notably among these fortunately
unfrequent occasions must be reckoned that veritable dies irw to the scientist or
practical naturalist known as “cleaning-down” day, when both he and his avian or
other living pets must, like Br’er Fox, lie low, or altogether abandon their camp to
the hands of the enemy.

Although many attempts have been made to breed these Gouldian finches
in captivity in this country, the successes have been very few and far between.
Coming from the Antipodes, their summer, or breeding season, is usually our winter,
and the female birds, being particularly susceptible to ovarian disorders, resulting
from cold, commonly succumb at this critical period. As an example of their fertility,
it may, however, be mentioned that one female of the black-headed race in the
writer’s possession laid no less than sixteen eggs. The first of these were deposited
at intervals of one or two days only, but the latter ones with intervening periods
of as much as a whole week. This little bird apparently overtaxed her strength,
being found dead one morning soon after the deposit of her sixteenth egg. The
most successful instance of the Gouldian finches breeding in this country is that given
by Mr. Reginald Phillips in Dr. Butler’s Monograph, and is hereunder summarized. A
pair of the scarlet-headed species built a large domed nest of fine grass, with an
aperture nearly at the top, in a dead tree affixed in a large aviary-cage. The first
egg was laid on the 5th May, 1891, the last on the 9th, when the hen commenced
to sit in earnest, the cock taking her place when she came off to feed. The first young
voice was heard on the 24th May, and on the 16th June two young birds in full feather
were enticed out of the nest by their mother. An examination of the nest on the
following day revealed the presence of a third young bird and three clear eggs. The
birds while nesting fed on spray and white millet and a little canary seed, and fed
their young by regurgitating this food from their crops. These young birds, on their
first appearance, were a dull olive green, with horn-coloured beaks, and were fed
by the mother until able to take care of themselves. _The first moult of these
English-born birds took place when they were a year old, May, 1892; the hen’s face
became black with a brick-red sort of tinge, and that of the cock bird remained a dull
greyish green, except for the presence of a few red feathers dotted here and there. In
the second moult, 1893, both the cock and hen developed typical scarlet faces, that
of the hen, however, being still much mixed with black. It was also only with this

second moult that the male bird developed his characteristic long central tail feathers.

64 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Taking Mr. Phillips’ successful experience as here recorded as their guide, bird
fanciers should encounter no serious obstacles in breeding these beautiful finches for
the market. The essential elements for success are no doubt the maintenance of a
congenial temperature, more especially at the moulting and breeding seasons, combined
with a large margin of liberty. On the question of temperature, Dr. Butler, and
other authorities quoted in his Monograph, are, in the author’s opinion, inclined to
lay too little importance. It must be borne in mind that the natural distribu-
tion of the Gouldian finches is restricted to tropical Australia, and that they
are not obtained south of these limits in common with the many other Australian
species that are extensively imported. Dr. Butler attests to having kept one male
bird in an outdoor aviary throughout the winter, but, against this isolated instance,
numberless individuals perish indoors at the first approach of the winter season. Were
they, in fact, naturally adapted for a colder climate, their geographical distribution, instead
of being limited, as now, to the north, would be co-extensive with the Australian
continent. It is, at the same time, an undoubted fact that Gouldian finches can
withstand considerable extremes of temperature. At Normanton, in the Gulf of
Carpentaria, close to their native haunts, and where the author saw a number that were
breeding in an outdoor aviary, making their nests in the hollows of some rockwork, the
thermometer at night was down to, and below, 50° Fahr. In the daytime, however,
by way of compensation, it rose in the shade to from 70° to 80° or more, a range of
temperature under which, in captivity, these finches are most supremely happy. The
contrast, in fact, exhibited by the demeanour of the examples in the author’s possession
under the varying conditions of our fickle English climate is convincing. But a few
weeks since, May, 1896, a brief premature spell of sunny summer weather maintained
the temperature of their room to a height of from 65° to 70° Fahr. with windows
open and without the aid of fires; all the birds were full of life, the males unburdening
their pent-up hilarity in a continual stream of song. To this succeeded a return of
bitter north-east wind, driving the highest day readings of the thermometer to below 60°.
The birds.at once began to mope, the males ceasing or indulging little in melody, while
the females crouched forlornly with their heads tucked under their feathers, and’ only
roused themselves to take their food. But, in fact, for the prompt supply of artificial
heat, more serious complications would have undoubtedly ensued.

A brief space may be appropriately devoted to one other noteworthy Australian
finch. This is the so-called “Firetail” or Firetailed finch, Estrelda bella, of the

southern provinces of the Australian continent, which is especially abundant in the

BIRDS. 65

picturesque colony of Tasmania. This little bird can lay claim neither to the array of
brilliant tints nor to the vocal accomplishments of the Poephile. As befits its citizen-
ship of a more temperate climate, its plumage is distinguished for the most part by its
delicate, alternating, transverse pencillings of dark and light ashen greys. The upper
tail-coverts, however, stand out conspicuously from the rest of its plumage by reason of
their intense scarlet-carmine hue, which, when the bird flits along the hedgerows
or across the woodland glades, seem to glow with the incandescence of a burning
coal. No member of the finch tribe, not excepting even the justly belauded British
Bullfinch, probably, is so amenable to human influences or becomes so tame and
engaging a companion as does the little Australian Firetail. Tasmanian friends have
attested to individuals in their possession which would accompany them in their walks
abroad, and one of several belonging to the author would, after disporting himself in
the garden, return to his cage at a signal whistle. Among themselves, these birds are
eminently sociable, assembling and building in company. When several are kept
together and allowed their liberty in a dwelling room, they are up to all sorts of
frolics, and there is hardly anything that they like better than to join a companion at
opposite ends of a strand of cotton and to pull for dear life one against the other in
a veritable “tug-of-war.” One bird would even address himself so vigorously to this
game of cotton-pulling as to allow himself to be lifted off the ground by one end of
the fabric, while he held on with his beak to the other, and so hung suspended in the
air for several seconds. With their owner, whom they speedily grow to know,
Firetails place themselves upon the most familiar terms, exploring his pockets,
penetrating up his coat sleeves and taking no end of liberties. One special pet, who
travelled home to England, extended his friendship to visitors and manifested a marked
partiality for a lady acquaintance, who possessed the, to him, irresistible attraction of
a tiny gold mine in one of her front teeth. The ambition to attain access to, and to
exploit the profundities of that glittering El Dorado, of which his keen eyes would
detect the most momentary display, waszhis one endeavour, and with that end in view
his pertinacious attentions were somewhat embarrassing.

Of song, in its true sense, the Firetail is deficient, its vocal powers being limited
to a somewhat plaintive piping. So much does this piping resemble that of a remote
boatswain’s whistle that on the voyage to England an example one day deceived the
veteran skipper of the ocean liner, who, while seated at the breakfast table, was
astonished to hear the summons, as he thought, without his authority, for the hands

to shorten sail. Amidst much mirth, the true culprit was unearthed from an adjacent
I

66 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

cabin, and, after due admonition, was released on parole. The author's Firetailed
finches did not dance to one another, as do the Poephile, but, at the same time,
one especially fine little fellow, the hero of the previous episode, would hop
up and down opposite to his own image in a mirror, and, to indulge his peculiar
predilection, he had a small piece of looking-glass fixed to his cage. This bird
would also sometimes dance in a similar manner on the table to his owners, with a
piece of grass or cotton in his beak. This particular bird, like one of the Poephile,
was a most confirmed and crusty bachelor, or possibly was only awaiting the advent
of his astral affinity. At any rate, he behaved so tyrannically to all other comrades,
both male and female, as to necessitate the provision of a separate establishment,
in which he was familiarly distinguished by the somewhat derogatory title of
“the Gaol bird.”

Among the claimants for recognition as Australian songsters, a prominent
place must be allotted to the common House-swallow of Western Australia, Hirundo
neoxena, whose melody always struck me as being considerably more varied and
prolonged than that of its European congener. A company of these birds, seated
in a row along the street telegraph wires just outside the hotel window, as commonly
happens in an Australian township, will regale you with a most recherché serenade.
As a combined symphony, however, there are probably no birds that produce so
singularly pleasing an effect as the little Bell-bird, Myzanthus melanophrys, of the
Southern Colonies. The Gippsland district of Victoria is especially favoured with
its presence. Riding through the dense eucalyptus forests of that province, the
traveller, such being the writer's experience, suddenly comes upon a spot, commonly
a glade near a running stream, from whence on all sides he is greeted with, as it
were, the tinkling of little silver bells, all harmoniously blending with one another,
though differing individually in their precise timbre. A hasty glance around fails
to discover the authors of the fairy music, and it is only by a painstaking search
that the hidden musicians are revealed in the form of a small olive-yellow bird
that is most difficult to detect among the masses of foliage of the same tint.

Some of the exquisite little so-called Australian Wrens, genus Malurus, are by
no means indifferent songsters, and are so naturally tame that, by imitating their
note as nearly as possible with the mouth, they can be attracted to within a few
feet distance only of the observer. In shape, size and deportment these little birds
very closely resemble the English and European Long-tailed Titmouse, Aigithalus

vagans, but are far more resplendently arrayed, their gay liveries including tints in which,

PLATE XI.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
“INNOCENTS ABROAD.” YOUNG AUSTRALIAN PELICANS, Pelecanus conspicillatus, p. 67.

BIRDS. 67

according to their respective species, the brightest cobalt blue or scarlet commingled
with black predominate. A near and interesting relative of the foregoing species,
but of even less dimensions, is the little Australian Emu Wren, Stipiturus malichurus,
whose more homely tints of brown and lilac-grey are compensated for by the unique
character of the elongate tail feathers. The pinne of these feathers are individually
separated and hair-like, as obtains normally in those of the Emu and other Struthionide.

As a pendent to these brief bird notices, reference may be made to the
several photographs reproduced in Plate XI. These illustrations, which possess some-
what of the comic element, represent a pair of young pelicans, Pelicanus conspicillatus,
taken from the neighbourhood of the Lacepede Islands, which were brought
on board the ss. “Albany,” during the writer’s recent passage by that vessel up
the Western Australian coast. In their infantile, featherless condition, they pre-
sented a remarkable likeness to plucked geese, and were regarded with such dismay
by a young fox-terrier puppy experimentally introduced to them, that, as portrayed in
Figs. 2 and 3 of our snapshot pictures, he, after one moment of open-mouthed agony
and distress, incontinently turned tail and fled. The persevering toilet performances
of these “Innocents abroad,” with scarcely a feather on which to lavish their exuberant
energies, as portrayed in Fig. 4 of the same Plate, proved an unending source of
mirth to the numerous company on board the good ship “ Albany.”

On one other of the writer's voyages up the Western Australian coast an
interesting bird passenger was embarked in the shape of a young Osprey or Sea-
Eagle, Pandion leucocephalus. This bird, which had been taken and kept in captivity
for a brief season at Shark’s Bay, was so tame that it allowed itself to be lifted with
the hands and posed by the writer for its portrait overleaf. This species of Eagle is
met with throughout the tropical and sub-tropical Australian Coast-line. At Thursday
Island, Torres Straits, a pair habitually build a huge nest of interlacing sticks on one
of the cruciform wooden beacons that define the boundary of the navigable channel. On
Adolphus Island, Cambridge Gulf, in the extreme north west, there is another such nest
that is of almost classic interest. It is built in a large Baobab or Bottle-tree, Adansonia
rupestris, and would seem to be identical with one first noticed by Captain Phillip King
in his “Survey of the Coasts of Australia” (1826), and has apparently been tenanted by
successive generations down to the present time. A nest, occupying the position
indicated by Captain King, was, at all events, found on Adolphus Island by the
officers of H.M.S. “Myrmidon” under command of Captain the Hon. Foley Vereker,
when making a detailed survey of Cambridge Gulf in the year 1888. The writer

68 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

enjoyed the privilege of participating in this cruise as the Captain’s guest, and having
manifested a special interest in this nest, a couple of blue-jackets were told off to
scale the tree and to obtain all available data concerning its dimensions and present
or recent tenancy. Not being the breeding season, the nest was then empty, but had
evidently been tenanted the preceding year. Its diameter was found to be no less

than twelve feet.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

YOUNG AUSTRALIAN OSPREY, Pandion leucocephalus, p. 67.

Chromo Plate Il.

Chlamydosaurus Kingi :

AUSTRALIAN FRILLED LIZARD,

# Nat.size, p. 71.

Mintern Bros, Chromo.

FWFrohawk, del.
W Saville-Kent pinx

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

CHAPTER III.

RIZARDS.

++

[HE Australian Continent, with its vast expanses

of virgin forest, rugged rock, and arid sand,
is, par excellence, the dwelling place of a
wonderfully diversified number of representatives of the
Lizard tribe. These are found to range in dimensions
from huge Monitors or Varani, six or seven feet in
length, to diminutive Skinks, Geckos and other forms
that cannot boast of as many inches. Among this
motley lacertilian assemblage there occur several types

which are remarkable

FRILLED LIZARD AT REST, p. 70.

for their bizarre form
and structural or physio-
logical peculiarities. It
has, as a consequence,

been determined to devote

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

a short chapter to the

70 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

illustration and record of the life aspects and habits of a few of the more prominent
of these lizards with which, through the possession of living specimens, the author
has enjoyed special opportunities of making himself familiar.

The place of honour among this selected series of noteworthy Australian
Lacertilia must unquestionably be awarded to the so-called Frilled Lizard, Chlamy-
dosaurus Kingi, which is restricted in its distribution to the northern or tropical
districts of Australia and is, within these limits, indigenous to the Colonies of
Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory of South Australia.
The earliest record of this singular species is contained in Captain Phillip P.
King’s “Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical Coasts of Australia” (1826),
wherein it is named, figured and described in a Natural History Appendix edited
by the late Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. This original type specimen was obtained by
Mr. Allan Cunningham, the botanist to Captain King’s ship, the ‘“ Mermaid,” at
Careening Bay, on the north-west coast of Western Australia. Living examples
of this very remarkable Lizard were secured by the author in both North Queens-
land and Western Australia. He was fortunate, moreover, in bringing a specimen,
the first of its kind imported to Europe, safely to England, and in chronicling
the greater portion of the data here recorded concerning its very singular aspect
and _ habits.

The natural habitat of the Frilled Lizard is essentially sylvan. It affects the
more or less thickly-wooded scrub-lands, and passes the greater portion of its
existence on the trunks and lower branches of the trees. At first sight, when seen
in repose, as shewn in the photographic illustration which flanks this Chapter
heading, there is but little to distinguish this lizard from the ordinary lacertilian
type. The hind limbs are relatively long and the front ones short, as obtains,
though in a less degree, in many species of Grammatophora (Amphibolurus). The
head is somewhat abruptly truncate, the tail long, rough and attenuate, and there
are no abnormal spines or protuberances such as occur in Moloch horridus and other
structurally conspicuous species. On a nearer examination, however, it will be
observed that a neatly folded plicated membrane with denticulated edges envelopes,
sheath-like, the hinder region of the head and neck and extends backwards to the
reflexed angle of the fore-limb. In order to appreciate the remarkable form and
development of this membranous structure in the Frilled Lizard it is necessary to come
upon the animal unawares or to otherwise submit it to exciting influences. Under

such conditions it is suddenly transformed from the most placid-looking of reptilian

LIZARDS. 71

types into a creature of an essentially forbidding and threatening aspect. The
membranous frill, previously applied closely to the neck, is suddenly, and syn-
chronously with the opening of the mouth to its fullest width, erected in such
manner that it stands out at right angles around the animal’s head. The dimen-
sions of this frill in adult individuals may be as much as from eight to ten inches in
diameter and in its erected condition the lizard’s body, when facing the observer,
is almost, if not entirely, concealed from view. A fairly correct presentment of the
Frilled Lizard thus aroused to anger or standing defiantly at bay is embodied in the
two photographs from life reproduced as the heading to this Chapter. The ferocious
appearance of Chlamydosaurus here depicted only in monochrome is materially
enhanced in the living subject by the glowing tints of vermilion red, yellow, and
steel blue that suffuse that portion of the frill which covers the front of the neck
and chest, combined with the bright yellow distinctive of the tongue and the lining
membrane of the mouth and throat. The dashes and pencillings of rosy red which
accentuate the outlines of the upper and lower jaws and the margin of the singular
ciliated irides, also add sensibly to the creature’s angry aspect.

With the assistance of the talented natural history artist, Mr. F. W. Frohawk,
the author has succeeded in obtaining a highly characteristic portrait of the example
which he recently brought alive to England, with which has been incorporated the
colours, copied from life, of one of the brighter male examples immediately after
its capture in Roebuck Bay. This portrait appeared originally as a black and white
drawing in the pages of the “Field” for August 3rd, 1895, and subsequently with the
colours, as added by the author, in conjunction with a paper descriptive of the animal
contributed to the “Proceedings of the Zoological Society” for the same year. The
author’s obligations to the “Field” Newspaper and the Council of the Zoological
Society for permission to reproduce the illustration in these pages may be here most
appropriately recorded.

With regard to the significance and utility of the erectile frill in Chlamydosaurus,
the fact that this organ is of insignificant proportions in young examples, and attains
its full development only in adult individuals, would appear to indicate that, as a
structure, it has been developed within comparatively recent times and does not
represent the residual heritage of a remote ancestry. Respecting its function, there
can be but little doubt that it fulfils simply the réle of a “scare-organ,” where-
with it terrifies, and diverts the projected attack of, many ordinary enemies.

Instances have, in fact, been related to the author of dogs which will readily rush

72 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

upon and kill other and larger lizards, such as Varani, refusing to come to close
quarters with so formidable-looking an object as Chlamydosaurus, when it turns upon
them with gaping mouth and suddenly erected frill. The erection of the feathers of
an owl or the fur of a cat is correlated with a like “scaring” function, but the
inflation of the hood of the Cobra, and in a less degree the neck-membranes of other
snakes, furnishes, perhaps, a more appropriate analogy. In one other Australian
species, Amphibolurus barbatus, commonly known as the Jew Lizard, which is also
figured and described in this Chapter, the throat membrane is likewise inflated under
the influence of irritation in such a manner as almost to constitute a frill, As
hereafter recorded, in fact, this species, in districts south of the habitat of
Chlamydosaurus, is commonly distinguished by the popular name of the Frilled
Lizard.

It is worthy of note with reference to the elevation and depression of the
membranous frill of Chlamydosaurus that the species is not unfrequently delineated in
natural history works with this structure more or less fully extended, but with the
mouth completely closed. The author has also observed mounted specimens in
museums displaying a corresponding relationship of the organ and structure indicated.
As a matter of fact, the opening of the mouth and the erection of the frill are
synchronous actions which cannot be exercised independently of one another. An
explanation of this circumstance is afforded by the presence of slender processes of
the hyoid bone which extend on either side through the walls of the membranous
frill. The relative elevation of the frill is consequently in direct proportion with
the depression of the mandible, and it is only under the condition of the mouth
being opened to its widest extent that the frill is so conspicuously displayed as to
stand out at a right angle from the animal’s neck, as indicated in several of the
accompanying illustrations.

Although presenting so weird and formidable an appearance, the Frilled
Lizard possesses but feeble powers of aggression. Its teeth are small, the jaws
comparatively weak, and it is but rarely that the animal attempts to bite, relying
apparently on the discomfiture and retreat of its would-be assailants through the
terror-striking appearance of its gaping jaws and erected frill. Individual specimens
were, however, found by the author to differ materially in the exercise of their
defensive or aggressive proclivities. With the majority of some half-a-dozen examples
kept in confinement the non-aggressive form of defence was alone displayed. Two

exceptional individuals, however, manifested an essentially hostile and pugnacious

LIZARDS. 73

disposition, springing at and biting any object placed near them, uttering a hoarse,
hissing noise, and also striking savagely whipwise with their rough attenuate tails.
The blows thus delivered were, in fact, dealt with such vigour as to smartly sting the
hand if exposed to the impact. This flagellating method of attack manifested by
Chlamydosaurus must, it may be anticipated, prove very disconcerting to a foe
previously unfamiliar with the animal’s peculiar aggressive tactics. After a very
short interval of confinement and hand-feeding, however, even these two irascible
individuals abandoned their) previous aggressive tendencies, and became quite
domesticated.

An even higher scientific interest than the abnormal development of the
frill-like membrane that encircles the creature’s neck attaches itself to the very
remarkable manner in which Chlamydosaurus progresses along the surface of the
ground. In this respect it is apparently unique among the existing members of
its tribe. The rumour that the Frilled Lizard was in the habit of running erect on its
hind legs only was communicated to the author some years ago, and is also recorded
by Dr. Henry Woodward, F.R.S., in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for
the year 1874, in an interesting article by that accomplished geologist entitled “ Forms
intermediate between Birds and Reptiles.” The present writer failed, however, to verify
this assertion through the single living Queensland example he had in captivity for a
short interval; and neither was a friend in the northern district of the Colony
more fortunate, who, at special request, experimented with several specimens. It
was, on these grounds, anticipated that the rumour, which had been previously
received, was the outcome of an optical illusion; more particularly since many
lizards, such as certain of the slighter-built Amphiboluri, run so erect on their haunches
that it might be imagined their fore-limbs were raised from the ground.

It was consequently with much gratification and delight that, on becoming the
owner of several specimens, including the one brought to England, obtained with
the assistance of the aborigines of Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, the writer
found himself in a position to scientifically demonstrate for the first time the truth
of the report concerning the erect gait of Chlamydosaurus that had been received in
Queensland. Possibly the specimens previously experimented with had been slightly-
injured during capture, and lacked the stamina to walk upright. At all events, the
Roebuck Bay examples, brought in straight from the bush, were in vigorous health, and
at the first trial when left at liberty, save for a light retaining cord, ran along almost

perfectly erect, with both their fore-limbs and long tails elevated clear of the ground.
K

74 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The attempt was made on the spot to permanently register, with the aid of
the Kodak camera, the absurdly grotesque appearances these lizards presented when
progressing in this bipedal fashion. Such, however, was the speed at which the animals
ran, that the shutter of that instrument did not work fast enough to secure anything
better than a blur at close quarters, and it was only by bringing an Anschutz camera,
with its more rapid roller-blind shutter to bear on the specimen after its arrival in
London, that the several bizarre figures reproduced in Plate XII. were secured. While
even these partake much of the nature of silhouettes, they will serve to indicate the
very singular running attitudes which this lizard may assume.

Fig. 1 in this series carries with it so essentially human an aspect that one is
sorely tempted, even at the risk of scientific contumely, to place a cricket bat in its
right hand. Fig. 2, again, might equally do duty as a parody on the celebrated dance of
the “Lord Chancellor” in the play of “TIolanthe”; the exuberant judicial wig of his
lordship finding its counterpart in the lizard’s semi-erected frill, while the dancing
pose is ludicrously perfect. The distance Chlamydosaurus will traverse in this
remarkable erect position may average as much as thirty or forty feet at a stretch,
when, after resting momentarily on its haunches, as in the attitude illustrated in
Fig. 8 of the same Plate, it will resume its running course. When, however, a
short space of a few yards only has to be covered, the animal runs on all-fours,
sitting somewhat high on its haunches after the manner of many ordinary lizards,
such as the Amphiboluri, previously referred to. The figure last quoted, as also the
bipedal perambulating one represented by Fig. 7, are reproduced, it should be here
mentioned, from drawings from the living animal, originally executed for the “Field”
by Mr. F. W. Frohawk.

As is incontrovertibly demonstrated by the unimpeachable accuracy of the
accompanying instantaneous photographs, all doubt that. has hitherto been entertained
respecting the correctness of the reported erect mode of locomotion of the Frilled
Lizard may be finally put at rest. Fortunately, moreover, through the medium of the
example of this remarkable lizard brought safely to England, the writer has been
enabled to afford other scientists an opportunity of witnessing its very abnornial
locomotive performances. An anecdote might be even related of how one of our
most eminent zoologists, carried away in his enthusiastic delight at the singular spectacle
of the creature careering on its hind legs and defiantly erecting its marvellous frill,
so far unbent as to follow it excitedly on hands and knees. Verily, here stood revealed,
(pardon the hibernianism), the spirit of a genuine naturalist! The specimen in question

PLATE XII.

THE FRILLED LIZARD, Chlamydosaurus Kingi.

Figs. 1-6. Brpepat Running Puases, From INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR WITH THE ANSCHUTZ Hanp CAMERA.
Figs. 7 and 8. RuNnNiING AND RESTING ATTITUDES, DRAWN FROM LIFE BY F. W. Fronawk.

LIZARDS. 75

was presented by the writer, in August, 1895, to the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's
Park, where, for several weeks, its phenomenal aspect and habits proved to be a
source of much attraction.

The gait of the Frilled Lizard when running erect is remarkable for the
widely-extended and highly-elevated positions which the hind-limbs successively assume.
This is shown with marked distinctness in the photographs reproduced in Plate XII.
As also indicated in these figures, the pendent fore-limbs during bipedal progression
would seem to be subservient to the function of balancing the body, being, as illustrated
more particularly by Fig. 5, extended synchronously with the elevation of the opposite
hind-limb. Interest of a special kind is attached to the bipedal perambulation of
Chlamydosaurus on account of the fact that, while apparently unique among all the
existing representatives of its class, such a method of deportment was typical of the
long-extinct Reptilian group of the Dinosauria. That such huge representatives of that
tribe as the colossal Iguanodons—of which a restored skeleton in the Natural History
Museum measures no less than thirty feet in length—skipped along the ground in the
jaunty style of the species now under notice is scarcely to be imagined, but it may,
at the same time, be inferred that with many of the smaller members of the Dinosaurian
class this mode of progression was largely approximated. On the other hand, it
might, of course, be argued that the Frilled Lizard’s mode of progress has been evolved
at a comparatively recent date with reference only to its special environments. As
indicated on a previous page, the species is essentially arboreal in its habits, abiding
for the most part on the trunks and lower limbs of the trees in the tropical scrubs.
It was observed repeatedly by the author of the examples he had in confinement that,
when liberated in a room or elsewhere, they invariably made towards and ascended,
as far as possible, any vertical object, such as a table leg, or even that of an onlooker.
In accomplishing this manceuvre their vertical perambulatory deportment necessarily
placed them at the greatest advantage. It is noteworthy, however, in this direction
that, while certain of the Australian Lizards belonging to the genus Varanus are
equally or even more essentially tree climbers, their perambulation is exclusively
quadripedal.

This question of the analogy of the gait of Chlamydosaurus to that of certain
of the Dinosauria, together with a discussion as to the possible zoological affinities
of this remarkable living lizard with members of that extinct group, is entered
into at some length in two articles contributed by the author to the “ Proceedings of
the Zoological Society” for November, 1895, and “Nature,” of February 27, 1896,

76 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

respectively. A few of the more salient points submitted in these papers may be
appropriately reproduced in these pages.

Attention was more particularly directed in the foregoing communications to
the singular bird-like aspect presented by Chlamydosaurus when running erect, as
illustrated by the instantaneous photograph reproduced in Plate XII., fig. 5, wherein
the superficial resemblance to a running long-tailed bird, such as a pheasant, is
especially indicated. The writer’s comments respecting this particular illustration
were as follows:

Special interest is attachable to this avian-like ambulatory deportment of
Chlamydosaurus by reason of the generally accepted interpretation that the birds are
modified descendants of a reptilian archetype. The temptation is naturally also
very great to institute comparisons between, and to suggest possible affinities with,
this peculiar lizard and the extinct group of the Dinosauria, among whose
representatives a bipedal locomotive formula was apparently a characteristic feature.
A reference, however, to the skeleton of Chlamydosaurus does not encourage any
sanguine anticipations that may have been previously entertained in this direction.
It yields no indication of that peculiar avian modification of the pelvic elements,
adapted for bipedal locomotion, that are so essentially diagnostic of the more typical
Dinosauria, while in all general points it is indistinguishable from that of the
ordinary Agamide.

Though, as a consequence, no serious attempt would be justified to correlate
the erectly progressional Chlamydosaurus with such ponderous specialised Dinosaurs
as, say, Iguanodon or Brontosaurus, there are some few species at the lacertilian end
of the chain that probably presented, when living, a by no means remote likeness to
this existing type in both aspect and gait. The Compsognathus longipes of A. Wagner,
from the lithographic stones of Solenhofen, is more especially worthy of mention in
this connection. In size, some three feet long only, and in the proportions of the
limbs and other points, it must have been almost a counterpart of Chlamydosaurus
Kingt. It is particularly noteworthy of it, moreover, that, as pointed out by the late
Prof. Huxley (“Anatomy of Vertebrata,” p. 262, Ed. 1871), the pelvic elements of
Compsognathus correspond more essentially with those of the ordinary lizards than
with those of the aviform Dinosauria, the pubes in particular being apparently
directed forwards and downwards, like those of lizards. This type, as likewise
Stenopelyx, is also referred to by the same authority (p. 263) as indicating that
the more typical modification of the pelvis, in which the pubes are directed

LIZARDS. we

backwards parallel with the ischia, as in birds and Iguanodon, “ was by no means
universal” among the Dinosauria or Ornithoscelida, as Prof. Huxley preferentially
named them.

Notwithstanding the distinctly recognised lacertilian character of the pelvis of
Compsognathus, Prof. Huxley had no hesitation in assigning to this type an erect
bipedal method of locomotion. Writing of it in the “Popular Science Review,” 1866,
that illustrious biologist remarks: “It is impossible to look at the conformation of
this strange reptile, and to doubt that it hopped or walked in an erect or semi-erect
position after the manner of a bird, to which its long neck, slight head, and small
anterior limbs must have given it an extraordinary resemblance.”

The silhouette presentment of Chlamydosaurus, reproduced in these pages,
forms a not inapt embodiment of the flesh-clad skeleton that must have suggested
itself, ghost-like, to the learned Professor's mind. And it is among the author’s
keenest personal regrets that, through the recent decease of Prof. Huxley, he should
have been deprived by so short an interval of gladdening his former teacher’s eyes
with the sight of a living organism which, if only in the direction of superficial
analogy, so nearly realised one, among the many, of his most sagacious inter-
pretations of the fossil past.

A remaining point in the erect running gait of Chlamydosaurus invites brief
attention. Such is the construction of the hind foot and its component digits that, when
thus running, the three central digits only rest upon the ground. As a consequence
of this structural peculiarity, the track made by this lizard when passing erect over
damp sand or other impressible soil, would be tridactyle like that of a bird, and
would also correspond with the tracks that are left in Mesozoic strata by various
typical Dinosauria. This tridigitigrade formula of the gradation of Chlamydosaurus,
induced by the great relative shortness of the first and fifth digits, is distinctly
indicated in fig. 1 of the Plate previously referred to.

Whether or not the bipedal locomotive comportment of Chlamydosaurus has
been transmitted by heredity from a lizard-like Dinosaurian such as Compsognathus,
or has been re-developed independently among its allocated family group of the
Agamide, is a question concerning which it would be unbecoming temerity on the
writer's part to pronounce a verdict. The phenomenon, while dominant among the
Reptilia of bygone ages, is, with the exceptional instance afforded by Chlamydosaurus,

apparently extinct among living types, and is, on that account alone, of unique

interest.

78 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Without overstepping the bounds of prudence, it may be finally suggested
that the occurrence within the Australian region, embracing New Zealand, of a
wealth of archaic types, such as the Mesozoically related lizard Sphenodon and the
fresh-water fish Ceratodus, as also a dominant mammalian fauna that pre-existed, but
is now extinct, in other continents, would justify the anticipation that a reptile
inheriting the phenomenal habits of a Mesozoic race might be sought for with the
greatest prospects of success upon Australasian territory.

The food of the Frilled Lizard in its natural state consists almost exclusively
of beetles, the crushed up remains of which were found by the author to constitute
the bulk of the excreta of all recently captured specimens. In captivity the -regular
supply of a sufficient quantity of living coleoptera or other insects being impracticable,
their customary diet was experimentally exchanged for one consisting of raw meat.
While flourishing upon and apparently liking this pabulum, they could never be prevailed
upon to take it of their own accord, it being necessary by slightly exciting the
animals to induce them to erect their frills and open their mouths, when, on meat
being placed therein, it was immediately masticated and swallowed with unmistakable
relish. Feeding the lizards under these conditions was almost as simple a matter as
dropping pennies in a slot. On those rarer occasions when living beetles were placed
at their disposal the insects were picked up and secured by the rapid protrusion of
the fleshy glutinous tongue. The example recently presented to the Zoological
Society’s Gardens was the survivor of four specimens taken on board ship by the
writer at Broome, in Western Australia. One of the finest of these four unfortunately
escaped overboard through the apparent omission on one occasion to sufficiently
secure the fastening of their cage. A second specimen, through biting off and
swallowing the end of the stick by which its daily allowance of raw beef was
administered, induced internal inflammation to which it finally succumbed; while
the third wasted and died from injuries primarily received from the natives who
effected its capture and through whose aid all of the specimens obtained from the
Roebuck Bay district were secured. It being the custom of these aborigines to make
such captures as snakes and lizards safe by tying them, at the full stretch, tightly
to a stick, it is, scarcely to be wondered at that one or more of the specimens
should have received fatal injuries in the process. The results of the writer's
experience concerning the keeping of the Frilled Lizard in captivity would seem to
indicate that it is by no means of a hardy nature. A single specimen kept for a short.

interval in Queensland some years previously, succumbed apparently to sunstroke

LIZARDS. 79

through its cage having inadvertently been exposed
for too long an interval to the sun’s direct rays, and,
as it happened, before any confirmatory evidence
could be obtained concerning the remarkable ambu-
latory attitude of the species as is here placed on
record of the West Australian examples. On the

?

voyage home in the “Glengarry” from Singapore
the several specimens were, while within the tropics,

allowed a daily constitutional run on deck at the

end of a liberally long tether, their liberty being as
highly appreciated by themselves as was the sight of
their strange gait and attitudes by an interested circle
of fellow voyagers.

It is worthy of note that the habits of Chlamy-

dosaurus were found to be strictly diurnal and in that
respect contrary to those of the large arboreal Monitors
or Varani which, as is well known, take advantage of

the dark hours of the night in outlying settlements

for visiting and robbing the henroosts of both eggs

ig FRILLED LIZARDS

and young chickens. The Frilled Lizard is guilty of pean

no such nefarious practices and retires to rest with

the sun, creeping into a hollow log or clinging

perpendicularly to a tree-trunk or other suitable

support in the attitudes indicated in the top corner
illustration of this
page. This picture :
portrays a fine pair
that shared for awhile,
with the author, the
accommodation of a
mosquito-proof room
in the verandah of
Mr. G. S. Streeter’s

| PROTOTYPE OF

establishment at

| CHINESE DRAGON ?
H i

eee

Broome.

wei

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

80 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

In concluding this notice of the Frilled Lizard attention may be directed to
the remarkable manner in which this singular species lends itself to certain
of the resentments of the mythical dragon depicted by Chinese artists. The
photograph from a_ roughly stuffed skin, reproduced on page 79, will amply
suffice to illustrate this very suggestive resemblance. Although the lizard under
discussion is entirely unknown in China, it is a well-known fact that from time
immemorial the Malay traders have been accustomed to visit the northern coast line
of Australia for the prosecution of the Béche-de-Mer or Trepang fisheries, the produce
of such fishing going to the Chinese market. It is by no means improbable that
through such a source skins of the Frilled Lizard found their way to quarters where
they were artistically immortalised in the manner suggested. It is quite within the
bounds of possibility, indeed, that a careful investigation into the wealth of con-
ventional pictorial art, for which the Chinese are so eminent, would reveal the fact
that many of the animals peculiar to the ‘northern districts of Australia were
known to them centuries previous to the discovery and opening up of that Island-
Continent by Europeans.

The publication by the writer, in “ Nature” and elsewhere, of the data here
recorded concerning the bipedal perambulation of Chlamydosaurus has elicited the
statement in the “ American Naturalist” for July, 1896, that a Mexican lizard,
Corythophanes Hernandezii, was described some years since by M. F: Sumichrast as
possessing similar locomotive peculiarities. A reference, however, to the original
publication quoted, “Note sur les Mceurs de quelques Reptiles du Mexique”: (Archives
des Science Physiques, T. XIX, Geneva, 1864), by no means substantiates the
correctness of the suggestion made. The passage relating to the locomotion of
Corythophanes reads as follows :—“Quant il court il reléve le haut au corps presque
verticalement, tout en fouettant le sol avec sa queue, ce qui lui donne alors une allure
fort singuliére.” The vertical elevation of the body here described would appear to
correspond with the erect locomotive attitude already attested to on page 73 with
relation to certain species of Amphibolurus which is also frequently assumed by
Chlamydosaurus when traversing short distances. There is, at any rate, no indication
of the animal progressing in an absolutely bipedal fashion, while it is distinctly stated
that the lizard continually strikes or flogs the ground with its tail, in place of carrying
that appendage raised above it as obtains under corresponding conditions in Chlamy-
dosaurus. It is, at the same time, quite possible that Corythophanes raises its fore

feet from the ground when running, and the practical demonstration of this fact in such

LIZARDS. 81

a manner as has now been
conclusively substantiated
in the case of the Frilled
Lizard would be highly
interesting.

A characteristic
Australian lizard that
invites brief notice in
proximity to Chlamydo-
saurus is the so-called
‘““Jew” or ‘ Bearded
Lizard” of the Southern
Colonies, originally distin-
guished by the title of
Grammatophora barbatus,
but more recently allocated
to the genus Amphibolurus.
The popular title of the
Bearded Lizard as applied
to this reptile is readily
explained by a reference
to the lowermost of the
three photographs illustra-
tive of the species repro-
duced on this page. As
there indicated, there is a
voluminous development of
the integument around the
creature’s throat, which,
when the mouth is widely
opened, is erected much
after the manner of the
“frill” of Chlamydosaurus,
but, being developed on

the under surface of the
L

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

BEARDED LIZARDS, -Amphibolurus barbatus, ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE.

82 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

neck only, presents a not inconsiderable likeness to a stiffened beard. As an outcome
of the conspicuous resemblance which to a considerable extent subsists between the
abnormally developed neck membranes of the two species between which comparisons
have been instituted, it is found that the two forms are apt to be confounded with
one another. The name of the Frilled Lizard is not only frequently misapplied to this
Amphibolurus, but the species is figured under the name of Chlamydosaurus in one or
more standard Natural History works. In addition to the material structural differences
between the two forms, it is worthy of remark that the true Frilled Lizard,
Chlamydosaurus, is an essentially tropical type, while Amphibolurus barbatus is as
characteristically a denizen of the southern or temperate areas of the Australian
Continent.

The Bearded Lizard is one among the several Australian representatives of its
tribe that is not unfrequently brought to England and placed on view in the Reptile
House of our well-appointed Zoological Gardens. Although it so happened that this
particular species was not included among those which the author kept alive, and
had an opportunity of making a special study of, during his residence in Australia,
the facilities were afforded him while engaged upon this work of securing the
accompanying photographs and chronicling the data here recorded of an English
imported specimen, very kindly placed at his disposal by Mr. A. E. Harris, F.Z.S., an
enthusiastic admirer of the Lacertilian Zoological group.

Among the points inviting investigation with reference to Amphibolurus, was
that of its method of perambulation, its share with Chlamydosaurus of the title
of the Frilled Lizard having brought about the attribution to it of a correspond-
ing bipedal plan of locomotion. The contour of the body and the small relative
size of the hinder limbs, however, by no means encouraged sanguine anticipa-
tions in this direction, and as, in fact, practical experiments proved, the gait
of Amphibolurus differs in no way from that of the generality of Lizards. One
peculiarity, however, which it was found to share with Chlamydosaurus was the
free use it made of its tail as a weapon of defence, striking vigorously with this
organ right and left at the writer’s hand or other presented objects on occasions of
abnormal excitement. With the Varani, as hereafter noted, the caudal appendage
constitutes a most effective offensive and defensive weapon. As compared with
Chlamydosaurus, the body scales of Amphibolurus are considerably larger, those
bordering each side of the spine being most conspicuously so and also notable for
their sharp trenchant edges. It was found, in fact, that these larger scales could

PLATE XIII.

Ih. Saville-Kent, Photo,
A

B W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

AUSTRALIAN SPINOUS LIZARDS, Moloch horridus. A—Male; B—Female. Natural size.

LIZARDS. 83

cut the skin to the extent of drawing blood if the animal was held in the hands
while struggling to escape.

The Australian Lizard that next in order to Chlamydosaurus claims attention
on account of its bizarre aspect is the so-called Spinous Lizard, or Mountain Devil,
Moloch horridus. This species is found very abundantly in the semi-tropical district
of the Gascoigne, in Western Australia; it also inhabits parallel latitudes of South
Australia, and has been rarely taken in central Queensland. The earliest notice of
this singular lizard occurs in the Hon. Sir George Grey’s “Journals of Discovery
in North-West and Western Australia,” published in the year 1841. In this volume
there is also given an excellent figure of it, accompanied by its technical description by
Dr. J. E. Gray, then Keeper of the Zoological Department of the British Museum,
to which the specimen was consigned.

The reason why such formidable appellations as “ York Devil” and “ Mountain
Devil,” by which this species is popularly known in Western Australia, have been
conferred upon it, is difficult to find, for there is probably no other representa-
tive of its class that is possessed of less potentiality for hurt or evil. Doubtless
the appearance conveyed by the chevaua de frise of spines and tubercles, with which
its body and limbs are armed at all points, added to the horn-like development of
the two anterior head spines, represent the chief attributes that have linked this
harmless lizard with so dire a name. Did this small species, which rarely exceeds
six or seven inches in length, attain to the dimensions of a crocodile, or even that of
some of the larger Monitors, it would reasonably take rank among the most
formidable-looking of living creatures. It is not so many years, indeed, since
such a huge fossil representative of Moloch horridus was supposed to have been
discovered, and was described and dilated upon as such in eloquent terms by the
late Professor Sir Richard Owen, under the title of Megalania prisca. According to
that accomplished physiologist’s original description, this terrible reptile was no
less than fourteen feet or more long. It possessed a flattened skull somewhat
resembling that of an ox in shape, 1 foot 10} inches in breadth, and that was armed
with as many as nine horn-like prominences. This skull and several joints of a
long, hollow tail sheath, which bore a singular resemblance to that of the extinct
gigantic Armadillo, Glyptodon, represented the basis upon which this lacertilian type
was established. Further material, however, derived from the same source, the
Australian tertiary deposits, and also those of Lord Howe Island, off the Australian
Coast, elicited the fact first demonstrated by Professor Huxley, that these fossil remains

84 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

ZA be

SPINOUS LIZARDS, Moloch horridus.

belonged to a huge Che-

“ 4 WAYSIDE GREETING,” p. 87.

lonian, a member of the
turtle tribe, and it is now accordingly allocated
to that group under the new name of Miolania
Oweni. A facsimile of Owen’s original illustra-
tion of this remarkable type is reproduced on
page 88, immediately above a group of Molochs

photographed from life to approximately the same

scale.

W, Saville-Kent, Photo.
Numerous examples of Moloch horridus have

been kept in captivity by the author, affording by their grotesque aspect and habits
many hours of enjoyable relaxation. The chief difficulty attending the maintenance

of this species under artificial conditions is the very important one of their food

SPINOUS LIZARDS, SHOWING KNAPSACK-LIKE NECK
EXCRESCENCES, p. 87.

supply. In works in which this topic is referred to,

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

including one of the British Museum Paleontological Guides, Ed. 1886, Moloch horridus

is pronounced to be a vegetable feeder. As, however, obtains in the Chlamydosaurus

LIZARDS. 85

Kingi, previously described, the natural pabulum of Moloch consists exclusively of
insects, but in this particular type is restricted to ants of the minutest size. The

small black evil-odoured

species, common in both
South and Western <Aus-
tralia, was always a prime
favourite with the speci-
mens kept by the author,
and wherever these ants
abounded, in conjunction
with a_ sufficiently warm
temperature, no difficulty
was experienced in main-
taining these lizards in per-
fect health. Moloch horridus

is by no means a_ rapid

W, Saville-Kent, Photo
traveller, its utmost speed MOLOCH OR SPINOUS LIZARDS FEEDING AT AN ANT TRACK, p. 86.

being one which is easily overtaken by a man’s moderate walking pace. Consequently,
no risk of losing them was hazarded by turning them loose by the roadside, or in a
garden walk where a banquet of ants was readily accessible. A favourite pasture ground
of some half-a-dozen specimens brought by the author from the Gascoigne district to
Perth, in Western <Aus-
tralia, was the Govern-
ment Gardens in the last-
named City, many of the
paths of which picturesque
serounds abounded’ with
7 ant-tracks. Liberated
there, they would soon
settle down to feeding
in a row, and the number
of ants an individual lizard
would assimilate was some-

what astonishing. On

ti GO PRE ROMER eh SC TAL -Octasions’ expert

86 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

mental reckoning elicited the fact that no less than from one thousand to fifteen
hundred ants were taken in successive order at a single meal, each ant being separately
picked up by a flash-like protrusion of the slender adhesive tongue. An approximate
idea of the aspect presented by this little family party when enjoying a mid-day repast
may be gained by a reference to the instantaneous photographs taken by the author
reproduced on page 85. In the first of these illustrations all the specimens portrayed
are crouched closely to the ground and absorbed in the delights of gastronomy. The
second photograph serves to illustrate another interesting detail in the life habits of
this lizard. Having satisfied their healthy appetites, two of the examples in this
picture are indulging in a post prandial promenade, and it may be observed that
they walk erect with their tails high in the air, much after the fashion assumed
by contented kittens. This bizarre comportment of the caudal appendage is almost
invariably exhibited when the little animals are in full marching order. Another
conspicuous feature in the ambulatory gait of Moloch horridus is the peculiarly
uncertain, vacillatory movements they often manifest at the commencement of their
course, balancing themselves to and fro with one foot elevated before starting, as
though they could not quite make up their minds to risk the premier pas, and not
unfrequently repeating the action after making a short advance. This desultory mode
of progress communicates to these lizards a very grotesque appearance, suggesting
to the observer the idea of a mechanically wound-up toy. A somewhat similar
vacillating method of perambulation is exhibited, it may be observed, by the common
Chameleon.

The defensive capacities of Moloch are of an essentially low order, being
limited chiefly to the passive resistance offered by the projecting spines. These
thickly distributed thorn-like defensive weapons are not unfrequently of such needle-
like acuteness as to readily pierce and draw blood from the hand that grasps the
animal incautiously. When so handled, Moloch will also occasionally open its mouth
and emit a slight hissing noise, and at the same time a blast of very offensive breath,
due probably to the unsavoury odour of the ants it feeds upon. On one or two
occasions the author observed these lizards comport themselves in a distinctly hostile
manner. In these instances, the aggressor has rushed at and vigorously pushed and
butted a comrade with its horns with a dash that would do credit to the reputation
of a Liliputian buffalo. Two examples will also occasionally mutually disagree and
butt at each other with much outward display of mortal enmity, but with little or

no resulting damage to either combatant. As a general rule, the number of individuals

LIZARDS. 87

kept together were most peaceably disposed. As observed of other members of the
lizard tribe, they were much given to saluting one another en passant, when allowed
their liberty, with the momentary tactile protrusion of their respective tongues. One
such “ Wayside greeting” is fairly well portrayed in the snapshot heading illustration
to page 84.

Considerable difficulty has been experienced by the writer in keeping these
singular lizards for any length of time. So long as the weather was warm and the
supply of ants plentiful they have thriven well. Exposure to a colder temperature
than that of the districts they frequent, however, speedily affects them, and they
become lethargic and gradually pine away. In captivity the females frequently deposit,
individually, half-a-dozen or more whitish eggs. These are large in proportion to the
lizard’s size, over half-an-inch in length, and, like those of the majority of lacertilia,
invested by a tough leathery integument. Owing probably to their uncongenial
surroundings, these eggs never arrived at maturity, but at the end of a few days
commenced to shrivel up and decompose. So far as it has been possible to ascertain,
the eggs of Moloch are naturally deposited at some little depth in the ground, and it
would appear also that the lizards themselves hibernate under similar conditions. No
efforts on the part of the writer to obtain very young examples of this species were
rewarded with success, the most diminutive specimen received through the assistance
of Dr. Williams of Carnarvon, Western Australia, being a little over three inches
in length.

A very singular structural element in Moloch horridus that would appear to be
worthy of the investigation of physiologists is the peculiar knapsack-like protuberance
that is developed on the back of the neck. It is armed laterally with two large
defensive spines, while many smaller ones are interspersed over its remaining. super-
ficies. The most striking aspect of this remarkable structure is afforded by the back
and lateral views photographically reproduced at the bottom of page 84. In
the latter of these portraits it might be further suggested that the head contour is
grotesquely rhinocerotic.

Notwithstanding the difficulties attending the conservation of Moloch for a
lengthened period, a specimen has been brought to, and was for a short time on
view, at the Zoological Society’s Gardens so recently as last year, 1895. The
living lizard species that bear the strongest resemblance to Moloch horridus are
not, as might be anticipated, natives of the Australian Continent, but denizens of

California and Mexico, where they are popularly denominated ‘“ Horned Toads,”

88 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Phrynosoma cornutum being the commonest form. Although belonging to a separate
family, that of the Iguanide, their shape and size correspond very nearly with those
of Moloch, but defensive spines of conspicuous dimensions are chiefly limited in
their distribution to the
region of the head. Pro-
bably, though the fact
would not appear as yet

to have been established,

Phrynosoma, in common A B

with Moloch, is abn ant- A SKULL, ONE FOOT TEN INCHES IN DIAMETER, AND B TAIL-SHEATH oF Miolania Oweni,
ORIGINALLY DESCRIBED BY SIR RICHARD OWEN AS THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF A
eater. GIGANTIC LIZARD ALLIED TO Moloch horridus, AFTER OWEN, p. 83.

Life-sized photographic representations of male and female individuals of A/oloch
horridus, taken by the author from living specimens, form the subject of Plate XIII.
In addition to portraying the relative proportions and spinous developments of the
respective sexes, these figures serve also to indicate their more ordinary colour
patterns. While varying much in tint in different individuals and even in the same
individual at different times, a corresponding configuration of the colour areas is
mostly dominant. These, on the dorsal surface, usually consist of bilaterally arranged
patches of varying shades of brown, light red, or an almost crimson hue upon a
lighter ground of grey, brown, or it may be cream-colour or a brighter yellow, while
in any case there is invariably a yet lighter median streak separating the right and

left halves of the colour
patches. A dark Y-shaped
patch, with a lighter linear
border, is developed on
the head and there are
irregular blotches of the
| same tint on the four limbs.
In taking leave of

this interesting type, we
reproduce the accompany-
ing photographic life study
for the special benefit of

those among our fair

W. Saville-Kent, Photo, readers to Ww h om an

A MILLINERY NOVELTY, OR “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT HAT?”

LIZARDS. 89

original millinery notion may be as the breath of life. The novelty of the design, and
the rare nature of the “trimmings” brought from the earth’s uttermost end, may be
unhesitatingly guaranteed. And, notwithstanding that grave objections might possibly
be raised by paterfamilias or in ecclesiastical quarters concerning the scriptural
injunction against “sacrificing our daughters to Moloch,” the charms of piquant
originality added to those already possessed by the fair wearer will be such as to
triumphantly overcome all scruples, and to secure for her the highest mede of envy
and admiration.

Among the lizard pets that proved specially amenable to domestication in the
author’s hands during his later Western Australian peregrinations, a prominent position
must be given to the species photographically represented by two illustrations on the
next page. This type, Trachysaurus rugosus, locally known both as the “ Stump-tailed”
and the “Sleepy” Lizard, is of relatively common occurrence throughout the temperate
districts of the Australian Continent, the individual here figured having been obtained
from the neighbourhood of Pinjarrah, W.A. The conspicuous features of this lizard
are the massiveness of the head, the large size of the scales, the shortness and thickness
of the tail, and the diminutive dimensions of the limbs compared with the corpulent
body. Its colour varies through innumerable tints of golden, yellow, red or purple
browns, relieved on the sides and under surface by marbled patterns in which a creamy
or ivory white predominates. From fifteen to eighteen inches represents its normal
adult length, the specimen, a comparatively young one, here photographed from life
in two characteristic positions, measuring close upon one foot. The photograph
forming the lower figure on that page serves particularly well to illustrate the relative
small size of the scales on the under surface, the fine reticulated pattern of the
surface markings, of his, so to say, delicately embroidered waistcoat, and the grotesquely
small, and at the same time uniform, proportions of the four limbs. To successfully
obtain this rather peculiar pose the animal was held struggling in the folds of a rough
bath towel while the camera was brought to the right focus and the shutter snapped.
This article—a bath towel—it may be mentioned, forms a most admirable background
when photographically immortalising animals of this description, and has, as will be
easily recognised, been made to do duty on a variety of occasions for the pictorial
illustrations of this volume.

When first captured this individual, in common with other examples of the.
same species, exhibited a highly pugnacious disposition, hissing vehemently and

snapping savagely with its widely distending jaws. A bite from this lizard is, as a
-

90 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

STUMP-TAILED LIZARDS, Trachysaurus rugosus.

ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE.
matter of fact, a by no means pleasant
experience, the crushing power of the
massive jaws being very considerable.
In addition to this, it will retain its
hold upon any subject seized with
bull-dog tenacity. In their natural
state, Stump-tailed Lizards are ac-
credited with being the inveterate
enemies of snakes, which they will
fearlessly attack and destroy, and

they are therefore naturally regarded

W Saville-Kent, Photo,

with a considerable degree of favour by the more intelligent settlers.

The specimen here photographically immortalised, who, to distinguish him
from his companions in captivity, was familiarly known as Moses, very speedily

abandoned his earlier aggressive attitude and accommodated himself to civilised

LIZARDS. 91

surroundings. Within a few days after capture he permitted himself to be handled
without attempting to bite, and a few weeks later was accustomed, by way of saluta-
tion, to lick the hand presented to him with his broad blue-black flannel-like tongue.
Kept customarily in a box with a variety of other lizards, including Molochs and two
species of Egernia, he never manifested the slightest hostility towards them, even
though the latter more especially would snap up the food he was partaking of from
under his very nose. Moses’ temper, in fact, as might be anticipated by a glance
at his large soft-expressioned eyes, was of the most even and amiable description.

As in several allied types, the gastronomic proclivities of Trachysaurus are
essentially omnivorous. The particular individual that forms the subject of this notice
fed heartily and indifferently on animal or vegetable substances. Raw meat was
eagerly devoured, but as substantial and welcome a repast was made off lettuce leaves,
green peas, raw or cooked, and fruit of any kind. Moses’ special treat, however, was
garden snails, a diet to which he was a stranger on his native heath, but was
introduced to experimentally at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. This was veritable
turtle in his estimation. He would crush up and swallow these gasteropods, shells
and all, with the greatest gusto, and would even chase one on the floor if rolled
before him, like a kitten following a cotton bobbin. It would seem probable that the
presence of the calcareous shell enters extensively into this lizard’s predilection for snails.
Some unexpected evidence of his craving for lime was evinced on a previous occasion,
when he happened, while at liberty in the garden, to stumble across a clump of roughly-
dried oyster shells; these he immediately attacked, breaking off with his powerful jaws
fragment after fragment which were forthwith crushed up and swallowed.

A somewhat grotesque account of the Stump-tailed Lizard is contained in the
record of its discovery at Shark’s Bay, in Western Australia, by Captain William
Dampier, “A Voyage to New Holland,” in the year 1699. It reads as follows :—
“The land animals that we saw here included a sort of guanos, of the same shape
and size with other guanos described, but differing from them in three remarkable
particulars, for these had a larger and uglier head and had no tail, and at the rump,
instead of a tail there, they had a stump of a tail which appeared like another head,
but not really such, being without mouth or eyes; yet this creature seemed by this
means to have a head at each end, and, which may be reckoned a fourth difference,
the legs also seemed all four of them to be fore-legs, being all alike in shape and length,
and seeming by the joints and bending to be made as if they were to go indifferently
either head or tail foremost. They were speckled black and yellow, like toads,

92 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

and had scales or knobs on their backs like those of crocodiles, plated on to the
skin, or stuck into it, as part of the skin. They are very slow in motion, and
when a man comes nigh them they will stand still and hiss, not endeavouring to
get away. Their livers are also spotted black and yellow, and the body, when
opened, hath a very unsavoury smell. I did never see such ugly creatures anywhere
but here.”

Trachysaurus rugosus is included among the many species of Australian Lizards
that are not unfrequently imported to this country. While going to press a fine
example is on view in the Reptile House of the Zoological Gardens that arrived there
nearly two years ago, and between which and the foregoing description given by
Captain Dampier comparisons may be instituted. While it will be at once recognised
that all of the structural details respecting this singular form given by that early
explorer are essentially correct, it will, it is anticipated, be conceded that a most
gross injustice has been rendered the animal from an esthetic standpoint. The
photographic portraits here reproduced should suffice, indeed, to clear our client from
the cruel aspersions upon its good looks implied by Captain Dampier’s closing
sentence.

An interesting circumstance connected with the life history of Trachysaurus
is the fact that it is not only ovo-viparous, bringing forth living young in place of
laying eggs, as do the majority of the lizard tribe, but the young, when born, a
single one only at a birth, are so fully developed as to be nearly half as large as
the parent.

A reference was made in the foregoing account of Trachysaurus to two species
of Egernia which were the comrades of a captive specimen. These were the
Spine-tailed lizards, Eyernia Stokesitt and E. depressa. The former species, Plate XIV.,
fig. B., which is the larger of the two, was obtained by the author abundantly
on that member of Houtman’s Abrolhos, off Geraldton, Western Australia, which is
distinguished by the name of Gun Island, where it was caught basking in the
sun or taking shelter underneath the low scrubby bushes with which the greater
portion of the island is covered. The smaller species, Egernia depressa, which
appears to be considerably rarer, was forwarded to him from Carnarvon, in the
Gascoigne district by Dr. Williams. Apart from their size, which in immature
specimens may be equal, the two forms may be readily distinguished by the diverse
character of the pattern of their colour-markings. In the larger species, Eyernia

Stokesii, the pattern invariably consists of cream or tawny yellow spots, and

PLATE Xiy.

7

We. Saville-Kent, Photo.

SPINE-TATILED LIZARDS. A—Agernia depressa ; B—E. Stokesii. Two-thirds natural size, p. 92.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

AUSTRALIAN MONITOR OR LACK LIZARD, Varanus varius. Quarter natural size, p. 94.

LIZARDS. 93

reticulations upon a dark, almost black ground, while in £. depressa, the spots or
reticulations are black, or very dark, upon a pale pearl-grey ground. As a rule,
colour characters are held by systematic biologists to be of but little value;
when, however, such colour distinction is found to obtain without exception
throughout an extensive series of individuals, colour marking, and more especially the

pattern of its distribution, undoubtedly becomes a_ reliable element in specific

diagnosis. These sculpturing of
superficially very ae ne their scales. The

closely allied contour of the

species are found body of the

to differ materi- smaller variety is

ally in their more also, as its tech-

minute structural | nical name im-

organisation, plies, very much

SPINE-TAILED LIZARD, Eyernia depressa, TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.

notably in the more depressed.

In captivity these two species of Egernia manifested a much more shy and
retiring disposition than the several lizards previously described. At all times, unless
feeding, they displayed the most active desire to take advantage of the nearest covert
that presented itself, and, under such conditions, much patience had to be exercised
in securing the several photographic representations of the species that are reproduced
in these pages. The food question with these lizards was, on their first acquisition,
a troublesome one. They utterly refused to take of their own accord, animal food of
any kind which, judging from the carnivorous habits of an allied species, apparently
E. Kingii, also abundant in the Abrolhos Islands, it was presumed they would
appreciate. In order to keep them alive, small pieces of meat were daily
administered them by gentle persuasion, and these, on being placed well within
their mouths, were contentedly swallowed. Later on, the chance placing of a
fragment of vegetable material within reach of their perambulations elicited the fact
that they were essentially vegetable feeders, and from that date they regaled regularly
and voraciously on fruit and vegetable substances of the most varied description,
lettuce leaves, however, usually proving the prime favourite.

A little episode in their pre-salad “ beef-eating” days will be found somewhat
quaintly represented in the photographic reproduction appended as a tail-piece to this
Chapter. It portrays three specimens of Eyernia Stokesii sitting up patiently awaiting

their mid-day meal. In order to repress their otherwise too ardent tendencies to run

94 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

to cover, they are carefully swaddled for the nonce in cambric handkerchiefs. The
‘“ Bob-tailed Lizard” being the local appellation by which this species of Egernia is most
familiarly known in the colonies, these three worthies were, as a matter of convenience,
respectively distinguished by the euphemistic titles of ‘ Robert,” “ Bobbie,” and
“ Bob.”

Although there are no less than twelve other known species of the
Australian genus Egernia, none of these have the peculiarly depressed, abbreviated
spinous tails that characterise the two varieties here figured, and consequently possess
but little to distinguish them from the more familiar lizard types. One member of
this smooth, elongate, cylindrical-tailed group was observed by the author to be
particularly plentiful on Pelsart Island, in the Abrolhos Archipelago, replacing
. Stokesit, which appeared to be exclusively represented in Gun Island, a few miles
further north. This species was apparently identical with Egernia Kingii, previously
reported from these islands, and was, as mentioned in a preceding page, essentially
carnivorous in its habits. This circumstance was practically illustrated by the
familiarity of an individual which had taken up its quarters in the mess-room of the
camp, and which habitually came out after meals to appropriate any small bones or
fragments of meat which had fallen from the table. Probably the carnivorous
propensities of this species, in addition to its larger size, will account for the observed
absence of the smaller vegetable-feeding Egernia Stokesii on this Island, in which it,
E. Kingii, was so abundantly represented. One of the larger long-tailed species of
Egernia, E£. Cunninghami, from the Australian mainland, is on view, while going to
press, in the Regent’s Park Menagerie.

Among the numerous varieties of Lizards kept in temporary confinement by
the writer, no others proved themselves so amenable to humanizing influences as the
several types previously described and illustrated. Several examples of the Australian
Monitors or Varani, locally dubbed “Gooannas,” and of species pertaining to the
genus Grammatophora, fell thus within the authors purview. Of one of these
Monitors or Varani, Varanus varius, popularly known also as the “ Lace Lizard,” with
reference to its skin markings, that came into the author’s possession at Brisbane,
Queensland, a little anecdote may be appropriately related. The specimen was a
handsome one, adorned throughout its body and limbs after its kind with a complex
reticulated pattern, and having its throat resplendent with interblending tints of sky-
blue and lemon yellow. He was at the best of times a sulky animal and, though he
fed well, repulsed all friendly overtures and continually strove .to make good _ his

LIZARDS. 95

escape from the extemporised cage provided in the garden for his occupation. One
night his efforts proved successful, and after vain though patient searchings he was
reluctantly given up for lost. The astonishment that was experienced ten days later
may be better imagined than described, when the returned prodigal was seen in a very
emaciated and dilapidated condition, struggling vehemently to regain access to his
former prison-house. During his voluntary absence he had evidently fallen upon evil
times, possibly been surprised, after the manner of his tribe, in robbing a henroost
and so narrowly escaped the wrath of an avenging Nemesis as to receive on his hinder
quarters a blow that was doubtless intended for his head, and which, had it attained
its mark, would have brought its career to a speedy and ignominious termination.
The fact that he returned minus his long, handsome tail, which had apparently been
chopped off at the very stump, lends substantial support to the foregoing tentative
interpretation. The most interesting point in the episode is the circumstance of the
creature’s voluntary return to captivity, associated with which he probably carried
in his brain the reminiscence of a more liberal dietary than fell to his lot in the
outer world.

On relating this anecdote of the truant Varanus recently to Dr. G. D. Haviland,
that naturalist informed the writer that he had had a very similar experience with a
member of the same genus in North Borneo. A captive specimen in his possession
similarly made good its escape, and after an absence of four or five days returned to
the scene of its internment, having evidently a preference for the “ flesh-pots of Egypt,”
albeit accompanied by durance vile, to freedom and a precarious commissariat in his
native jungle.

Certain of the Australian Monitors attain to very considerable dimensions, and
are by no means desirable subjects to encounter at close quarters with unprotected
hands. The writer possesses a skin of Varanus varius, previously referred to, from
the Eucalyptus forests of Gippsland, Victoria, which measures over seven feet in its
total length, and has claws attached that are as formidable as those of .a large
tiger cat. Even smaller examples, such as the one signalized in the foregoing
anecdote, which, previous to curtailment, measured a little over three feet, could use
its hind talons to such effect that an incautious attempt to pick it up on the occasion
of the “ prodigal’s return,” resulted in the most gruesome scarifying of the hands of
the experimenter. The species of Varanus here referred to is an essentially arboreal
type, preying to. a large extent, in its adult state, on the opossums and their young,
to whose holes, high up in the hollow gum-trees, they will lay patient siege until

96 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the poor victims, if not otherwise accessible, are starved into surrender. Birds and
their eggs, insects, and even lizards of smaller size are all equally acceptable as food
to these giants of their race.

Examples of the Lace Lizard are usually on view in the Reptile House at the
Regent’s Park, including, at the present time, specimens that measure as much as four
or five feet in total length. In none of these imported individuals, however, do the
bright blue and yellow tints that decorate the throat exhibit the vividness charac-
teristic of specimens fresh from their native “bush.” The individual possessed by the
author being of too erratic a disposition to be trusted to sit for his portrait in the
open, the best had to be made of the opportunities afforded of photographing him
through the wire netting of his cage. The most satisfactory of these attempts,
reproduced in Plate XIV., suffices, notwithstanding the intervening wirework, to
impart a very fair idea of its most characteristic attitude, the natural involute
coiling of the tail exhibited by the creature when in complete repose being especially
noteworthy. Their tail constitutes with the Monitors a very formidable weapon. It
is frequently longer than the body compressed from side to side, and as tough as
leather. Independently of its armature of teeth and claws, the animal can by virtue
of this appendage transform itself into a sort of animated stockwhip and severely
punish incautious aggressors at close quarters. An attendant at the Zoological
Gardens was assailed in this manner and had his neck severely lacerated by the tail
of one of these reptiles while cleaning out its den, a short while since. Varani
skins are, it may be mentioned, extensively utilised nowadays for the manufacture of
purses and other “fancy leather” or “Lizard Skin” articles.

There is a species of Monitor, Varanus giganteus, allied to the arboreal
variety, V. varius, that is accredited with attaining to even larger proportions, a length
of as much as eight feet having been recorded of specimens from the northern
territory of South Australia. The habits of this species are, however, very distinctly
amphibious. on which account it was originally referred by Gray to the genus
Hydrosaurus. Varanus, or Hydrosaurus salvator, is another huge Monitor possessing
similar amphibious habits and attaining to like dimensions, which, in addition to
inhabiting Queensland, is met with in India and throughout the Malay Archipelago.
A remarkably fine example of this Monitor, shot by Lieutenant Stanley Flower
at Singapore, has been recently presented by him to, and has heen admirably set up
in, the Zoological Galleries of the British, Natural History, Museum. Excepting to
those who may take delight in the society of full-grown crocodiles and alligators, the

LIZARDS. 97

recommendation of either of the foregoing Australian Varani as household pets would be
a matter of supererogation. Large as are the dimensions of these living Monitors, the
Australian tertiary deposits have produced conclusive evidence of pre-existing species
which very much exceeded them in size. Certain of these, which have been referred
to the genera Notiosaurus and Megalania, would appear to have attained to a length
of no less than from fourteen to eighteen feet. A relatively small and handsome
species of Monitor, technically known as Varanus acanthurus, or the Spiny-tailed
Monitor, occurs in tolerable abundance in the north-west district of Western Australia,
under conditions corresponding with those which yield the Frilled Lizard,
Chlamydosaurus. An example of this Monitor was obtained for the writer at Roebuck
Bay, and was also brought to England and presented by him to the Zoological
Gardens. As with the species kept in Queensland, it always manifested a hostile
attitude, attacking and worrying the Chlamydosauri, with which it was at first
associated, and repelling all friendly overtures from its keeper. Its arrival in England
and participation in the polite society of an innumerable company of other lizards,
does not appear to have exercised any ameliorating influence upon this creature’s
temper, which is as short and uncertain as when it was first captured, now over
twelve months ago.

A noteworthy feature in the Varani is their possession in a more readily
recognisable degree than in any other lizards of that vestigeal structure known as the
“pineal eye,” a minute functionless median optic organ situated on the top of the
head, and intimately connected with the so-called pineal gland. In bygone ages this
median eye possibly represented the chief or only optic organ of a doughty race of
reptiles to whom the title of the Cyclops would have been both figuratively and
literally appropriate. Some admirable dissections of this structure, made by Professor
Charles Stewart, F.R.S., may be seen in the Museum of the Royal College of
Surgeons.

One of the rarest and handsomest lizards at the present time on view in the
Zoological Society’s Menagerie is undoubtedly the Australian type Physignathus Leseuri,
known as Leseur’s Water Lizard, from New South Wales. This example is over two
feet long, with a fine massive head and particularly large intelligent eyes, having
their lids delicately ciliated like those of Chlamydosaurus, which, in many respects,
allowing for the entire absence of a frill-like membrane, it considerably resembles. As
its name implies, its habits are semi-aquatic, and it displays a marked appreciation

of the ample water supply provided for it in its allotted cage. Among the more
N

98 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

commonly imported lizard types are the Australian Cyclodi, or Blue-Tongued Lizards,
Tiliqua (Cyclodus) gigas and T. scincoides. Several examples of these species are almost
always to be seen at the Zoological Gardens, and are frequently procurable from the
animal dealers. Except for its relatively slender head, small scales, and tapering, but
not elongate, tail, Tiliqua scincoides bears a considerable resemblance to Trachysaurus,
the body being thick and the four limbs small in proportion, and closely resembling
one another as in that species.

The data, chronicled in this Chapter, concerning a few of the more remarkable
of the Australian Lizards, will, the author hopes, secure for this hitherto much
neglected and to a large extent unjustly maligned animal group a more equitable
share of that interest and sympathy which is so freely bestowed upon other races.
To many, even among the highly educated classes, the very name of reptile is held
to be synonymous with a creature of repulsive aspect and accredited poisonous
properties. As a matter of fact, there are but two known poisonous lizard species.
These are the Heloderme, H. horridum and H. suspectum, which inhabit Mexico. The
Monitors or Varani are, as already testified, for the most part unamiable, and, from their
size and redundant equipment of teeth and claws, capable of serious aggression. The
great majority of the lizard tribe are, however, eminently susceptible of domestication,
speedily losing their initial antagonism induced through fear of man, and becoming
attached to their owners. For singularity of form, if not for brilliancy of colouration,
this animal group possesses few, if any, rivals, while even in this last-named
relationship it yields many remarkable exceptions. Birds or fish, by way of example,
are rarely more beautifully coloured than the South European Ocellated Lizard, Lacerta
ocellata, a species some fifteen or sixteen inches long, that is more or less frequently
imported by the animal dealers. The ground colour of the body in this lizard is
usually a most brilliant green, and has been likened to an armour of emeralds, while
the sides are ornamented with spots of the richest turquoise or azure blue. The
smaller Green or Jersey Lizard, Lacerta viridis, which is so abundantly imported from
the Channel Islands, affords another familiar instance of notable lacertilian colouration
which might be indefinitely multiplied.

That the Lizard tribe is rapidly coming to the front as one well worthy of the
attention of amateur zoologists, is attested to by the increasing numbers in which
they are now imported into England and purchased from the dealers by private
individuals. Geckos, Skinks, Chameleons and many other lizard types are indeed

commonly advertised with other imported pets for sale in the columns of the “ Field”

LIZARDS. 99

and kindred sporting papers. Several varieties of lizard pets at the present time in
the writer’s possession were obtained through such media. Included in this collection
is a handsome grey, red-striped Skink, Humcus algeriensis, from Mogador ; a couple of
specimens of the Ocellated Lizard, Lacerta ocellata; two or three Egyptian and
other Geckos; and an example of the specially interesting New Zealand or
Tuatara Lizard, Sphenodon punctatus. All of these types are essentially carnivorous
and thrive on a diet of beetles, worms, snails and every other description of “small
game” commonly accessible within a garden boundary. Apart, in fact, from their
intrinsic interest, lizards can be most highly recommended as a companion hobby to
the horticulturist, to whom probably no better additional stimulus towards keeping
his grounds clear of insect and kindred pests could be provided than the pampering
of the somewhat fastidious appetites of his reptilian pets. Earwigs, caterpillars,
cockchafers, woodlice, et hoe genus omne, will at all times prove a most welcome
bonne bouche to some one or other of his interesting pensioners. The maintenance
of their larder in an efficiently replenished state will be found at the same time to
exert a most beneficial influence towards the permanent reduction of the ranks of
these garden enemies.

The New Zealand Lizard, Sphenodon punctatus, may indeed be recommended as
a most useful auxiliary in the garden, independently of any natural history claims.
The specimen in the writer’s possession has shown itself to be partial not only to
worms, beetles, caterpillars, and all manner of insects, but it has displayed a most
distinct penchant for slugs, and will attack and devour with the greatest gusto the
huge field slugs, Limax ater and Arion rufus. Sphenodon being to a large extent
nocturnal in its habits, it is abroad and on the qui vive at the season commonly
elected by these gasteropods for their depredations. It has been proved, moreover,
at the Zoological Gardens that this lizard is quite capable of withstanding our
English climate without any protection beyond its own earth burrow, within which it
retires by day and hibernates during the winter months. |

Much of the increasing popularity of the Lizard class has no doubt been brought
about through the recent addition of an admirably organised Reptile House to the
Zoological Society's Menagerie, in the Regent’s Park. To promote the study and
dissemination of knowledge of and interest in all varieties of reptiles, including
snakes as well as lizards,—at which many will doubtless elect, as is done in this
Chapter, to draw the line,—an association, styling itself the “Reptilian Society,” has
been recently established under the able Presidentship of Dr. Arthur Stradling.

100 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

There is also lying on the author's table at the present moment the first number
of a new magazine, the “ Vivarium,” which is being started as the recognised
organ of the Reptilian Society. This serial, as is notified in its introductory chapter,
will seek to supply information of a more practical nature than has been hitherto
available for those who make reptiles their particular hobby and desire fuller knowledge
concerning the habits and treatment of their adopted favourites. While this earliest
number of the “ Vivarium ” has been produced, through the talented energies of the
Society’s Secretary, the Rev. J. E. Spain, of the Rand Rectory, Wragby, in a most
creditable and artistic manner by a lithographic process only, it is hopefully
anticipated that a sufficient number of supporters of the Society and those subjects
which the periodical specially advocates, will be forthcoming to justify the early
advancement of this magazine to the dignity of print. The author experiences an
especial pleasure in directing the attention of those who may elect to adopt for their
hobby the very interesting subject of reptile life, to the facilities and advantages
provided for their particular benefit by the Society and Journal named.

; W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
“TIFFIN AHOY!!’’ p. 93.

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CHAPTER IV.

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS).

N comparison to their individual size, the only terrestrial animals, probably,
that by their concerted efforts produce anything approaching the colossal
lee fabrications of the Coral Polyps, are the so-called White Ants or Termites.

In this hypothetic parallelism it is of course not suggested that the organisms and

their correlated products possess any homologous
relationship, since, while the Corallum or Coral Mass
is literally the internally secreted skeleton of the
associated Polyps, in the case of the White Ants the

huge fabrication is purely external or architectural.

The very considerable di-

versity of both size and shape
that distinguishes the mounds
or termitaries con-
structed by different
species of White
Ants is familiar
to most travellers
in tropical climates.
In the northern

territories of the

Island-Continent

of

(istinctive types are found, and it is with

Australia some highly remarkable

especial relation to a few of the more con-

spicuous of these, which have fallen within

the writer’s observation, that the present

— Chapter has been written.
TERMITE MOUNDS, ALBANY PASS, NORTH QUEENSLAND.

102 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

For the information of those non-scientific readers, who are not conversant
with the classificatory systems adopted by entomologists for the distinction of the
leading groups and orders of the insect world, it may be stated that the so-called
White Ants, or Termites, are not true ants in the scientific sense of the term. For,
while the typical ants belong to that order, the Hymenoptera, which notably includes
the wasps, bees and ichneumon-flies, the White Ants have, up to within a recent
date, been regarded as modified representatives of the Neuroptera, an order typically
illustrated by the Dragon-flies, Ant-lions and Lace-wing-flies. According to the
latest researches many entomologists regard them as representing an independent
group, occupying a structural position midway between the Neuroptera and the
Orthoptera or Cockroach and Cricket tribe.

As with the Hymenopterous groups of the Bees and Ants, the Termites form
large social communities. These, however, are frequently made up of a greater
number of specially modified individuals than. obtains in either of the two above-
named tribes. As demonstrated by the investigations of Dr. Fritz Miiller with
reference to the European species, Termes lucifugus, no less than eleven diverse
individual types may be found inhabiting the same nest. These include: 1, the
‘youngest larvee, which in their earliest condition present no recognisable distinctions ;
2, the semi-matured larve of the soldiers; 3, adult soldiers; 4, semi-matured larvee
of workers ; 5, adult workers; 6, nymphs (with imperfect wings) of the first order
developing to kings and queens; 7, king; 8, queen; 9, nymphs of the second order
developing to supplementary males and females; 10, adult supplementary males;
11, adult supplementary females. It would appear, however, that all of these individual
types are not developed in every Termite community. In some of those examined by
‘Dr. Miiller a single presiding king and queen were wanting and their place supplied
by a number of supplementary males and egg-producing females.

According to the more recent researches of Grassi it is possible to recognise
as many even as fifteen distinct individual modifications; the four added to
Fritz Miiller’s list including extra substitution forms of kings and queens or so-called
“neoteinic ” individuals in both their immature and matured conditions.

The woodcut illustrations reproduced on the next page, chiefly from M. Grassi’s
Memoir, portray all of the more important of the individual types recognisable in a
Termite community. As a rule, on breaking into a large termitarium or laying open
the Termites’ excavations in wood or other substances, the only individuals con-

spicuously represented belong to the two categories of the ordinary workers and

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 103

WES

FIGS. 1 TO 7, WORKERS, SOLDIER, NYMPHS, WINGED MALE AND MATURE FEMALE OF THE EUROPEAN WHITE ANT, Termes lucifugus, MUCH
MAGNIFIED, AFTER M. GRASSI; FIG 8, GRAVID QUEEN oF Zermes bellicosus, AFTER SMEATHMAN, NATURAL SIZE ; FIGS 9 TO 13 MODIFICATIONS
OF HEADS AND JAWS OF SOLDIER INDIVIDUALS OF VARIOUS SPECIES, MAGNIFIED, AFTER HAGEN.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
WOOD-DEVOURING WHITE ANTS, Termes sp., OF THE KIMBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.
FROM AN INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPH. AT + + TWO SOLDIER INDIVIDUALS, p. 104.

104 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

soldiers, and of these orders the workers are usually present in preponderating
numbers. An instantaneous photograph taken by the author at Derby, in Western
Australia, of such a disturbed community, including in the field of view over one
hundred individuals, is reproduced on the lower half of the page above quoted. The
species here portrayed two-thirds of life-size represents one of the most destructive
species in tropical Australia. It erects no mound, but lives in subterranean passages,
or in chambers excavated in the wood that chiefly constitutes the field of its
depredations. Among the number delineated, two soldier individuals may be easily
recognised, in the vicinity of the + marks, by the darker tint of their bodies, and
more especially by the larger and almost black colour of their heads. By way of
illustrating the insidious and thorough destruction that is wrought to timber attacked
by this species of Termite, the writer has in his possession the portion of a dead plank
taken from an outhouse at the Derby Government Residence, from which the
specimens here photographed were actually evicted. To all outward appearances the
plank is perfectly sound and solid. It can, however, be easily crushed to pieces in
the hand, the entire interior being eaten away, leaving nothing but an external shell
or veneer of paper-like tenuity.

It is a common phenomenon to all dwellers in White Ant countries that, at
that season of the year which, in the tropics, immediately precedes or ushers
in the rain monsoon, swarms of the winged individuals make their appearance,
and at night so crowd to all accessible house lights as to constitute a veritable
nuisance. Of the American species, Termes flavipes, it has been recorded by Hagen
that, at the swarming season in Massachusetts, these winged Termites form a thick
cloud, accompanied by no less than fifteen species of birds, which gorge upon the
insects to such an extent that they are unable to close their beaks.

These swarming White Ants are in all cases the matured males and females
developed from the previously described nymphs. Of the countless thousands, or it
might be said millions, that emerge from the termitaries on these occasions, but a few
stray units fulfil the main function of their existence and become the parents of new.
communities ; by some authorities it is even contested whether there are any survivors.
The advent of the emerging Termite swarms is a day of great rejoicing to the host
of expectant banqueters that are awaiting to devour them. These include innumer-
able species of ordinary ants, carnivorous insects generally, spiders, birds, lizards, and
other animals, and in some countries even man himself. In India, by way of example,

as testified to in Smeathman’s Memoir, hereafter quoted in eatenso, the swarming

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TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 105

termites are systematically collected for the purposes of food immediately prior to their
emergence from their nests. Mixed with flour, they are made into various descriptions
of pastry, which is sold at a low rate to the poorer classes. It would appear that
a too abundant use of this description of food occasions a form of colic and dysentery
that is speedily fatal. In West Africa, Smeathman deposes, the natives content
themselves with securing those of the swarming millions that have fallen upon the
surface of neighbouring water. These they skim off with a calabash, carry to
their habitation in kettles-full and parch them in iron pots over a gentle fire,
stirring them continually after the manner of roasting coffee. Thus prepared, and
without any additional materials, they regard them as the most delicious food,
putting handsful into their mouths at a time, much as a European youth might
devour comfits. Smeathman’s personal attestation as to the edible properties of the
West African Termites is highly favourable. He speaks to having frequently
partaken of them prepared in the manner above described, and to having found them
delicate, nourishing, and wholesome; something sweeter than, but not so fat and
cloying as the grub of the Palm-tree beetle, Curculio palmarum. Other gentlemen of
Smeathman’s acquaintance acquiesced in their being most delicious eating, one com-
paring them to sugared marrow, and another to sugared cream and a paste of sweet
almonds. .

It is a remarkable fact that, so far as the author has been able to ascertain,
Termites are not turned to account as an article of diet by the natives of
Australia. On the other hand, it has been observed by him in the Kimberley district
of Western Australia that the aborigines are in the habit of devouring large
quantities of the earthy substance of the White Ant mounds or termitaria. Frequently,
in the course of walking expeditions, the author has seen the natives step aside
and break off and eat a handful of this substance, usually from a hillock which
the termites had abandoned or from which they had died out, and which was con-
sequently in a more or less disintegrated state. This earth-eating propensity was not
analogous to that recorded by Humboldt of the Otomac tribe on the Orinoco, for the
purpose of alleviating the pangs of hunger in the absence of better food. In this case
the partakers were native retainers of Australian settlers, who had an abundance of
provisions at command. As White Ant hillocks or termitaries contain a large
amount of proteaceous matter in the form both of secretions by their constructors
and of adventitiously growing microscopic fungi, it would appear probable that it is

the presence of these materials that makes the component earth palatable to the
Oo

106 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

native taste. A chemical analysis of different descriptions of termitaria with the
object of ascertaining the correctness or otherwise of this anticipation might yield
interesting results.

When, from among the emerging annual swarms, a matured pair of White
_Ants have run the gauntlet of their many foes and meet together, it usually happens
that after a short preliminary toying in the air they alight upon the ground
again, but before the marriage tie is consummated are discovered by the outlying
workers of some other community, who, adopting them for their future king and
queen, thereupon enclose them in a clay chamber around which a new nest is built.
In this nest they are thenceforth immured, assiduously fed, and attended upon for
life. It has been ably argued by Fritz Miiller, that, notwithstanding the apparent
waste of life associated with the periodical swarming of the Termites, it is only
through such means, as is cogently advocated in accord with the tenets of the
Darwinian theory, that the very desirable cross-fertilisation of these insect races
can be effectually carried out.

White Ants possess, and correctly so far as a considerable number of species
extend, a most unenviable notoriety for their terribly destructive, and more especially
xylophagous, or wood-eating, propensities. Although the softer woods, such as
European deal, are, where such.choice exists, preferentially selected by them, scarcely
any description of wood, not excepting even the world-famed Western Australian
Jarrah, would appear to be absolutely proof against their depredations. According
to the observations of Mr. R. C. Hare, sometime Government Resident at Wyndham,
in Cambridge Gulf, in which township White Ants are conspicuously destructive,
a considerable amount of difference is exhibited by jarrah wood grown in different
neighbourhoods with regard to its being proof or otherwise against White Ant ravages.
Only such wood as has been derived from the ironstone ranges, or from a mineral
district is, it would appear, absolutely ant-proof. Blocks of the same wood grown
in other localities and exposed by way of test beside it are speedily attacked.
The author has been informed, on the other hand, by the above-named gentleman
that the wood of the Cypress pine, indigenous to tropical Australia, resists the
attacks of the White Ants for a considerable time, and is on this account chosen in
the northern districts for the construction of survey posts and pegs. The fact that
Termites can corrode metal and even glass by means of some special secretion has
been attested to by Hagen, who correlates the property with glandular structures,
situated near the insect’s rectum. At Jamestown, in St. Helena, and also in the

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 107

bonded stores at Wyndham, Western Australia, the metal capsules of wine and beer
bottles have been perforated by White Ant agency, the corks destroyed and the
liquid wasted. Where the covered passages of the Termites passed over the
surfaces of the bottles it was observed by Mr. Hare that the surface was distinctly
eroded as though it had been brought in contact with a revolving emery-wheel.

This phenomenon of the erosion of glass by the excretions of the Termites goes
far towards the explanation of the remarkably indurated character of the termitaria
of the majority of the mound-constructing species. As recorded further on, the
food chambers of these termitaria are almost invariably found filled with short
lengths of dried grasses, which apparently constitutes the main diet of these
species. Those internal juices of the Termites, which on excretion erode a glass
surface, are, it may be anticipated, capable of dissolving the silica contained so
abundantly in the substance of the grass stalks eaten, and are, in a soluble state,
ejected and mingled, as a temper, with the earthy material that constitutes the bulk
of the hillocks.

The corrosive action of the fluid secretions of the Termites, as observed with
reference to glass, is manifested in a yet more marked degree when the softer
metals, such ‘as tin and lead, are attacked. The circumstance of the metal capsules
of wine bottles being perforated by these insects, apparently with the direct object
of reaching and devouring the woody substance of the corks, has been already
referred to. Instances fell within the author’s observation at Port Darwin, in
the Northern Territory of South Australia, in which lead sheeting, of considerable
thickness, had been perforated by White Ants in order to enable them to gain
access to a supply of coveted wood that lay beyond. To guard against White
Ant depredations, the houses throughout tropical Australia, and in Queensland, even
so far south as Brisbane, are to a large extent isolated on hard-wood or brick
and cement pillars, having zinc or other metal cappings to prevent the Termites’
ingress. Where these pillars are of wood a constant watch has to be kept to check
the earliest indications of the insects’ advent.

Should these precautions be neglected and the house perhaps be left tenantless
for a few months’ interval, the owner may on his return make a most unwelcome
discovery. A clay-covered gallery half an inch or so in width up one of the
supporting pillars is the only outward and visible sign of the enemy’s presence.
Appearances inside may at first sight be even less conspicuously premonitory of the
ruin that has been accomplished. Stepping into the first room, however, the foot

108 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

may crush through the flooring boards, the door posts and lintels may be found
hollowed to a shell, and even the legs of the chairs and tables, while apparently
sound to the external view, may be so tunnelled interiorly as to crumble into dust
with the slightest pressure.

Australia is commonly alluded to as a land of “contrarieties.” In the matter
of Ants the scriptural proverb will allow of material modification. The sluggard is
therein counselled:to “go to the Ant.” In Australia a slavish obedience of the
prophet’s injunction would be altogether a work of supererogation. The Ant, in that
happy land, comes to, or goes for, the sluggard!

It is commonly supposed that it is the fabricators and inhabitants of the
hugh hillocks or termitaria, which are so conspicuous a feature in many tropical
districts, that are the authors of the ravages that have been so abundantly attested
to. So far, however, as the writer’s experiences have extended, this by no means
applies to the Australian species. These, as presently shown, differ very materially
with relation to the dimensions and contours of the termitaria they construct,
but in no instance among the many forms observed and here placed on record
were they found to contain that specially destructive variety of Termite whose
depredations are so conspicuous throughout the northern territories of Australia. This
species, which appears to be closely allied to the Indian Termes taprobanes, is repre-
sented by the photograph of a living colony of some hundred individuals, previously
referred to, and reproduced on Page 103. This type of White Ant is never found
inhabitating any of the several descriptions of termitaries characteristic of the same
districts, even though it may infest dead or decaying timber almost in contact with
them. These notoriously destructive and essentially wood-eating Termites are, in point
of fact, subterranean in their habits, living and breeding in underground galleries,
whence they construct mines and tunnels to the immediate scene of their depredations.
On the other hand, the huge mound constructors are in Australia, so far as observed
by the author, exclusively graminivorous, collecting and hoarding up in their innumerable
provision chambers vast stores of finely-cut up grass fibre.

It is a somewhat singular circumstance that the marked diversity of size,
form, and correlated peculiarities that distinguish the habitations of the different
species of White Ants throughout the tropical areas of the world’s surface, have
hitherto received such scant scientific attention. It will further surprise many readers,
probably, to learn that up to the present date a paper contributed over a century
ago (1781), by Henry Smeathman, to the Transactions of the English Royal Society,

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TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 109

with relation to certain nest or mound-building African species, constitutes the
standard account, and that his illustrations are reproduced, with trivial variations,
in most modern zoological textbooks and other popular narratives of White Ants and
their fabrications.

This remarkable hiatus in our knowledge of a very important insect group is
fortunately on the eve of being filled in by the labours of several independent workers.
Dr. J. D. Haviland, more especially, has in preparation the account of his recent
extensive investigations of the Termitide of Singapore and South Africa, from which
widely-separated regions he obtained no less than eighty-one distinct specific
types, a magnificent addition to the small list of less than one hundred previously
recorded species. Dr. Haviland was further fortunate in bringing certain of these
forms alive to England, and produced a notable sensation by exhibiting them in
conjunction with his preserved examples at one of the past year’s scientific meetings
of the Linnean Society of London. A reference to Dr. Haviland’s original observations
concerning certain of the species whose habits he investigated is included in a
future page.

The Termite fauna of Australia will probably prove on examination to be
especially rich in the number and variety of its specific types. Little is attempted
in this Chapter beyond the portraiture and a descriptive outline of the leading modifi-
cations of the nest-mounds or termitaria of the species peculiar to the eastern, western
and northern districts of the tropical regions of this Island-Continent. The systematic
identification and classification of the Australian Termitide has been already commenced
by Mr. W. W. Froggatt, of the Sydney Technological Museum, and as soon as his
investigations are more advanced, it will be an easy matter to correlate the typical
mound-forms figured in this volume with the technical nomenclature of the special
White Ant types that build them. So far, as a preliminary instalment towards a
comprehensive Monograph on this subject, Mr. Froggatt has contributed to the
“Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales” for the year 1895 a paper
which constitutes a general survey of the distribution of the hitherto known species
and a special reference to a mound-constructing type distinctive of New South Wales.
No technical name, however, is associated with either this or any other Australian
specific forms that are less extensively referred to. The communication by the author
to Mr. Froggatt of notes and sketches relating to the termitaria here figured has
served only to elicit the fact that their constructors are apparently in all instances

specifically new and undescribed, and await the appearance of Mr. Froggatt’s projected

110 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Monograph for the relegation of individual titles. It is at the same time by no
means improbable that some of the North Queensland types, more especially, may
prove to be specifically identical with species obtained from Singapore and the
Malayan region by Dr. Haviland. The transport of these insects in floating
driftwood or even by indirect human agency on board intercommunicating trading vessels
would be easy of accomplishment, and has, as hereafter recorded, actually occurred
in the case of areas far more remotely separated.

Various authorities, including Lespes, Quatrefages, Fritz Miiller, and, most
recently, Drs. Battesta Grassi and Andrea Sandias, have done much towards elucidating
the domestic economy, and developmental phenomena of the respectively indigenous
and acclimatised European species Termes lucifugus and Calotermes flavicollis.
These species, however, are not mound-constructors, but live and breed in
subterranean chambers and passages, or in galleries excavated within the dead wood
or standing timber upon which they feed. The destructive powers and propensities
of these two species have so conspicuously manifested themselves in certain districts in
Sardinia, Spain, and the South of France as to compel scientific attention, if only with
the object of checking their depredations. Of the two species mentioned, Calotermes
Jiavicollis would appear in these countries to concentrate its energies upon the destruction
of olive and other valuable fruit trees, and Termes lucifugus, in like manner, to devour
the oaks and fir trees. It is, however, the first-named of these two species that has
won for itself so wide a notoriety on account of its destructive inroads upon human
habitations. At Rochefort, La Rochelle, Sainte, and other townships in the department
of the Lower Charente, the woodwork and furniture of public and private buildings have
been invaded and destroyed to an enormous extent, and the utmost difficulty has been
experienced in effectually contending against their ravages. According to the evidence
submitted in M. Quatrefages’ Memoir on the subject (*), this house-invading Termite
appears to have been originally imported to La Rochelle with ship’s cargo from
Saint Domingo, in South America, so long since as the year 1780, and from that
centre to have been distributed to the neighbouring townships. Termes lucifugus, on the
other hand, appears to be an indigenous and, excepting for its attacks upon timber in
the open country, a retiring and relatively harmless species. According to a more recent
contribution upon this subject written by the late W. S. Dallas in Cassell’s Natural

* “Rambles of a Naturalist,” Vol. II., p. 346, 1857.

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 111

History, 1883, a third species, Termes flavipes, found in Portugal and the south of
France, was originally introduced from North Africa.

Still more recently (1870), a very destructive species of White Ant, Hutermes
tenuis, has been accidentally introduced into St. Helena with a captured slave ship
from tropical America. Such were the ravages which this species committed on that
Island, that in Jamestown, the capital, the larger number of the buildings were
destroyed and had to be rebuilt, the damage to property being reckoned at
the lowest estimate to amount to no less than £60,000. Some of the results of
the destructive work of this termite are thus narrated by Mr. J. C. Melliss in his
book “St. Helena,” 1875. “It was a melancholy sight five years ago, to see the
town desolated as by an earthquake or, as a visitor remarked, by a state of siege—
the chief church in ruins, public buildings in a state of dilapidation, and private
houses tottering and falling, with great timber props butting out and meeting the
the eye at every turn. Books and records in the library and Government offices
were destroyed, and merchandise of every consumable description devoured in the
warehouses.” Among other remarkable phenomena chronicled as having been brought
about at Jamestown through this termite agency was the very singular spectacle of a
large Margossa tree, Melia azederach, in full foliage, which, without any previous
warning, and to the great discomforture of two native policemen who were
standing near it, was seen to sway, totter, and suddenly fall to pieces. On exam-
ination it was found that the inside of the tree was completely eaten away,
leaving only a thin external shell. Hutermes tenuis agrees with the majority of the
more destructive species in constructing no conspicuous nest or mound, but lives
and breeds in subterranean chambers and galleries.

It has been remarked on a previous page that the account and figures given
by Henry Smeathman of the termitaria and habits of certain West African Termites
so long ago as the year 1781, constitute up to the present date the most com-
plete record extant concerning the tropical nest-building forms. As an indication
of the good work in the same direction that awaits accomplishment with relation
to the internal architectural details of the edifices, as well as the life phenomena and
habits of the hitherto unstudied Australian species, Mr. Smeathman’s Memoir may
be advantageously quoted at some length. Briefly summarising the results of Mr.
Smeathman’s investigations, we find that they include the descriptions and figures of
three nest-building Termites, and also a reference to a fourth variety, the Marching

Termite, remarkable for the recorded circumstance that, unlike all other known

112 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

species, it travels in processional order above ground and in broad daylight. Con-
cerning the nest or termitaria-constructing species, the form he distinguished by
the title of Termes bellicosus is undoubtedly: the most remarkable. This Termite
constructs clay hillocks ten or twelve feet high of an obtusely conical contour, supple-
mented by a variable number of smaller conical pinnacles or turrets which spring
from around the base, and from the general surface-area of the central cone.
According to Mr. Smeathman, these termitaries make their first appearance above
ground in the form of one or two, or more, sugar-loaf-shaped turrets of a foot or
so in height, which through constant increase in size and numbers, become finally
amalgamated.

In vertical section the nest mound of Termes bellicosus is depicted as consisting
of an outer shell averaging a foot in thickness, and traversed throughout its height
by a wide spirally ascending tunnel. The Royal Chamber containing the abnormally
inflated queen, which in this species, see p. 103, fig. 8, measures as much as three or
four inches long, by one inch thick, and also the king, is situated in the immediate
centre of the hillock, at the same level as the surface of the ground. Around this
royal cell are clustered the innumerable waiting chambers, or so-called Royal Apart-
ments occupied by the labourers and soldiers which wait upon and guard the
king and queen. These form an intricate labyrinth which extends for a foot or
more in diameter from the Royal Chamber on every side. Here the nurseries and
magazines of provisions begin, which, intercommunicating by other empty chambers and
galleries, are continued on all sides to the outer shell. ;

It is remarked by Smeathman that the dimensions and composition of the
nurseries of this species, Zermes bellicosus, differ materially from those of the other
chambers, being not only much smaller, but composed of woody material in place of
clay. In addition to their eggs or infant brood, they were always found to be slightly
overgrown with minute fungoid growths, upon which, according to collateral observations
made by M. Konig of an East Indian species, it would appear the infant Termites are
fed. The contents of the magazine chambers proper were found to consist of what, at
first sight, appeared to be raspings of the wood and plants which the Termites
customarily destroy, but on nearer investigation, proved to be composed of various
descriptions of gums or inspissated juices.

The complex mass of nurseries and provision magazines in the nest-mound of
Termes bellicosus is described as extending vertically for some two-thirds or three-

quarters of the entire interior space, leaving a more or less considerable hollow area

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 113

between its roof and that of the dome-shaped outer shell for their extension and
multiplication. This is referred to by Smeathman as somewhat resembling a cathedral
nave, the similarity being further heightened by the presence of three or four large
Gothic-shaped arches, sometimes two or three feet in height, which give additional
support and strength to the dome-like roof. There is also a considerable interspace in
the centre of the main mass of nurseries and provision magazines, with groined lateral
walls and intercommunicating bridges, which appear to be for the purpose of
shortening the distance through which the newly deposited ova have to be carried from
the royal chamber to the upper nurseries. From the basement of the termitarium
cylindrical subterranean passages, lined with the same clay of which the tenement is
composed, run in every direction to vast distances, some of these at their commence-
ment being found by Smeathman to measure no less than thirteen inches in diameter.

According to Smeathman’s descriptions the soldier individuals of the communities
of Termes bellicosus are by no means pleasant antagonists to encounter at close
quarters. If, on breaking open the nest, the aggressor remains near enough for them
to reach him, the soldiers will attack with such fury as to make their hooked jaws
meet in the flesh, drawing as much blood as is equal in weight to their body and
allowing themselves to be pulled to pieces rather than quit their hold. If left
undisturbed, the soldiers shortly retire and the labourers then appear upon the scene
in crowds to repair the breach. This they do by each bringing with it a load of
tempered clay, which it immediately places in position then retiring for more. The
hundreds, or, it might be said, thousands, who thus contribute towards the repairing
work, soon, unless some of the main chambers or avenues have been exposed, close
up and obliterate all traces of the passages laid open. During the progress of these
repairs, the few soldiers that remained to supervise the work were observed at intervals of
a minute or two to raise their heads and strike the walls of the building in such manner
as to make a distinct vibrating sound. This noise was immediately answered by a
loud hiss which apparently came from all the labourers, who immediately addressed
themselves to their task with re-doubled energy. Should the onslaught on the termitary
be renewed the workers all vanish again within a few seconds and the soldiers rush
out in numbers to do battle with the enemy as valiantly and vindictively as before.

Within a comparatively recent date the account given by Smeathman of the
nest mounds and habits of Termes bellicosus have been confirmed in all important
points by Mr. T. J. Savage, who has recorded the results of his investigations of this

species in the Annalg and Magazine of Natural History for the year 1850. Savage,
P

114 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

however, considers Smeathman to have been mistaken in attributing to this form
wood-destroying properties which he correlates with a smaller species more nearly
resembling, if not identical with, Hutermes arboreum.

The second form of White Ant hills or termitaria described by Smeathman is
referred to by him as being the joint work of two species of Termites, upon which
Dr. Solander had conferred the respective titles of. Termes mordax and T. atrox, In
each instance the nest consists of perpendicular cylindrical columns about three quarters
of a yard high, consisting of very firmly consolidated black brown earth or clay and
surmounted by an overlapping conical roof of the same material, which imparts to
them an aspect comparable to that of gigantic mushrooms. The substance of these
termitaria is described as being of such rigid consistence that the whole structure can
be more easily uprooted from its earth foundation than fractured across the centre
of the cylindrical column. It was further observed of examples that had become thus
accidentally overturned, that the inhabitants commenced the construction of a new
column, vertically and at right angles from the prostrate one. The internal structure of
these so-called turret-nests are described by Smeathman as presenting none of the system-
atic complexity possessed by the hillocks of Termes bellicosus, consisting entirely of
innumerable. cells of irregular shape, each of which possessed two or more entrances
by which it communicated with its neighbours. After one of these turret-nests is
finished, it is not further altered or enlarged, but another column is constructed
within a few inches of the first. A group of half-a-dozen or more of these mushroom-
like termitaria is described as being often seen at the foot of the trees in the thick
woods.

The fourth variety of West African nest-constructing Termites, figured and
described by Smeathman, is distinguished by the title of Termes arboreum. As its
name implies, it builds its nest on the arms or stems of trees, sometimes at the
considerable height of seventy or eighty feet from the ground. This nest or termitarium
is usually spherical or oval in shape, and may be as large as a sugar cask. The
substance out of which it’ is composed differs from that of the hillock and turret-
shaped varieties. It consists, in place of clay, of minute particles of wood, combined
with the gums and juices of trees, and built up into innumerable little cells of
irregular shape and size. These nests are described as being so compact that there
is no detaching them, except by cutting them in pieces or sawing off the branch upon
which they are built, and to which, indeed, they are so firmly united that they will even
resist the force of the tornadoes to which they are not unfrequently exposed, so long

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TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). ; 115

as the tree stands upon which they are fixed. Covered galleries of the same woody
composition lead from the nests of these tree-building species to the ground, and
thence extend beneath its surface to considerable distances.

One remaining West African Termite recorded by Smeathman invites brief
notice on account of the contrast its habits present in comparison with those of
ordinary species. He confers upon this variety the title of the Marching Termite,
Termes viarum. Smeathman’s discovery of this species originated through his attention
being arrested by a loud hiss at repeated intervals, which proceeded from a spot
close to the pathway in the forest he was traversing. On tracing it to its source,
he came suddenly on an army of Termites issuing from a hole in the ground about
five inches in diameter. At a short distance from the hole they divided into two
streams or columns of some twelve or fifteen a-breast, which united again and
descended into other subterranean passages some few paces further on. For over an
hour there was no diminishing in the numbers, or even pace, of the marching army.
The bulk of the procession consisted of labourers, among which were distributed a
few soldiers, while, as if for the column’s protection, numerous soldiers occupied a
position as sentinels on either side all along the line of march, having climbed up and
stationed themselves for such purpose on the leaves of the neighbouring and often
overhanging herbage. These marching termites were considerably larger in size than
the hill-constructing 7. bellicosus, and were especially remarkable for the circum-
stance that both soldiers and labourers. possessed conspicuous eyes, indicating their
essentially daylight proclivities. These’ individuals, in all the ordinary termite
communities, are completely blind, and carry on their works at night, or under the
shelter of artificially covered chambers and galleries. Although this particular species
of Termite has not been re-discovered by subsequent observers, it is of interest to
record that an eyed, daylight-working species is included among the many varieties
recently obtained by Dr. Haviland in Natal.

The foregoing somewhat lengthy summary of Mr. Smeathman’s observations on
the West African Termites has been introduced with the hope that it will prove a
stimulus towards the closer study of the Australian species. Many of these are
shown in this Chapter to be the constructors of equally remarkable habitations, and
while to the writer time allowed only the present record of the broad superficial
characters of the termitaria, a wide and interesting field is left open for the more
intimate investigation of their puny architects by those possessing leisure and the

advantage of a permanent residence within tropical Australian districts.

116 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Taking the Australian types of Termitaria observed and photographed by

the author in consecutive order, reference may first be made to the form reproduced as

TERMITE NESTS, ALBANY PASS, NORTH QUEENSLAND.

the corner illustration of the opening page of this Chapter,

and also on the present page. This description of Ant-

hill is very prevalent in Cape York Peninsula, in the Tisai oa
North of Queensland, and more especially in the neighbourhood of the Albany Pass,
where the photographs here reproduced were taken. These Termite mounds form go

conspicuous a feature of the landscape on approaching the Pass from the south,

that the name of Ant-Hill Point was conferred upon —- a
it by one of the earlier navigators, and is still

retained upon the Admiralty Charts, To passengers

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ANT-HILL POINT, ALBANY PASS, NORTH QUEENSLAND. W. Saville-Kent, del,

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 117

making their first voyage through this picturesque strait, it is often suggested in ~
jest, and accepted with exemplary faith, that this area is the site of a native burial
ground, and that the ant-mounds represent monuments erected in loving memory of
their deceased ancestors. To a new arrival from temperate climes, it is certainly
difficult to realise that these remarkable structures are the edifices and tenements of
puny insects.

Writing of this White Ant community in his interesting contribution towards
a history of the Australian Termitide, Mr. W. Froggatt remarks: “At Somerset,
Cape York, there is one of the most remarkable termite cities in the world. Viewed
from the sea, and looking up beyond the old Government Residency, now occupied
by Mr. Frank Jardine’s homestead, it appears as if the plain for a mile or more in
extent is covered with pointed pillars six or seven feet in height (*), broad at the
base and tapering to the summit, forming rather symmetrical pyramids. They are
thickly dotted over the plain, often only a few yards apart; the effect is much
heightened if the grass has been recently burnt off, as it had been the first time
I passed Somerset.”

In the absence of a photograph of this remarkable termite community as
seen from the most advantageous point, when passing on ship-board through the
Albany Pass, the accompanying adaptation of a sketch of it, made by the author on
making its first acquaintance in the year 1888, is reproduced in the lower of the two
illustrations on the preceding page.

In contradistinction to the several varieties of White Ant habitations described
and illustrated in this Chapter, the York Peninsula type of termitarium above
referred to may be most appropriately styled the ‘“ Pyramidal.” The mounds in this
variety are always constructed with a wide base and taper gradually towards the apex.
This is usually represented by a single one, but, in the largest hills, may be divided
into two or three points. In some instances, as illustrated by the termitary to
the right in the corner illustration of page 101, the single apex is prolonged in a
columnar fashion. The sides of the larger hills, more especially, are usually very
distinctly groined or buttressed, after the manner of the trunks of many of the forest
trees in the adjacent scrub. The matured height of these pyramidal termitaries usually
ranges from six or eight to ten or twelve feet. The author has, however, seen hills

of apparently the same species on the bridle track between Somerset and the Patterson

* Many of these ant-mounds have an altitude of as much as ten or twelve feet.—S.-K.

118 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

telegraph station in York Peninsula that were at least fourteen feet high, and
which towered above his head while passing them on horseback. Unfortunately, this
happened in the author’s pre-photographic days, or a pictorial record of these giants
of their tribe would have been secured. The colour of these Cape York termitaries
is usually a rich ferruginous red, corresponding in this respect with the character of
the underlying soil.

A species of White Ant, apparently identical with this Cape York form, erects
pyramidal termitaria throughout the Northern Territory of the Australian Continent.
On the occasion of the writer’s first visit to the neighbourhood of Wyndham, Cambridge
Gulf, Western Australia, as the guest of Captain the Hon. H. P. Foley Vereker and
the officers of H.M.S. ‘“Myrmidon,” during their survey of this coastal area, in the
year 1888, he availed himself of the opportunity of examining many of these nests,
and with the co-operation of Mr. R. C. Hare, then resident magistrate of Wyndham,
made sections and excavations in selected hills, with the hope of discovering the royal
chamber with its enclosed queen. None of these efforts, however, proved successful.
_ Not being at the time cognisant of its approximate position, or of the rapidity, as
attested to by Smeathman, with which the labourer termites wall up all the entrances
to this chamber, it seems highly probable that as soon as the disturbing strokes of
the pickaxes and shovels approached this royal cell, it was converted by their masonic
dexterity into what was apparently a homogeneous lump of the component clay, and
thus evaded notice. It is commonly stated in this district of North Australia that the
subterranean excavations of the White Ants penetrate as deeply into the earth as the
hillock is raised in altitude above it. This certainly appears to be the case with
relation to many of the termitaria examined, which revealed beneath the surface
of the ground as extensive and complex a mass of cells as was found in the previously
demolished overlying hillock. The food material contained in the magazine cells of
these termitaries consisted, so far as was observed, of finely chopped grass, such as is
found in the habitations of the species next described. Concerning this food storage
it is worthy of record that, in many instances, it was possible to trace the continuity
of the clay-covered galleries for several hundred feet along the surface of the ground
in the grassy plains near Wyndham. It would appear that the termites issue out
of these galleries to mow down and garner in their harvest of cut-up grasses by
innumerable temporarily opened breaches during the night hours only.

The second type of termitarium, with reference to the circumstance that it has
been met with by the author only in the Kimberley district of Western Australia,

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TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 119

may be suitably referred to here as the Kimberley type. It is very abundant in the
thinly-wooded scrubs, or so-called “pindan,” adjacent to Roebuck Bay, but attains to
its most luxuriant phase of development near the township of Derby at the head of
King’s Sound. The several photographs of these Kimberley termitaria reproduced
in Plates XVI. to XIX. were obtained in this neighbourhood, and will suffice
to show how exceeding variable the external contours of individual hillocks
may be. Throughout the entire series, however, it will be recognised that one
very peculiar and characteristic plan of construction is predominant. They all
present the appearance of having been built up, as it were, by the super-
position of consecutive bucketsful of half solidified mortar, which, before setting, has
partly overflown and overlapped the preceding instalments. The greatest altitude
of this description of termitary that has been observed by the author was fourteen
feet, that being the measurement of the example photographically reproduced in Plate
XVIII, fig. A. As clearly indicated in this figure, the individual termitarium had
passed the zenith of its development, and was already much weathered and eroded
on its upper surface.

The contours of some of the termitaria constructed by this Kimberley White
Ant are most fantastic and grotesque. In Plate XVII., the summit of the larger
fore-ground hillock presents a remarkable resemblance to the head of a lop-eared
spaniel or retriever, with its tongue partially protruding. It is, moreover, worthy
of remark that this singular resemblance was not noticed at the time of taking
the photograph, though immediately recognised with the pulling of the first print.
Plate XIX., figs) A and B are yet more grotesque in aspect, and, as a
matter of fact, portray two different views of the same termitarium. In fig. A,
the general contour is not unlike that of a primitive form of locomotive engine, which
for some unexplained reason has become embedded in a thick coating of clay; the
indication of the chimney, with its terminal spark-catcher, being particularly prominent.
In the second view of the same termitary, fig. B, there is a ludicrous likeness to a
group of human figures, clad in voluminous, fleece-like garments. A man resembling
the stereotyped delineations of Father Christmas or Robinson Crusoe, with a pack on
his back, leads the way, and is followed by what might be his better half, wearing
what bears a suspicious resemblance to a divided skirt, combined with the very
latest fashion in balloon sleeves. A matronly woollen cap, corresponding with the
top of the engine chimney in the previous view, adorns her head. To her right
there would appear to be the indication of a child similarly muffled up in shaggy

120 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

clothing. In all of these forms, the same typical construction of rugged, overlapping
clay-masses is distinctly apparent.

The colour of these Kimberley termitaries is usually a light-red or Indian-red
hue, corresponding with that of the red sand-stone that predominates in the district
where they occur. Not unfrequently, however, as when constructed on the alluvial
flats of the Fitzroy river, they agree with the immediate subsoil in being of a similar
light brown tint. The opportunity was afforded the author, through the assist-
ance of Dr. Ernest Black, then Government Resident at Derby, of making sections
through termitaries of this White Ant, and also of acquiring information concerning
the rate at which such half-demolished nests are reconstructed. Plate XVIII, fig. B,
represents one such typical section made by the aid of pickaxe and: a cross-cut saw.
The quest for the Queen Ant was unfortunately futile, and neither did the exposed
chambers present anything approaching that diversity and symmetry of design
originally credited by Smeathman to the West African Termes bellicosus. The larger
but very irregular lacune, situated chiefly towards the centre of the termitary, do not
appear to have been specially constructed, but to represent the interspaces that
originally existed between the superimposed clay-layers. From the centre to the
topmost and outer crust, the space is chiefly occupied with the closely crowded
magazine chambers. There was, however, a smaller central nucleus, consisting of more
diminutive cells, apparently the nurseries, but these were unoccupied when exposed to
view. The magazine or provision chambers were, on the other hand, for the most
part fully stocked with characteristic food material. This consisted exclusively of
finely cut up leaves and stems of the grasses growing thickly in the vicinity of
the nests. The presence of this material is plainly shown in many of the upper
chambers of the section photographed, but still more conspicuously where it has
fallen from the chambers, and lies scattered among the débris at the base of the
hillock.

The period of time occupied in rebuilding the partially destroyed hillocks of
this Kimberley Termite was accurately gauged by sections made through examples
in the neighbourhood of Derby. On the writer’s first visit in September, 1893, there
happened to be a very characteristic example of one of these White Ant hillocks
that had been accurately bisected a little over one year previously, when erecting
the fence line of a new road to the Derby race-course. A photograph of this
termitary with its reconstructed portions consisting of four over-lapping clay masses
at its base, is reproduced in Plate XIX., fig. C. As will be recognised, the newly

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 121

added portions cover somewhat less than one-fourth of the entire bisected surface.
In March, 1895, the passage to England, via Singapore, gave the author an hour or
two on shore at Derby, which opportunity was hastily utilised for securing a second
photograph of this particular termitarium, which by this time had had another
eighteen months for the work of reconstruction. The replica of this second photo-
graph, Plate XIX., fig. D, shows that a very considerable advance had been
accomplished. The newly added patches extend now to over two-thirds of the area
originally laid bare, and it may be reasonably anticipated that another twelvemonths’
uninterrupted work at the same ratio, will effect the covering in and complete
obliteration of the original sectional scar. It is worthy of note that an examination
made and a photograph taken on the same occasion of the more recently bisected
termitary, Plate XVIII., fig. B, revealed the fact that it had accomplished an almost
identical amount of progress in the direction of reconstruction as that exhibited after
a similar interval by the one here made the subject of special notice. On the other
hand, a second photograph taken at the same time of the undisturbed termitary
having a dog’s-head-like apex, Plate XVII., exhibited, after this intervening interval
of eighteen months, scarcely any perceptible alteration of contour or increase in bulk.
Examining the two photographs carefully with a hand-glass, it is difficult in point
of fact to detect so much as even the difference of a wrinkle between them. This
somewhat surprising fact can be explained by the supposition that this particular
termitarium had attained to the full zenith of its development, that the queen
probably was deceased, and that any future changes would be those of erosion and
decay. That this process is already in progress is in fact distinctly visible, the
external clay layer being worn and weathered in places as in the larger example
portrayed in Plate XVIII.

The third type of termitarium constructed by the Australian White Ants
inviting attention in this Chapter, is that illustrated by Plates XV. and XX.
This specific form is not built to a remarkable height, eight feet representing the
tallest observed. Its specially conspicuous features are the peculiarly elongate
compressed contours of every individual hillock, supplemented by the circumstance
that in every instance the long axis of the structure is in a precise line with the
north and south poles of the magnetic compass. On this account the very appropriate
titles of Magnetic, Meridian, or Compass Ant-hills have been conferred upon these
special forms. The photographs here reproduced were taken by the writer in the

valley of the Laura river some 60 miles inland from Cooktown, North Queensland.
Q

122

THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

In accord with the character of the peat-like deposits out of which they are excavated,

these ant-hills are of a black or dark ash-grey tint. A very prominent feature

of these Laura
They consist, as
shown in the
accompanying
photographs, of
a congeries of
slender pin-
nacles_ erected
in the same
straight line
close to one
another, which
are subsequent-
ly amalgamated.
Upon these,
again, humerous
subsidiary pin-
nacles are usu-
ally constructed.
Some of the
larger and wider
of these termi-
taries, when
viewed end on,
as shown in
Plate XX., pre-
sent, with their
closely crowded
spires and pin-
nacles, a not
unremote resem-
blance to the

architectural

Valley Meridian Ant nests is their highly ornate structural type.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
BROADSIDE VIEW OF LAURA VALLEY MERIDIAN ANTS’ NEST.

PLATE XxX.

Ww. 4& 8, Ltd. W. Saville-Kent. Photo.

Colloty pe.

NEST MOUNDS OF WHITE ANTS, MERIDIAN VARIETY, LAURA VALLEY, NORTH QUEENSLAND ;
END ON VIEW, p. 122.

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 123

mass of some grand cathedral. A broadside view of one of the most elaborately
pinnacled examples of this description of termitarium, observed and photographed by
the author in the Laura district, and closely corresponding with the one depicted in
Plate XX., is reproduced on page 122.

Another more widely known variety of Meridian Ant nest occurs, and. has
been seen by the author, on the Victoria river plains, some forty miles from Port
Darwin, in the Northern Territory of South Australia. To the kind courtesy of
Mr. Paul Folsche, for many years superintendent of the Police Department at
Palmerston, the writer is indebted for the very excellent photographs of these
remarkable Port Darwin termitaria that illustrate this Chapter. The Meridian
termitaria in this instance, as portrayed in Plate XXI., figs. A and B, are about the
same height as the Laura river type last described, but differ from them in being much
more solid and compact. There is also an absence of the ornately pinnacled plan of
architecture notable in the Laura variety, their upper edge as shown in profile being
nearly smooth or but slightly serrated. Another peculiarity of the Port Darwin
variety, pointed out to the author by Mr. Folsche, is the circumstance that they are
usually distinctly convex on the east, and concave on the west, of their opposing, broad
lateral surfaces.

White Ant termitaria corresponding in aspect and structure with the Port
Darwin type, have been also reported to the author by Dr. T. L. Bancroft, of Brisbane,
as occurring in the neighbourhood of the Howard river, North Queensland. From a
photograph of them placed at the writer’s disposal by that authority, it would appear
that they attain to a more considerable elevation, some of them, as shown by the
figures in their vicinity, being not less than nine or ten feet high. It is further
worthy of remark that, while in the Port Darwin district the Meridian Ant-hills are
erected on a more or less open grassy plain, their co-types near the Howard river occur
in the midst of a thickly timbered country. Possibly, on a nearer investigation, this
Howard river form will prove to be a third distinctly differentiated type of the
Meridian structural plan.

The raison @étre of the north and south directions of these Meridian Ant
nests has given rise to much speculation and various interpretations. By some it is
supposed to bear a direct relationship to the prevalent winds. As, however, these, in
the districts where they occur, are chiefly, according to the seasonal monsoons, south-
east or north-west, but predominantly the former, that theory would hardly appear to
afford a satisfactory explanation. A more probable interpretation presents itself to the

124 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

writer’s mind, with reference to the circumstance that, by being constructed with
this orientation, their larger surfaces present the least possible direct exposure
to the meridianal rays of the tropical sun, and in consequence absorb and retain
interiorly a minimum amount of solar heat.

The author is beholden to Mr. Paul Folsche for the photographs of yet
another form of White Ant termitarium, reproduced in this volume. It occurs
also in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin, and probably represents the most
colossal example of these remarkable insect habitations that is to be found in the
Australian Continent. The architectural plan of this variety may be most appropriately
designated the “Columnar.” The altitude of the highest of these termitaria observed,
Plate XXII, fig. A, is no less than eighteen feet, as may be verified by the figures
of the man, horses, and vehicle standing beside it. In common with the pyramidal
type of termitarium belonging to the Cape York Peninsula district of Northern
Queensland, previously described, this columnar form is associated with strong ridges
or buttresses, which, extending throughout the length of the lofty column, must add
materially to its rigidity and strength. It will be of interest to ascertain whether
any remarkably large species of White Ant is the fabricator of these tower-like
structures. Although unable to produce any direct evidence on this subject in the
present volume, the writer has been informed by Mr. Froggatt that its constructors
are most probably referable to the genus Eutermes.

In addition to the remarkable descriptions of White Ant habitations now
enumerated, there are a number of Australian Termites awaiting identification and
classification that either construct smaller and architecturally insignificant termitaria
or which, erecting no mound whatever, are purely miners, living in decaying wood
or subterranean chambers and galleries, whence they extend their depredations to
remote distances. Among the former category, irregular mound-shaped termitaria
some two or three feet high, probably constructed by distinct species, may be met
with at a considerable distance south of the tropic of Capricorn, on both the Queensland
and Western Australian sides of the Island-Continent. In the former instance they
may be referred to as being abundant in the neighbourhood of Brisbane, and in
Western Australia as extending as far south as Pinjarrah and Bunbury, in about
latitude 33°. It frequently happens that birds of various species excavate holes
and build their nests within these smaller termitaria. A White-breasted Kingfisher,
probably Halcyon sanctus, thus constructs its nest in those in the southern districts

of Western Australia. In similar irregular heap-like termitaria in the neighbourhood

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XX ALVId

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 125

of Rockhampton, Central Queensland, the beautiful Parrakeet, Posephotus pulcherrimus,
burrows and builds its nest, while the handsome White-tailed Kingfisher, Zanysiptera
sylvia, an ally of the more remarkable Racket-tailed species, 7. microrhyncha, burrows
a hole and deposits its eggs in a small symmetrically ovate form of termitary
that occurs in the thickly-wooded scrubs in the coastal ranges at Bloomfield,
near Cooktown, North Queensland. For the information relating to these two
species, as also for the characteristic photographs reproduced in the lower half of
Plate XXII., portraying the termitaria with their associated nest burrows, the author
is indebted to Mr. D. Le Souef, the Director of the Melbourne Zoological and
Acclimatisation Society’s Gardens.

On submitting outline sketches of these last-named types of termitaria to
Mr. Walter Froggatt, the writer was informed by that authority that they most probably
represent, in both instances, ground-constructed nests of EHutermes fumipennis, a species
which builds indifferently on the ground or in branches of trees, after the manner of
the Termes arboreum, originally described by Smeathman, referred to on a previous
page. The arboreal nests of this or an allied species have been observed by the
author throughout North Queensland and are of common occurrence in Thursday
Island, Torres Straits. The termitaria constructed under these conditions are dark
coloured, usually sub-spheroidal or ovate in shape, about eighteen inches in diameter,
and most frequently constructed at a height of some ten or twelve feet only from the
ground, with which they are connected by clay-covered galleries. The substance of
these nests, as in the African arboreal forms, consists almost exclusively of finely
comminuted woody particles, cemented by the excreted juices of the termites into a
homogeneous mass of remarkable density.

As is familiar to most Northern Australian settlers, snakes, lizards, rats,
scorpions, and a variety of other animals take up their abode within the natural
or artificially excavated fissures of the White Ants’ nests, some little caution, on
account of the first-named reptiles, having to be exercised when dismantling a
hillock. Among the utilitarian uses to which the termitaries have been largely
applied in the Kimberley district is that of road-making, a circumstance which is
accountable for the disappearance of numbers of the largest size that formerly
occupied a position close to the township of Derby. Used as a top layer, it binds
down and hardens with the weather into a cement-like mass of great hardness
and durability. For a like purpose termitary earth, damped and rammed, is
highly esteemed as the top covering of the flooring of settlers’ huts. As an extem-

126 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

porary oven again, a small ant-hill, scientifically excavated, may, in the hands
of an experienced bushman, be made to accomplish undreamt-of culinary triumphs.

The author on one occasion witnessed a rather interesting episode that was
enacted in connection with a small mound-shaped termitarium in the southern district
of Western Australia. As a rule the Termites utilise the night hours only for the
enlargement of their borders, their architectural work of the preceding night being
clearly visible in the early morning in the form of a darker semi-dried clay patch on
one or more areas of the termitary surface. To effect any such extension of their
premises, they have to temporarily break passages through the original outer shell,
a proceeding which, if done in broad daylight, would doubtless leave them open to
the attacks of many enemies. An exceptional case to this general rule observed by the
writer was on an afternoon immediately preceding a heavy rainfall, which proved
to be the forerunner of continuous wet weather. The Termites apparently possessed
an instinctive foreknowledge of the approaching meteorological change, and were deter-
mined to make the most of the little dry weather left. Small breaches were
consequently being made at innumerable points of the termitary, and the heads of
the working individuals were every now and then visible as they arrived with their
loads of tempered clay.

There were other interested watchers of their operations. These were a
colony of large red and black ants, from a neighbouring subterranean nest. A number
of these insects were continually patrolling the surface of the White Ants’ hillock,
and every now and then one of them would make a plunge at a scarcely visible
opening. Its head and powerful jaws disappeared for a second or two within the
clayey matrix, and would then be withdrawn, on most occasions dragging forth in
its tenacious grip an unfortunate termite, which was speedily dispatched and borne
away by the red ant with as much ease as a terrier could carry off a rat. The
true ants, Formicide, are as a rule very high appreciators of the succulent
Termites, or White Ants, as an article of food, and where a colony of the destruc-
tive species is found making its depredations, there is scarcely a surer method of
getting rid of these pests than by exposing their galleries and chambers to the
inroads of the larger varieties of ordinary ants, which are almost always to be found
in the vicinity. It not uncommonly happens, indeed, that termitaria are tenanted
partly by termites and partly by ordinary ants. In such instances it may be
assumed that the predatory ants have, in the first place, invaded and established
a foothold in the White Ants’ habitation, from which the latter, while securely

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 127

barricading the rearward chambers, have been unable to more effectually dislodge their
aggressors.

As an instance of the highly scientific tactics which the true ants will display
when raiding a White Ant colony, Mr. R. C. Hare mentioned to the author that on
one occasion, on disturbing a piece of timber infested by termites, so as to expose
them to the attacks of the enemy, they proved to consist, to a large extent, of winged
nymphs, just on the point of taking flight. Some large black ants that were
reconnoitring in the neighbourhood immediately rushed in to take possession, but,
instinctively recognising the position of affairs, fell to in the first instance to cut off the
wings of all the matured nymphs before attempting to kill or secure a single victim.

White Ants, Termitide, of a harmless description, that feed exclusively upon
dead or decaying wood, and construct no conspicuous nest, are found as far south as
Tasmania in the Australasian system. In November, 1884, when residing at Hobart,
the author communicated to the Proceedings of the Royal Society of that colony a
brief account of the infusorial parasites that infest the intestines of this Termite. They
belonged chiefly to the genera Trichonympha and Pyrsonympha, originally instituted by
Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, for corresponding parasites of the North American White
Ant, Termes flavipes, though differing essentially in their specific characters. Other
infusorial forms found infesting the Tasmanian Termite were referable to the genus
Lophomonas, that had hitherto been recorded as parasites only of the Orthopterous
insects Blatta and Gryllotalpa. Figures and full descriptions of the American
infusorial parasites are included in Volumes II. and III. of the author’s “Manual of
the Infusoria,’ published in 1881-2. An illustration of the more characteristic
aspects of the Tasmanian species, upon which the author conferred the title of Tricho-
nympha Leidyi, in honour of the founder of the genus, are figured for the first time
as a tail-piece to this Chapter.

The conspicuous features of the species of Trichonympha, as compared with all
other known Infusoria, are the remarkable abundance and length of the fine hair-like
cilia with which their bodies are clothed, and the remarkable activity and Protean
shapes they display or assume in the living state. In the case of the American type,
the aspects of these animalcule, as they contort their bodies and fling around their
cilia in whirling mazes, have been compared by Dr. Leidy to the flowing of a thin
sheet of water over the brim of a fountain, swayed to one side or the other by
contending wind currents; or, again, to dancing nymphs in a spectacular drama,

wearing as their chief adornment a cincture of long cords suspended fringewise from

128 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

their shoulders. The mazy evolutions and gyrations of the more modern skirt-dance
would probably provide an equally apposite simile. A phenomenon observed by the
author of the Tasmanian Trichonymphe, but not recorded of the American type, was
the circumstance that they customarily anchored themselves by the longer posterior
cilia to organic débris or other convenient fulchra, and, thus attached, spun to and
fro after the manner of extemporised roasting jacks, but with great rapidity. The
writer was much disappointed in finding no Trichonymphide within the intestinal
tracts of the many large nest-building tropical Australian termites examined. A distinct
variety was, however, found associated with the large wood-destroying species figured
on Page 103. Similar infusorial parasites have been reported, but not specifically
described as infesting the European Termes lucifugus. M. C. Lespes has recorded that
they constitute the greater portion of the brown pulp of which the contents of the
intestine of this species are composed. Dr. Haviland also reports them as being
very abundant in various Singapore species. In examining these parasitic Infusoria,
Dr. Leidy found that they could be kept alive for some time by transferring them from
the termite’s intestine to a small drop of the white of egg. By similarly employing
diluted milk the author was able to keep and examine the Tasmanian species under
the microscope for lengthened periods.

Through the kind courtesy of Drs. D. Sharp, F.R.S., and J. D. Haviland, the
writer has been afforded the opportunity, while concluding this Chapter, of glancing
through the proof-sheets of the article on the Termitide, edited by Dr. Sharp, which
will be included in the forthcoming Insecta volumes of the Cambridge Natural
History.* It embraces the results of the most recent investigations of this remark-
able insect group, including the record of extensive and valuable researches prosecuted
by. Dr. Haviland at Singapore and in South Africa. In this last-named region it
is interesting to observe that Dr. Haviland was fortunate enough to discover a form
closely identical in structure and habits with the remarkable Marching Termite, the
Termes viarum of Smeathman, described over a century ago, but of which no recent
knowledge had been recorded. Like Termes viaruwm, the workers and soldiers of this
Natal species, which Dr. Sharp has appropriately named Hodotermes Havilandi, are
possessed of facetted eyes, all of the ordinary forms being blind, and come abroad during
the heat of the day to cut and carry the grass and foliage upon which they principally
feed. The subterranean galleries of this Natal type measured one-third of an inch

* Now published. Macmillan & Co.

PLATE XXII.

Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. D. Le Souef, Photo. D. Le Souef, Photo,
B. OVATE TERMITE MOUND, WITH C. SMALL EXTRA-TROPICAL TERMITE MOUND,

NEST BURROW OF Tanysiptera sylvia, p. 125. WITH NEST BURROW OF Posephotus pulcherrimus, p. 125

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 129

in diameter, and were traced by Dr. Haviland for a distance of twenty feet, and to
a depth of five and a half feet, but without coming to a main nest which probably
exists. It would seem to be by no means improbable that a more searching investi-
gation in tropical Australia will reveal the existence of some allied eyed, day-working,
Termitide also in that Continent. Such a possibility is, at all events, well worth
the quest.

The recent researches of Dr. Haviland, anticipated partly by Bates’ exploration
in the Amazons Valley, have established the fact that several species of Termites may
be found inhabiting the same termitarium. Smeathman, in fact, has attested to
two species inhabiting the characteristic turret nests of Senegal. In South Africa,
Dr. Haviland reports having found as many as five species of Termitide and three
species of true ants in a single mound. In this instance, while in close proximity,
there appeared to be no absolute intimacy between the species. Other instances,
however, are reported in which a second species lives as a guest on intimate terms
with the original constructors of the mound. This tendency of the Termites to live
in mixed communities considerably enhances the difficulty of accurately determining
their specific range and identity, more especially having regard to the circumstance
of the plurality of individual modifications in the same species. Supposing, for
example, that the five consorting species above referred to presented from twelve
to fifteen individual modifications; this would signify that from sixty to as many
as seventy-five distinct types might be yielded for discriminative classification from
a single termitarium.

As the result of the investigations of the morphological structure of the
Termitide that have been conducted up to the present date, it has been found that
the variations presented by the singularly modified heads and jaws of the soldier
individuals yield the most reliable and readily recognisable characters for specific
diagnosis. Consequently, in all collections made of these insects for classificatory
purposes, special care should be taken to include samples of the soldier types. As an
indication of the structural modifications that may obtain in this direction, a few of
the more notable ones, as originally indicated by Hagen, are reproduced in Figs. 9
to 13, on page 108. The’ most remarkable deviation from the customary
scissors-blade contour of the opposing jaws is presented by Fig. 13, that of Termes
armiger, in which the formidable mandibles are replaced by a tubular pike-like
prolongation of the front of the head, out of which a fluid secretion can be
ejected for the purposes of either assisting in the nest construction, or for the

R

130 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

discomforture of its enemies. With reference to this peculiarity, the suggestive
title of ‘“Nasuti” or “Snouted” Termites has been conferred upon these individuals.

In addition to the conformation of the jaws, the pattern of the veining or
“neuration” of the wings in the matured flying individuals has been found to be
of signal service for the scientific classification of the Termitide, and it is with
reference more especially to such distinctions that the known species are at present
relegated to the several genera Termes, Eutermes, Hodotermes and Calotermes.

The feeding habits of the Termitide have been proved by the recent investi-
gations, more especially of Grassi and Sandias with relation to Calotermes flavicollis,
to be very peculiar, No refuse matter of any kind is permitted to remain in the
chambers or galleries, which are always remarkable clean. Whether cast skins, dead
individuals, material regurgitated from the mouth or passed through the alimentary
canal, such refuse is devoured or redevoured until no nutritive properties are left, when
it is either built into the substance of the habitations or galleries, or cast outside them.
It was observed of the above-named species that the so-called “proctodeal” food or
alimentary matter in its semi-exhausted state as passed from the alimentary canal
represented the favourite nutriment. One individual yields it to another on
being stroked posteriorly by the antenne and palpi of the latter, much in the same
manner as the aphides yield their honey-like excretions to the true ants. This food-
provision phenomenon is associated with the labourers or greater bulk of the com-
munity. In the case of the soldiers, it would appear that they are essentially
cannibalistic, preying upon the sickly or purposely destroyed labouring units.

Among other data elicited through Professor Grassi’s investigations, the fact
was fully established—with regard to the European species—that the potentiality for
increase of the termite community is by no means seriously impaired by the destruction
of the original royal pair, or founders of the colony. Some one or more of the
“neoteinic” or “substitution” kings and queens were always available for election to
the vacant thrones. According, moreover, to the description of food supplied to them,
it has been ascertained by Professor Grassi that any of the numerous individual
termite modifications can be developed from the ordinary larve. A full translation of
Grassi’s important Memoir on the European Termitide is, while going to press,
November, 1896, in course of publication in the “ Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science.” Its perusal is strongly recommended to any who may contemplate the
systematic investigation of the habits, metamorphoses and etiological phenomena of
the Australian or other exotic species.

TERMITES (WHITE ANTS). 131

Summarising the existing knowledge of the Termitide, Dr. Sharp reports that
the number of described species does not exceed a hundred, and that very probably
there are as many as one thousand in existence. Australia, while yielding probably
for its area the largest and most diversified variety of specific forms and the
most remarkable architectural modifications of termite habitations, has, so far, been
practically neglected by scientific specialists, and consequently offers a most rich and
almost virgin field to the Termitologist. It is hoped by the writer that the data
concerning the more noteworthy habits and fabrications of this insect group embodied
in this Chapter, will prove a stimulus to readers residing in tropical Australian
districts to devote some attention to the study of such varieties as may be peculiar
to their neighbourhoods. By so doing, and by combining with their recorded notes
the conservation in alcohol or, possibly, more readily accessible whisky, of specimen
samples of the variously modified individuals found in each specific form of mound or
subterranean gallery, they will render valuable service to science. While assisting
science they will also gain to themselves that newer interest and zest in life which
is so often wanting to the isolated Australian settler. For the frequently enforced
monotony of such a calling there is no panacea so sure as an intelligently bestridden

natural history hobby.

AAD
ONE >, a
AOI t 0 Ans

WHS

W. Saville-Kent del.

Trichonympha Leidyi, S.-A., INFUSORIAL PARASITES OF THE TASMANIAN WHITE ANT, EXHIBITING DIVERSE PROTEAN MODIFICATIONS.
MAGNIFIED 600 DIAMETERS. p. 127.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

WRECK POINT, PELSART ISLAND, p. 136.

CHAPTER V.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS.

a+

UCH interest attaches itself in the minds of most biological students to the

contemplation of the indigenous fauna and flora of islands occupying

a more or less remote distance from the nearest mainland. Oftentimes,
though the intervening space scarcely outdistances the range of human vision, the
terrestrial inhabitants of the divided lands may be notably distinct, the distinction
extending itself even to such migratory forms as birds and insects. This fact is
especially familiar to all who have made themselves conversant with the contents of
Dr. A. R. Wallace’s fascinating volume, “Island Life.”

The subject matter dealt with by that accomplished naturalist in the treatise

quoted is limited exclusively to the consideration of the denizens of the terrestrial

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
MIRAGE-ELEVATED RREAKERS ON OUTER BARRIER, PELSART ISLAND, p. 143.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 133

and aerial elements. The assumption that corresponding strongly marked divergencies
may possibly exist with respect to the fish and other inhabitants of the adjacent
waters of similarly contiguous lands would seem, at first sight, to possess but little
ground for serious entertainment. The main object of the present Chapter is to testify
to a very conspicuous example of such marine faunal diversity that has fallen within
the writer's purview. The geographical region which has furnished the testimony to be
presently submitted is a small group of islands lying at a little distance off the coast of
Western Australia, and diversely distinguished on maps and charts by the titles of
“ Houtman’s Rocks” and “ Houtman’s Abrolhos.”

From many points of view this island group yields data of high interest, and
invites attention apart from the more especial subject matter of this Chapter.
Houtman’s Abrolhos takes its title in commemoration of the name of Frederic Houtman,
one of the earliest Dutch explorers, who has been credited with their discovery,
as well as in contradistinction to an island group of corresponding character, likewise
named the Abrolhos, that is situated off the coast of Brazil. More particular interest
attaches itself to Houtman’s group with reference to the circumstance that it was
the wreck there of the Dutch East Indian Company’s ship, the “ Batavia,” in the
command of Captain Francis Pelsart, in the year 1629, that led to the earliest
recorded discovery of the great Island-Continent of Australia. As the islands lay but
a little to the eastward of the course of the vessels trading round the Cape of Good Hope
to the, at that time, extensive Dutch possessions, it is not a matter of surprise that
in those early days, prior to the existence of reliable charts, numerous vessels suffered
shipwreck on the low-lying reefs. The “ Vergulde Draeck,” the ‘“Zeewyk,” the
“ Ridderschap von Holland,” the “ Zuysdorp,” and others, all belonging to the same
nationality, may be named among those which, in addition to the “ Batavia,”
came to an untimely end on the Abrolhos reefs. The last-named vessel, however, is
the one around which pre-eminent notoriety will always cling, by virtue of the tragic
events attending its wreck. The reader may be referred to that very excellent little
booklet “ Pinkerton’s Early Australian Voyages,” published by Messrs. Cassell and
Co., for a succinct account of the events referred to, which are further embodied
“in a more artistically embellished form in Mr. W. J. Gordon’s novel, “The Captain
General.” For the purposes of this Chapter the following brief epitomisation of the
leading facts will suffice.

The “Batavia,” in the command of Captain Francis Pelsart, was one of a

fleet of eleven Dutch vessels which sailed from Texel for the East Indies, via the

' 134 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Cape, on the 28th of October, 1628. On the night of the 4th of June in the
following year, the ship, being separated from the fleet, was driven in a storm on
to the Abrolhos shoals, and became a total wreck. The crew and passengers, to
the number of over two hundred, effected a landing on three separate islands of the
group. Owing to the shortness of water, Captain Pelsart, with some of the officers, pro-
ceeded in the skiff, at the request of the ship’s company, to seek for further supplies in
some of the adjacent islands. This search, so far as the islands were concerned,
proved unavailing, and they extended their investigations to the adjacent mainland.
After many, for the most part but partially successful, attempts to land, they
were carried so far to the north-east by the prevailing currents that they
decided to go on to Batavia, and to return thence with another vessel to the
relief of the shipwrecked survivors on the Abrolhos Islands. This earliest recorded
observation of a distinct northerly set of the ocean currents up the Western
Coast of Australia is, as hereafter shown, of considerable interest.

During the protracted absence of Captain Pelsart and his officers in quest of
relief, a grim tragedy was enacted at the Abrolhos. It would appear that previous
to the catastrophe that befel the “Batavia,” the supercargo, one Jerom Cornelis,
in league with the pilot and some others, had plotted to run away with the vessel,
carrying her either to the French port of Dunkirk, or turning pirates in her on
their own account. Captain Pelsart’s absence revived in Cornelis’ mind the same
design on a new basis. Being left practically in command of the situation, he
determined, in company with his elected associates, to make himself possessed of
the very considerable treasures which had been saved from the wreck, and, further,
to seize and appropriate any vessel which Captain Pelsart might return in to
their succour.

In order to get rid of the large number of the lost ship's company who were
likely to oppose, or to prove an incumbrance to the realization of, his plans, he
decided to put them all to death in cold blood, and actually carried this
murderous design into partial fulfilment. A portion of the intended victims, how-
ever, managed to escape to one of the adjacent islands, on which another colony, in
charge of Lieutenant Weybheys, had been sentenced to destruction by the mutineers.
He, with the united forces, successfully repelled the several attacks which
Cornelis subsequently made upon them with the object of their extermination.
In the course of these encounters Cornelis was taken prisoner by Lieutenant
Weybheys, who succeeded in giving timely advice to Captain Pelsart, on his

PLATE XXxXIll

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Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. W. Saville Kent, Photo.

ARROLHOS CORALS, GENUS MADREPORA, p. 140. Half natural size.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 135

arrival shortly after from Batavia in the frigate “Sardam,” that the conspirators
designed to seize his ship. Two boat-loads of armed men, in fact, put off
with this intention, but on being threatened by Captain Pelsart that he would
sink them with his big guns if they did not immediately throw their arms
overboard and surrender, they gave in. They and the remainder of the mutineers
were captured, and all the participators in the previous massacres were summarily
executed.

A very considerable amount of treasure was on board the “ Batavia” when she
was lost. Captain Pelsart succeeded in recovering all the jewellery and other valuables
which had been appropriated by the mutineers, and likewise in raising from the
wreck five out of the six chests of silver coin that were being brought out to Batavia.
The sixth one is supposed to be still somewhere immersed among the coral reefs
Numberless relics from the numerous wrecks that have occurred on Houtman’s
Abrolhos, including a gun, cannon shot, coins, pipes, glass and earthenware, etc.,
have been already discovered, more especially on Gun and Rat Islands, during the
process of excavating the guano which has accumulated there in large quantities,
and a large number of these are now on view in the Perth Museum. Possibly
the missing chest, or the bulk of its contents, may yet reward a persevering search.

To proceed with the more legitimate subject of this Chapter, it is desir-
able in the first instance to give a brief account of the precise geographical
position and other essential details concerning the island group under discussion.
Topographically defined, Houtman’s Rocks or MHoutman’s Abrolhos consists of a
little archipelago, for the most part of coral formation, situated between latitudes
28° 15” and 29° S., some thirty miles off the mainland coast of Western Australia
and immediately opposite Champion Bay and the thriving port of Geraldton.
More closely examined, the Abrolhos archipelago is found to be separable into four
secondary groups, characterised in order from north to south as the North Island,
Wallaby, Easter, and Pelsart groups. With the exception of the Wallaby group,
which contains plutonic rocks corresponding in character with those of the mainland,
and having an elevation of some thirty or forty feet, the larger residue is entirely
of coral formation, while reefs of considerable extent also encircle the Wallaby series.
Their composition, as manifested, more particularly in the islets of the Easter and
Pelsart groups, consists of hard coral limestone conglomerate, undermined and
weathered on its exposed aspects into low overhanging cliffs and promontories
often of the most fantastic shape, which frequently show embedded in their eroded

136 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

surfaces but slightly altered coralla of the Madreporide of which they are principally
composed. A characteristic illustration of the aspect of one of these overhanging
limestone promontories is afforded by the photograph reproduced as the heading
to this Chapter. This view represents the extreme end of Wreck Point, in Pelsart
Island, and is generally supposed to be the site of the stranding of the “Batavia”
in 1629.

From time immemorial, as testified to by the deep guano deposits, Houtman’s
Abrolhos has been the home or breeding centre of countless hosts of sea-birds,
which still resort thither in enormous quantities in the breeding season. At the dates
of the writer's visits to these islands, July and August, 1894, the nesting time for the
birds had not arrived. During the last visit in August, however, the “ Wideawakes,”
or Sooty Terns, absent during the daytime, commenced to assemble over their
breeding grounds on Rat Island as soon as it became dark, and, flying to and fro in
increasing numbers throughout the night, filled the air with their discordant noise. The
first-named title borne by these birds is supposed to be descriptive of their cry. To
the writer their note agreed, phonetically, much more nearly with the four syllables,
“‘ Come-out-of-that,” but it is probably open to various interpretations. There can be
no question, however, as to the fact that to light sleepers the burden of this sea-gull’s
song must be eminently conducive to wakefulness. An investigation into a report
upon the number of varieties and breeding seasons and other data of interest con-
cerning the sea-birds frequenting the Abrolhos, has been recently carried out by
Mr. A. J. Campbell, F.L.S., the well-known Victorian ornithologist, and is published
in Vol. II., 1890, of the Reports of the Australian Association for the Advancement
of Science. The following is an abbreviated list of the sea-birds recorded in Mr.
Campbell’s paper as permanently frequenting or resorting to the Abrolhos Islands at
their breeding seasons :—

LIST OF SEA AND SHORE BIRDS FREQUENTING HOUTMAN’S
ABROLHOS RECORDED BY Mr. A. J. CAMPBELL, F.LS.

Halietus leucogaster, White-bellied Sea- Hematopus unicolor, Sooty Oyster-

eagle.

Pandion leucocephalus, White-headed
Osprey.

Hematopus longirostris, White-breasted
Oyster-catcher.

catcher.
Agialitis ruficapilla, Red-capped
Dottrel.
Tringa albescens, Little Sandpiper.
Tringa subarquata, Curlew Sandpiper.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 137

Strepsilas interpres, Turnstone. Sternula nereis, Little Tern.

Numenius cyanopus, Australian Curlew. Sternula inconspicua, Doubtful Tern.

Numenius uropygialis, Wimbrel. Anous stolidus, Noddy Tern.

Demiegretta sacra, Reef Heron. Anous tenuirostris, Lesser Noddy.

Hypotenidia philipensis, Pectoral Rail. Pufinus nugax, Allied Petrel.

Porzana tabuensis, Tabuan Crake. Pufinus sphenurus, Wedge-tailed Petrel.

Anas castanea, Australian Teal. Procellaria fregata, White-faced Storm

Larus pacificus, Pacific Gull. Petrel.

Larus longirostris, Long-billed Gull. Phaéton candidus, White-Tailed Tropic

Sterna caspia, Caspian Tern. Bird.

Sterna bergit, Common Tern. Phaéton rubricauda, Red-tailed Tropic

Sterna dougalli, Graceful Tern. Bird.

Sterna anestheta, Panayan Tern. Graculus varius, Pied Cormorant.

Sterna fuliginosa, Sooty Tern or Wide- Pelecanus conspicillatus, Australian
awake. Pelican.

On account of the vast accumulations of guano resulting from the sea-birds
having so long made the Abrolhos their headquarters, this island group possesses a
considerable commercial value, and has been leased for some years past by the Western
Australian Government to the enterprising firm of Messrs. Broadhurst and McNeil for
the exclusive right to collect and export this valuable product. The record of the facts
that up to 1894 no less a quantity than 46,000 tons of guano was excavated and
exported by the firm, and that the royalty that accrued to the Government
thereon amounted to £16,000, will suffice to indicate the important position which
Houtman’s Abrolhos Islands occupy as a source of income and revenue. In order to
profitably work the guano deposits, tramways for land carriage and jetties for its
convenient shipment have been constructed on several of the larger islands, and the
hundred or more labourers, chiefly Malays, usually employed in delving for
and transporting the excavated mould in bags, barrows, baskets, and every available
receptacle, make a most animated spectacle. It is interesting to observe that this
Abrolhos guano, notwithstanding that it is among the richest known in phosphates and
other most highly prized constituents, is, in its virgin state, absolutely devoid of smell,
and presents the aspect of a by no means extra rich, light-coloured, garden mould. The
chemist consequently has to specially concoct and add an appropriate stink to this raw

material, for guano without an odour would be to the agriculturist a veritable case of
s

138 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

“Hamlet” minus the Prince of Denmark. In short, the mightier the perfume the
more potent the supposed fertilising properties.

At the instance of Mr. Thomas Broadhurst, the present representative of the
firm, who takes a warm interest in all matters connected with the actual or potential
commercial capabilities of these islands, the author was deputed by the Western
Australian Government, in his capacity of Commissioner of Fisheries, to examine and
report upon their eligibility for the establishment thereon of oyster, mother-of-pearl shell,
and other profitable fisheries. The investigations made with this special object led to
the discovery of a very unexpected constitution of the marine fauna of these islands,
and at the same time permitted the writer to make a favourable report to the
Government in directions which had not been anticipated. The ordinary Australian
Rock Oyster, Ostrwa glomerata, occurs in such abundance and under such conditions
on several of the islands, that it could no doubt be made a subject of remune-
rative cultivation. The smaller West Australian variety of mother-of-pearl shell,
identical with the Meleagrina imbricata of Reeve, was found growing very sparingly
among the reefs, and although it could no doubt be abundantly propagated there by
recourse to scientific methods, it did not seem worthy of attention in comparison
with the unexpectedly favourable conditions which the author found to obtain at
the Abrolhos for the introduction and acclimatisation of the larger and far more
valuable tropical species, Meleagrina margaritifera.

A separate Chapter being devoted later on to fuller details concerning the
various species of Australian mother-of-pearl shell, it will suffice here to remark
that the large commercial species, M/. margaritifera, is an essentially tropical type,
not found growing indigenously below the parallel of 234° S. The smaller shell,
M. imbricata, while a native of the tropics, attains to its most prolific and vigorous
growth several degrees south of the Tropic of Capricorn, being most abundant in
Shark’s Bay, on the Western Australian coast, and in Wide Bay and Moreton Bay,
on the Eastern or Queensland sea-board. By direct experiment the writer had
proved, a short while previously, that the larger tropical species might be artificially
transported to, and would thrive and propagate in, the extra-tropical waters of
Shark’s Bay; and his investigations of the Abrolhos reefs led him to anticipate that
in their vicinity this valuable tropical species would meet with even more favour-
able growth conditions. The specially propitious conditions noted were intimately
associated with the correlated marine fauna and environments of the respective
districts. In Shark’s Bay, about 25° 55” S., where the shell was experimentally

ABROLHOS CORAL, Montipora circinata. Nat. size, p. 146.

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ABROLHOS CORAL, Madrepora corymbosa. One-fifth nat. size, p. 140.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 139

laid down, the sea-bottom was covered by coral banks of considerable extent,
which were composed exclusively of representatives of the genus Turbinaria. Turbinaria
conspicua, a most luxuriant foliaceous species, and irregular dome-shaped masses of
Tf. peliata, represented the dominant forms upon these banks. Specimens of these
Madrepores, no less than five feet in diameter and some fifteen feet in circumference,
were secured by the author from this locality and are now on exhibition in the Coral
Galleries at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. They constitute, up to
the present date, the largest examples of Madreporide yet brought to England, or,
indeed, to any European museum.

It is worthy of record in this connection that the genus Turbinaria has, as the
result of a somewhat extensive investigation of the coral reefs around the Australian
coast, been found by the author to enter most extensively into reef-composition in the
colder, or extra-tropical, areas within Australian waters. They have, in this
manner, been observed by the writer to predominate in the reefs in Wide Bay,
Queensland, on the southern outskirts of the Great Barrier Reef; in the colder,
though more northern, inter-tropical waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria; and,
finally, in the Shark’s Bay district of Western Australia. It should be further men-
tioned that these Turbinaria reefs, while attaining to within a short distance of the
surface of the water, are never exposed above it by the falling tide, as commonly
happens in reefs of mixed Madreporide growing within the tropics. <A fuller reference
to these Shark’s Bay Turbinaria, together with illustrations of the more prominent
species, will be found in that portion of Chapter VIII. which specially deals with
Corals and Sea Anemones.

The most prominent testimony indicating that the Houtman’s Abrolhos
reefs were better suited even than Shark’s Bay for the introduction and cultivation of
the large tropical Pearl Shell, was afforded by the composition of the reefs. These,
in place of being built up of the extra-tropical or cold water Turbinarie that flourish
in Shark’s Bay, were composed of numerous varieties of branching Madrepore, or
so-called Stag’s Horn Corals, with which were intermingled many species of Porites,
Montipora, Pocillopora, Seriatopora, Celoria, Goniastrwa, Mussa, Symphyllia and other
essentially tropical generic types. Typical examples of all these genera are, in fact,
included in the collection from these reefs presented by the writer to the British
Museum.

The reef corals of Houtman’s Abrolhos, while growing very near to the surface

level of the water at low ebb tide, very rarely appear above it, and then to the extent

140 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

of a few inches only. It was observed by the author on one such occasion
during his residence on Pelsart Island, that the polypes pertaining to the pro-
jecting extremities of the branching Madrepore, which were thus laid bare
during the early hours of a winter's morning, were killed by the brief exposure
to the chilly atmosphere, leaving, after speedy decomposition, the coralla extremities
bleached perfectly white. Within the moderate depths of from just beneath
low water mark downwards to as much as ten or fifteen fathoms, the corals
upon the Abrolhos reefs and within their contained lagoons attain to a
luxuriance of growth that is not surpassed even upon the Great Barrier of Queens-
land. Nowhere else, indeed, has the author met with such extensive sheets, as it
were, of one and the same species spread over continuous areas. This was
especially notable of certain species of Madrepore or Stag’s Horn Corals. One
of these, nearly allied to Madrepora hebes, but having a more luxuriant growth form,
covered acres of the sea bottom in the enclosed lagoon of Pelsart Island. Being of
a dark purple or purplish brown hue, with the tips and all the growing points brilliant
mauve or violet, it produced, with the intervening patches of pure white sand, a most
fascinating scene. In other areas a finer branching species allied to, or identical
with, Madrepora syringoides, of a dark seal-brown tint with creamy-white tips, and
growing points, formed equally extensive patches. A cluster of this Madrepora is
photographically reproduced in the lower figure of Plate XXIII. Seen in bulk, this
delicately branching white-tipped species was highly suggestive of a free blossoming
white-flowered heath, the contour of the tubular terminal calicles viewed from a little
distance wonderfully resembling Epacris blooms. In a third locality a more robust
light buff-coloured species with heliotrope tips, near Madrepora pulchra, but with
closely radiating, less divided, branches, represented the dominant type. A double
or twin corallum of this variety is depicted in the upper half of the Plate last
quoted.

A large crateriform or vase-shaped species, ‘ closely resembling Madrepora
corymbosa, of a golden-brown or brown-pink hue with cream-white edges, undoubtedly
represents one of the most conspicuous members of the genus indigenous to
the Abrolhos group. A single corallum of this type is figured in the lower part of
Plate XXIV. The specimen here delineated measured close upon three feet across.
Larger matured coralla, however, commonly attain to a diameter of five or six feet
and upwards, or it may happen that two or three specimens become joined laterally

to one another, producing an extensive horizontal sheet. The species grows under

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 141

manifold conditions, forming independent islets, clothing exclusively the precipitous
sides of the submarine cliffs with tier upon tier of its horizontal fan-shaped coralla,
or constituting but one among the many varieties entering into the composition of
the larger reefs. It is as seen growing on the perpendicular walls of the deeper
reef edges that it furnishes the most remarkable spectacle, often occurring under these
conditions in such luxuriance as to be visible in superimposed tiers or terraces as far
down through the clear water as the eye can penetrate. A specially favourable
opportunity of studying this coral growth was afforded the author on one of his
return voyages from the Abrolhos Islands, when owing to lack of wind the
lugger drifted and grounded for some little time, fortunately at low water, on the
margin of one of these hanging coral gardens. Shortly after the vessel drifted loose
again with the rising tide, a unique sight presented itself by the appearance of a
company of sharks, no less than fourteen, ranging from eight to ten or twelve feet
in length, being discernible at one time from the boat’s deck. Without wishing to
cultivate their nearer acquaintanceship, one could not withhold admiration of the
leisurely grace of their motion as seen at various depths in the emerald clear
water, and of the amazing swiftness, like the release of an arrow from a bow, with
which they would abruptly dart away in pursuit of some passing fish, or in a race
for an attractive lure thrown to them from the boat.

To return to the subject of the Abrolhos corals, there was one form developed
under conditions closely corresponding with the last-mentioned type, but notable for its
usually pale sage-green hue, and the remarkable diversity in the contour of its coralla.
In some instances, it formed. robust, shortly branching, bush-like growths; in others,
fan-like expansions, or even encrusting masses, or it might be a combination of these
types. Two characteristic illustrations of this coral, which is apparently an undescribed
species, but allied to Madrepora sarmentosa, also a new species collected by the writer
on the Great Barrier Reef, are given in Plate XXV. In the upper of these two, the
encrusting character of the initial or basal growth-stage of the species is very obvious.
A third and remarkably fine example of this coral, obtained in the south entrance
to Shark’s Bay, which measures over three feet across, figures as a tailpiece
to this Chapter. It combines in its individual corallum so many noteworthy
variations that detached fragments from separated areas might be readily mistaken
for distinct species. All of these specimens figured, together with several additional
ones, have been contributed by the author to the British Museum Coral Galleries.

They there constitute a most instructive object lesson for the benefit of those syste-

142 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

matic zoologists with whom small or fragmentary specimens alone have been hitherto
available for classificatory purposes. In recognition of the multitudinous growth-forms
exhibited by this particular coral, it is proposed here to provisionally distinguish it by
the suggestive title of Madrepora proteijformis.

Many of the areas of the Abrolhos reefs were characterised by an interblending
of all of the various species of Madrepore enumerated in the foregoing paragraphs.
The author's attention was, however, particularly impressed by the very definite
border-like plan of their growth upon each side of the numerous river-like channels
which circulate through the Pelsart Island Lagoon. In the regularity of their
development and blended tints they vied, on colossal lines, with the artificially laid out
flower-parterres of a well-appointed garden.

The endeavour has been made by the author in Chromo-Plate IV., facing
page 144, to commit to paper a faint and necessarily very inadequate idea of the
unique and remarkably beautiful spectacle yielded by an area occupied chiefly by the
violet-tinted Madrepora, as seen and roughly sketched while standing in the bows of a
small row boat, and drifting down one of the intersecting channels. Through the
glass-clear water in the immediate foreground every coral branch was distinctly visible,
the clustered coralla in many instances constituting harbours of refuge to parrot and
other fishes of the most brilliant hues, which would dart to and fro across the inter-
vening spaces as the boat approached.

The horizon line, looking oceanwards, as shown in this sketch, was, in its way,
almost equally remarkable. The boundary in this direction is represented by the levelly
raised surface of the rocky platform, which constitutes a massive breakwater between
the placid waters of the lagoon and the tumultuous billows, which break unceasingly,
and with a sustained roar mightier than that of Niagara, upon the precipitous edge
of the outer barrier. An attempt has been made to portray the singular appear-
ance of the rebounding columns of water thrown up against the horizon - line
by the breaking waves, the altitude of which is optically greatly enhanced
by mirage. This atmospheric phenomenon is here, as throughout tropical seas, of
general occurrence. As an illustration of its prevalence, the very low points
of the archipelago of islands that enter into the composition of the Houtman’s
Abrolhos commonly appear to be elevated to an abnormal height above the horizon.
A little further north, on the adjacent Western Australian coast, it is by no means
unusual, as the effect of mirage, for the passenger steamers to discover the boats of

the pearling fleets, or it may be of other denominations, some hours before they are

PLATE XXV.

Collotype, W. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

~~ eee" CORALS, Madrepora proter is. One-fourth and one-third nat. size, p. 141.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 143

actually in sight, and the boats may indeed disappear from view again before they
come within the range of ordinary vision. On the reefs of the Great Barrier
system, on the Queensland coast, the phenomenon of mirage exemplified by the
abnormal elevation of the breaking waves may be very generally observed, the detached
rock-masses, lying on the outer margins, black through exposure of the weather, and
popularly known as “nigger-heads,” standing out in marked contrast to the snowy
whiteness of the breakers. In the neighbourhood of Torres Straits and the Warrior
Reefs, white pelicans commonly take up their station on these reefs at low tide,
and, approached under conditions favourable to the manifestation of mirage phe-
nomena, seem to stand high in the air and to be of colossal size.

An additional illustration of the aspect of the mirage-elevated breakers on the
Pelsart barrier is afforded by the photograph reproduced at the foot of page 132.
In this photograph, which was taken with the camera erected on a partly submerged
rocky ledge within the lagoon, several distinctive features are clearly defined. While
the breakers extend throughout the entire length of the horizon, the middle distance
is occupied by the level platform reef, upon which are resting several huge masses of
rock that have been torn off the outer margin of the reef and hurled to their present
position during a storm of unusual violence. On the rock-mass to the left, one of
the shore-birds popularly called Red-bills, Hamatopus, is distinctly visible, and in the
original negative there are others also on the farther rocks. A very characteristic
photograph of similar storm-stranded coral-rock. masses, taken at close quarters on
the Capricorn Island reefs, on the Queensland coast, is furnished by Plate XXX. of
the author’s recently published work “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia.” A near
approach to the masses on the Abrolhos barrier was not practicable during the seasons
of the author's visits. The water, even at lowest tide, was continually surging over
from the outer ocean, and though a foothold for a brief interval with the water
knee-deep might be retained, a succeeding wave would bring a flood against
which it was impossible to stand, much more to effectually erect and work the
camera. In the photograph here reproduced, one exhausted wave is delivering its
spent energies into the lagoon, while a second one overflowing from the outer waters
has advanced about half-way across the platform reef.

With reference to the violet-tinted branching Madrepora that enters so exten-
sively into the composition of the Coloured Reef View illustrated by Chromo-Plate IV.,
it may be mentioned that in the deeper and stiller areas of Pelsart Island lagoon,

with the water from five to ten fathoms deep, masses of this same Madrepora cover

144 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

W, Saville-Kent, Photo.
STAG’S-HORN CORAL GROWTH, Madrepora hebes, GREAT BARRIER REEF, QUEENSLAND.
acres in extent, and attain to a tall coppice-like growth of five or six, or more,
feet in height. The dead and decaying coralla of this species that also bestrew the
sea-bottom in portions of these areas present a remarkable resemblance to cut and
prostrate brushwood. A very interesting demonstration of the reparative powers of
the Madreporide is furnished by the accompanying illustration. It represents a

branchlet of the purple species, which, having been broken off at some previous period,

was

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
MADREPORA BRANCHLET, SHOWING RE-GROWTH AT BROKEN END, MARKED A. TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.

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HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 145

has commenced to grow retrogressively from its broken end. The original
axial corallite has in this manner developed a shoot about three-quarters of an inch
long, from which numerous lateral corallites have also commenced to bud.

Mention has been previously made of the close resemblance of this purple-tinted
Stag’s-Horn Coral to the Madrepora hebes of the Queensland coast. As an illustration
of the correspondence that may be observed in their respective growth plans,
a photograph of a tidally exposed reef area, consisting almost exclusively of that
variety taken by the author in the vicinity of Lark Passage on the Great Barrier,
is reproduced on page 144. Additional reef views embodying the same type will be
found in the writer’s volume especially descriptive of the Great Barrier Reef products.
The coral on this Queensland reef lacked the brilliant tints of the Abrolhos colony-
stocks, being for the most part of a warm brown hue with whitish tips. Some few of
the coralla among the mass were, however, brilliant green or lilac, while in other
localities the same species was met with in which the greater portion of the coralla
was bright grass-green, but every branch tip to the extent of about half-an-inch,
an intense violet. As recorded by the writer in the volume above quoted, the colour
characters of the Madreporide are not only exceedingly variable in the same species,
but are even unstable in individual coralla. Thus a colony-stock of the type under
notice, Madrepora hebes, growing in a pool at Thursday Island, Torres Straits,
was, when first observed, made up of pinkish-brown stems and branches with
greenish-white tips, while the polypes were all ofa light emerald-green tint. On examin-
ing the same growths two years later, it was observed that the branches and main
stems were now a dark seal-brown and their tips, to a large extent, a pale lilac-blue
tint, while the polypes had assumed, for the most part, a clear red-brown hue. It
is consequently quite possible that the reef areas in Pelsart Island Lagoon here
portrayed, may at some future date be found to have exchanged the purple tints
recorded in 1894 for more sombre brown or brilliant green.

Next to Madrepora, the genus Montipora builds up the most conspicuous coral
developments in Pelsart Island Lagoon. Its members are chiefly of either an encrusting or
a foliaceous character, and in many instances of the most brilliant violet or even magenta
hue. Selected specimens, quickly dried in a breeze, still in the writer’s possession, have
retained for over two years much of their pristine splendour, and exhibit sufficient of
their original tints to convey to the untravelled a faint idea of their living beauty. One
species of this genus Montipora, apparently new to science, but identical with a type

collected by the writer also at the Palm Islands on the Queensland coast was notable
T

146 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

for the erect foliaceous character of its coralla, which in many instances took a very
elegant and symmetrically convoluted scroll-like contour, and has on this account been
associated by the writer with the title of Montipora circinata. This species was not so
remarkable for its colour, being usually of a pale pinkish-red hue, with lighter
edges, but was at the same time conspicuous through the circumstance of its
growing in deep water in distinctly isolated patches of many square yards in extent.
The more matured coralla not unfrequently attain to a height of as much as three
feet, and, seen in masses in the crystal water beneath the boat, might be readily
mistaken for beds of broadly foliaceous plants. A photograph of an example of this
type, viewed vertically to illustrate its spirally convoluted growth pattern, is given
life size in the upper half of Plate XXIV. A lateral view of the same specimen is
also reproduced on a smaller scale in the accompanying figure.

In connection with the subject of the Houtman’s Abrolhos Madreporide, it is
worthy of remark that nowhere perhaps do such facilities exist for making a systematic
record of the growth rate of tropical species as here. Many of the component
reefs and lagoons are so sheltered and
so readily accessible that the necessary
measurements, observations, and experi-
mental cultivations could be carried on at
all seasons. In support of this suggestion,
it may be mentioned that the coralla of
various species of Madrepora have already
established themselves upon the basement
of the stone jetty constructed by Messrs.
Broadhurst and Co. on Rat Island, in the
Easter group, for the shipment of guano.
Certain of these taking the form of cauli-
flower-like clusters, and having a diameter
of some nine or ten inches, represented,
the writer was informed, a growth of less
than two years; while smaller examples,
with a diameter of three or four inches

only, had been built up within the interval

W. Saville-Kent, Proto, Of & twelvemonth. It is noteworthy to

PELSART ISLAND SCROLL CORAL, Montipora circinata,

GEES aeRO OEE observe that these Madrepora clusters were

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 147

in most instances the initial growths of the handsome violet-tinted species growing on
the adjacent reefs, which has been referred to as attaining to such a luxuriant
growth in the Pelsart Island Lagoon.

At some future date, when the Colony of Western Australia shall have passed
its present lusty adolescence, and arrived at that maturer age when it shall possess its
own University and Chairs of Natural History, it may be safely prophesied that these
Abrolhos reefs, within a twenty-four hours’ journey from the metropolis of Perth, or
but three or four hours’ sail from Geraldton, will constitute one of the happiest and
most productive hunting grounds and fields for biological investigation to the associated
students of and graduates in Natural Science. In addition to the unprecedented
facilities here offered for the most exhaustive study of living Stony Corals or
Madreporaria, either individually or in the bulk, abundant material is also to hand
for the observation and record of the numerous phenomena of wider scope relating to
the formation and growth of the reefs, to their environments and food supply, and also
to the complex questions of their rise or subsidence.

As a characteristic illustration of the earliest recognisable phase of a coral
island, attention may here be directed to the photograph reproduced in this page

taken by the writer in close vicinity to Gun Island, in the Pelsart group. It

“HE BIRTH OF A CORAL ISLAND,” ABROLHOS ARCHIPELAGO, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

represents the first accumulation of loose coral fragments raised above high water
mark, which, by continued accretion and_ solidification, becomes fashioned into
a typical coral island upon which herbage and terrestrial organisms may eventually
become established. This photograph, which has been suggestively designated “The
Birth of a Coral Island,” was taken, as will be recognised, at low water, the weather-

bleached central accumulation of coral fragments alone showing above the surface

148 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

when the tide is up. This infant coral islet, which measures some twenty feet only
in length, is the direct produce of the swirling currents that circulate at high
water over the surface of the flat, lifeless expanse of platform reef. During some
abnormal tide or storm this heap of loose fragments was first swept into its
present position and constitutes the nucleus of an islet that will probably hereafter
become amalgamated with Gun Island. The living corals which are to be found
growing only around the circumference of this platform reef, beneath low water mark,
are thus shown to take no immediate part in the building up of the coral island,
which is the direct outcome of the winds and currents acting on the previously
detached reef débris.

The power and selective force of the waves and currents in determining the
character of the beaches and the subsequent formation of coral islands, such as the
Houtman’s Abrolhos, is very instructively illustrated by the two photographic views
reproduced in Plate XXVI. The lower of these illustrations depicts an area of
the open beach of Pelsart Island, a little to the east of Wreck Point, which is
composed almost entirely of the eroded crateriform coralle of the Madrepore
that originally grew upon and have become detached from the steep escarpments
of the outer reef. The slightly raised coral limestone cliffs at Wreck Point, figured
in the Chapter heading, are also composed for the most part of aggregated coralla of
the same description, the separately embedded coralla being discernible at various
points in the original negative. A striking contrast to the picture last described, with
its ponderous elementary components, is afforded by the second one, immediately
above it. Here, in place of massive coralla, the beach, fora long stretch, is composed
almost exclusively of the pearly shells of the univalve Molluscs Turbo margaritaceus
and Trochus coerulescens. This wonderfully prolific shell beach also belongs to Pelsart
Island, but is situated a little away inside the lagoon, where comparatively quiet
water prevails.

Passing on to the consideration of zoological groups, other than the Madreporaria,
which bear testimony to the essentially tropical character of a large portion of the
marine fauna of Houtman’s Abrolhos, we find that some of the most remarkable
evidence is yielded by that group of the Echinodermata, distinguished by the title
of the MHolothuride, which comprises the so-called Sea-Cucumbers or Trepang
and Béche-de-Mer of commerce. Torres Straits and the Northern moiety of the
Queensland Great Barrier Reef represent the regions on the Australian coast which
have alone, so far, yielded the most valuable varieties of the last-named marine

PLATE XxVI.

Collotype, W. 4 S. Ltd. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

SHELL AND CORAL BEACHES, PELSART ISLAND, HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS, p. 148.

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 149

commodity; supplies to the value of from £15,000 to £20,000 being annually
exported thence to the Chinese market. From the tropical areas of the Western
Australian coast-line, and more particularly from the neighbourhood of King’s Sound,
a single entirely distinct, and, as compared with the choicer Queensland species,
an inferior commercial variety of Béche-de-Mer, nearly allied to, if not identical
with what is known in Queensland as “Surf-Red,” Actinopyga mauritiana, is collected
for export. Neither has a diligent investigation, made with the express object of
discovering the presence of other more valuable species, so far proved successful.
It was consequently a most unexpected surprise to the writer, in the course
of his explorations of the Pelsart Island reefs in Houtman’s Abrolhos, to meet with
not only one, but no less than three of the most esteemed Torres Straits and North
Queensland varieties. These several species are commercially known in the Queensland
market as “ Black Fish,” “ Red Fish,” and “Teat Fish,” or, in the Chinese vernacular as
“ Woo-Sum,” “ Hung-Hur” and ‘“See-Ok-Sum.” On spirit-preserved specimens of these
varieties being submitted to the British Museum Echinoderm specialist, Professor
Jeffry Bell, that authority decided that only one of these, the “ Red Fish,” Actinopyga
obesa, had hitherto been associated with a scientific name, and the writer has
accordingly portrayed and describe the remaining two, “ Black Fish” and “ Teat Fish,”
in his treatise on the Great Barrier Reef, under the respective titles of Actinopyga
polymorpha and Holothuria mammifera.

The relatively short time available for the exploration of favourable Béche-de-
Mer feeding grounds among the Abrolhos reefs revealed the presence of all of the
three above-mentioned valuable commercial varieties in tolerable abundance, and there is
little doubt that, in combination with the development of other fishery potentialities
of the district, the systematic conservation and export of Abrolhos Béche-de-Mer
would constitute a remunerative source of income. One other essentially North
Australian representative of the Holothuride, though having no intrinsic commercial
value, was observed by the writer at the Houtman’s Abrolhos. This was the Synapta
Beselli, of Semper, a species first discovered by that naturalist in the Philippine
Islands, and remarkable for its extraordinary length, no less than five or six feet when
fully extended, and the nodulated, quadrangular contour of its transparent pink, or
more or less mottled brown, integument. This species occurred in considerable
abundance on the reefs in the neighbourhood of Warrior Island, Torres Straits, but,

so far as the writer's investigations have extended, does not occur on the mainland

coral reefs of Western Australia.

150 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The fish fauna of Houtman’s Abrolhos was found, as might be anticipated in
virtue of its essentially migratory constituents and its proximity to areas of relatively
cool water, an interesting intermixture of both tropical and temperate species.
Conspicuous among the fishes indigenous to the temperate Australian sea-board may
be mentioned such species as the Snapper, Pagrus major; the Sergeant Baker, Aulopus
purpurissatus ; Australian Whiting, Sillago ciliata ; Yellow-tail, Seriola gigas ; and a species
of what in the Sydney market would be designated a Morwong, Chilodactylus. Charac-
teristic tropical fish were, on the other hand, specially represented by innumerable varieties
of Parrot-fishes, Labridee and Scaride. Many of these, it is interesting to observe, such
as species of Julis and Pseudoscarus, had not been met with by the writer further north
on the Western Australian coast, but were familiar to him, as in the case of
the Holothuride, as inhabitants of Torres Straits and the Queensland Great Barrier
region. Such species, again, as Platax orbicularis and Mesoprion Johni, the Golden
Snapper of Thursday Island, Torres Straits, may be mentioned among the essentially
tropical forms that were found frequenting the Abrolhos reefs.

No zoological groups in addition to the foregoing yielded such substantial
evidence of tropical affinities, though the investigations prosecuted were necessarily
of too short duration to allow of any very positive deductions in this direction.
Among the Crustacean Class Crawfish, Palinuri, were exceedingly abundant and
identical with the ordinary Perth and Fremantle market type. Crabs referable to
genus Grapsus, also similar to those frequenting Fremantle harbour, swarmed at the
bases of the more sheltered coral limestone cliffs. There was missing, however, from
this locality the toothsome Blue Crab, Neptunus pelagicus, that abounds along the
Western Australian coast from Shark’s Bay southwards. It was here replaced
by another smaller and more essentially tropical representative of the same genus.

Apart from considerations of tropical or temperate affinities, reference may
be here made to a most magnificent Nudibranchiate Mollusc obtained by the author
in the neighbourhood of Rat Island, in the Eastern Group of the Abrolhos. The
species, of which a coloured illustration is reproduced in Chromo-Plate V., is, as shown
by the conformation of its gills or branchial plume, referable to the genus Doris,
of which it represents a new and, so far as ascertainable, the largest discovered
species. In its condition of full extension, as delineated in the illustration, it
occupies a quadrangular area of no less than nine or ten inches long with an
inch or two shorter diameter, but it is at the same time-of so flattened a shape

as to more closely resemble a huge complanate Planarian akin to the genus

A 8t8Id owodyD

‘ost d ‘ozts yeamven “ys siretsedurr Stloq ‘OSNTTION ALVIHONVYFIGNN SOHTOURV

OUOIYD PIT'Sueg | mopsaIEM xurd 40 TPP ‘quey- PTIIARS IM

HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS. 151

Pseudoceros. One of the most noteworthy features of this grand Doris was its
remarkably brilliant colour. This differed somewhat among individual specimens
observed. Red was always the predominating hue, but this varied from a dull orange
or Indian red in some examples to the most brilliant vermilion tint characteristic
of the specimen figured. This gorgeous tinting of the general surface of the body
is, by contrast, considerably enhanced by the elegant scarlet and white frill-like
border which encompasses the entire periphery. Such was the abnormal size and
brilliancy of the first example of this Nudibranch that fell under the writer’s
observation, floating in the water at a little distance from the Rat, Island jetty,
that the possibility of its being a living organism did not immediately present
itself. It was, in fact, passed by at first sight, under the impression that it was
simply a portion of the lung of a freshly-killed sheep that had been immolated
that morning for the use of the station. When it was seen a second time, it had drifted
nearer to the jetty, and the recognition of the splendid prize awaiting appropriation
dawned upon one’s vision as a revelation. With reference to its magnificent pro-
portions and brilliant hue, the writer has provisionally conferred upon this fine
Nudibranch the regal title of Doris imperialis.

To conclude with a consideration of the most salient facts chronicled in this
Chapter—namely, the very remarkable interblending of both tropical and temperate
marine organisms, and more especially the phenomenon of species occurring in the
Houtman’s Abrolhos which, while indigenous to Torres Straits and the north
Queensland coast, are not inhabitants of the adjacent sea-board of Western Australia—
but one interpretation appears to be permissible. This is that an ocean current
setting in from the equatorial area of the Indian Ocean penetrates as far south as
this island group without impinging on the adjacent mainland, and that that stream
is the medium that has conveyed thither the floating germs of the Ccelenterates
and Holothuride, which possess such essentially tropical affinities. The presence -
here of migratory tropical fishes admits also of the explanation that they would
very naturally follow a warm stream bringing them to such congenial conditions and
environments as exist in and among the Houtman’s Abrolhos. That this interpret-
ation is the correct one is substantially supported by a reference to the Admiralty
Charts denoting the courses of the ocean currents in this region, that-have been kindly
placed at the writer’s disposal by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty.
In one of these, No. 2640, there is, in fact, clearly indicated a prevailing northerly
drift of the ocean currents along the Western Coast of Australia, but at the same

152 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

time there is a distinct southerly intrusion of the equatorial waters of the Indian
Ocean, at some distance off shore, down towards, though not absolutely reaching,
the Abrolhos Islands.

Further substantial evidence supporting the correctness of the interpretation
here submitted, is afforded by the results of synchronous readings of the sea tempera-
ture obtained by the writer with the assistance of Mr. G. Beddoes, Mr. Broadhurst’s
managing partner, in the vicinity respectively of the Abrolhos Reefs and at Champion
Bay. These taken in the early morning of July, midwinter, 1894, at three feet
below the surface of the water exhibited a difference of from ten to fourteen degrees
Fahrenheit ; readings at the Abrolhos averaging 69° and 70°, while those at the
Geraldton Pier registered as low as 56°.

Many of the zoological data recorded in this Chapter were, it may be
mentioned, embodied in a paper contributed to the 1895 Norwich Meeting of the
British Association, and are published in abstract in the Proceedings for
that year. Figures and descriptions of a lizard species, Egernia Stokesii, which is
particularly abundant on Gun Island, in the Abrolhos group, will be found in
Chapter ITI.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
ABROLHOS CORAL, Madrepora proteiformis, p. 142. ONE-SEVENTH NATURAL SIZE.

‘cg d ‘ WAIHLIVNONAS ‘SNOOVYd ANY SASuOH Vas

xutd ie yep ey

dUeTYD) PYT'SUOG Q MOPTAIEAA

TA 2928 1d oumo7TyD

CHAPTER VI.

FISHES—

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
PLUMED TREVALLY, Caranx gallus, p. 169.

PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL.

require a book, not to say volumes, to do it justice. Within the brief

space at present at disposal, little can be attempted beyond an_ out-

line sketch of its leading features, and an indication of those among its multifarious
representatives which, with regard to their economic utility, bizarre contour, or
remarkable habits or alliances, stand out pre-eminently among the fishes of the
world.

Viewed in its entirety, the fish fauna of Australia is found to allow of a
fairly equal separation into two primary regional subdivisions. The first of these,

embracing the denizens of the tropical sea-board and estuaries of the Australian
U

154 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Continent, possesses a marked affinity, and even to a large extent identity, with the
species characteristic of the Indo-Malay region. The second one constitutes in itself a
highly characteristic south-temperate fish fauna which possesses many points of corre-
spondence with that of the littoral regions of both the North Atlantic and the
North Pacific. In some few instances, ‘the correspondence of the types inhabiting
respectively these widely separated oceans is so remarkable that it has not been
found possible to associate them with independent specific diagnoses. It becomes
consequently incumbent to conclude that these in all recognisable respects
homoplastic types have been either arrived at by heterogeneous processes of evolution,
or that they represent one and the same species, whose members have become
widely separated as the result of some marked change in the relative positions
of, and intercommunicating currents between, the. larger oceanic areas since their
earliest appearance under their existing specific forms.

As examples of fish which are bracketed with a corresponding synonomy, and
occur as indistinguishable types in such remotely situated areas as the temperate
Australian and European seas, reference may be made to the John Dory, Zeus
Jaber, purchasable in either the London or Sydney markets; the Sprat, Clupea
sprattus; the Conger Eel, Conger vulgaris; the Frost Fish of Australian and New
Zealand seas, Lepidopus caudatus, synonymous with the Scabbard Fish of European
seas; the Tunny, Zhynnus thynnus; the Horse Mackerel, Trachurus trachurus; the
Skipjack of Australia, Zemnodon saltator, known on the East Coast of North
America as the Blue-fish; and the little Bellows-fish, Centriscus scolopax. Many
species of Sharks and Rays, such as the Blue Shark, Carcharias glaucus; the
Porbeagle, Lamna cornubica; the Fox Shark, Alopecias vulpes; the Spiny Dog-fish,
Acanthias vulgaris; the Angel-fish, Rhina squatina; and the Eagle Ray, Myliobatis
aquila, are also common to the European and Australian waters, but, as they are for
the most part ocean rovers with an almost cosmopolitan distribution, their presence in
these widely separated areas does not possess the same significance.

In addition to the list just enumerated, a number of species might be
mentioned, concerning which, while they occupy such widely separated habitats, the
recognisable points of distinction are of so trifling a description that it is a matter
of dispute among ichthyological authorities whether they are to be regarded as
identical or independent species. The Australian Jew-fish, Sciwna antarctica, is thus
regarded by some as differing in no essential points from the European Maigre,
Scieena aquila. One of the Australian Mackerels, the Scomber anitarcticus of

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 155

Castlenau, is declared by Professor McCoy to possess no distinctive characters that
he can detect when compared with the Common Mackerel, Scomber scomber, of the
European seas. There is likewise an Anchovy abundant on the Southern Coast-lines
of Australia that so closely resembles the much-esteemed European species that it
is indifferently described in ichthyological works as Engraulis encrasicholus, var.
antipodum, or as Engraulis antarcticus.

Apart from the close affinity subsisting between the specific types enumerated
in the foregoing paragraphs, an interesting parallelism obtains between certain more
abnormal genera which possess characteristic representatives in both the North
Temperate and South Temperate hemispheres, separated by a wide tropical area from
which they are absent. In this manner, that most singular type, the Northern
Chimera, Chimera monstrosa, possesses its counterpart in the so-called Elephant-fish,
Callorhynchus antarcticus, of the New Zealand and Southern Australian seas, while
the peculiarly modified sucking fishes, Gobiesocide, represented in British waters by
several species of Lepidogaster, find their co-types on the Australian Coast-line
in several species of the genus Crepidogaster.

The Cod family, Gadide, yields a remarkable instance of a group of littoral
fishes with allied but diverse genera, subsisting in Australian and other South Temperate
waters, and in those of the North Temperate zone, with an at present impassable
barrier of tropical ocean between them. Gadus proper, embracing eighteen species,
includes such well-known forms as the Common Cod, G. morrhua; the Haddock,
G. eglefinus; the Whiting, G. merlangus; the Pollack, G. pollachius; the Saith
or Coal Fish, G. virens, and other European market species, which are entirely
confined to the Arctic and North Temperate zones. The Hake, Merlucius vulgaris,
however, has its counterpart in M. gayi of the New Zealand and Magellan seas ; and
the Rocklings, genus Motella, numbering three British species, have also represen-
tatives on the Coast of New Zealand and at the Cape of Good Hope. There are
but two genera, Lotella and Pseudophycis, belonging to the true Cod family, which
inhabit New Zealand and Southern Australian waters and are almost entirely
restricted to this area of distribution. Both of them are very nearly allied to the
European genus Phycis, including the so-called Forkbeards, P. blennioides and
breviusculus, of British waters, from which they differ only in the relatively less
reduced condition of development of the ventral fins. The largest and commonest
form, Pseudophycis barbatus, is known as the Rock Cod in Tasmania and New

Zealand. It grows from a more general average of two or three to a weight of

156 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

eight or nine pounds, is taken in large quantities with hook and line, and constitutes
one of the most abundantly represented species in the Hobart fish market. As
many as four species of the allied genus Lotella, one of which, Z. callarias, is
the Cod of the Melbourne fishermen, and another, Z. marginata, the “ Beardie” of the
Sydney fish market, extend as far north in their distribution as Port Jackson, in
New South Wales. The last-named species has been also obtained by the writer in
Tasmania. In face of these facts, the statement in Dr. Gunther's “Introduction to
the Study of Fishes,” p. 284, that the fish fauna of Australia, as compared with
that of New Zealand, is characterised by “an apparent total absence of all Gadoids,”
requires modification. |

It is a noteworthy circumstance that the rivers of Europe and North America
yield a single fresh-water representative of the Cod family. This is the well-known
Burbot or Eel-pout, Lota vulgaris, limited in the British islands to the streams of
Yorkshire, Durham, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire, but is by no means
plentiful in either of these counties. In shape and aspect the Burbot very closely
resembles the Australian Lotelle, and grows to an attested length of over three feet,
and a weight of from six or eight to as much as twenty pounds. In English waters,
however, a weight of two or three pounds is the more common calibre. While
no true fresh-water Gadoid has as yet been discovered in Australia—the so-called
Murray Cod, as hereafter explained, being a perch—one exceedingly interesting fish
that constitutes the sole type of a family most nearly related to the Gadide is
abundant in certain of the rivers of Tasmania and the Southern Australian colonies.
This is the fresh-water Black-fish, of the Australian colonists, Gadopsis marmoratus,
an excellent table fish, which, in the Ringarooma in North Tasmania, not
unfrequently attains to a weight of ten pounds and nearly three feet in length.*

The general contour of the Australian Gadopsis is very much that of such
gadoids as Phycis or Pseudophycis, and, like the former, it has filamentous, bifurcated,
jugular fins. Owing to the fact, however, that a small portion of the membranes of
the elongate dorsal and anal fins are supported by slender spines in place of flexible
rays, ichthyologists have decided upon the relegation of this type to an independent

* Dr. Gunther, Catalogue of Fishes, Vol. IV., p. 318, refers to an example of this species in the
British Museum Collection as a fine specimen, which is only four inches in length, with the added note that
it attains to twice these dimensions. A correct systematic record of the adult dimensions attained by the

many species described would be a valuable addition to a subsequent edition of this Catalogue.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 157

group just without the pale of the true Gadide, with which it would otherwise be
most naturally associated. With respect to the rudimentary development of the spinous
rays, Gadopsis, in addition to its other points of interest, may be regarded as a form
that bridges over, in a natural manner, the hiatus that is supposed to subsist between
the ordinary spine-finned (Acanthopterygii), and spineless-finned (Anacanthini) fishes..
In this direction it would appear to the writer that additional transitional forms,
apparently now extinct, probably united this abnormal Anacanthinoid with such
Percoids as Oligorus and other allied Australian genera characteristic of the Murray
river and its tributaries. Several of these share with Gadopsis a peculiar excavated
contour of the frontal region of the head; the ventral fins, though not jugular, are
set far forward, and have two filamentous prolongations, as commonly obtains
among the true Gadide. ‘The peculiar pattern markings of Gadopsis are, it may be
further remarked, wonderfully similar to those characteristic of the Murray Cod,
Oligorus macquariensis, consisting of a series of darker scribblings and reticulations
on a ground colour of olive or golden green, but which are scarcely, if ever, precisely
alike in two specimens. This colour pattern, in Gadopsis, becomes speedily obliterated
after death, leaving the fish a uniform black hue, from which it takes its characteristic
popular title of the “Black-fish.” In the case of the Murray Cod, Oligorus, the circum-
stance that the foregoing vernacular name should have been relegated to it serves to
accentuate the fact that, setting aside the presence of its spinous fins, it presents to
the eye of the uninitiated much in common with the external aspect and configuration
of the common Cod. This last suggestion is necessarily not adduced as a serious
argument respecting the possible affinities of the fish under discussion, but merely as a
floating straw indicative of the existence of a probable strong current of positive
evidence that may be found flowing underneath.

It is a peculiarity of the distribution of Gadopsis marmoratus in Tasmania that,
in common with the large fresh-water lobster, Astacopsis Franklini, it is indigenous
only to those rivers which flow northwards and discharge themselves into Bass’s
Straits and does not occur naturally in all of these. This fish has been artificially
introduced from the St. Patrick’s to the South Esk, one of the northern rivers
hitherto deficient in that species, and has since multiplied and thriven therein, showing
that there were no special conditions existing that were inimical to its previous
establishment in that river. Still more recently, the writer, acting in his capacity of
Superintendent and Inspector of Fisheries to the Government of Tasmania, successfully

transported to and established the same species in, the River Derwent, whence

158 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

it may now be easily distributed to other of the more important rivers comprised
in the southern water-shed of that island-colony.

The Percide, or Perch family proper, which is among the largest and most
widely distributed groups of the spined-finned or Acanthoid fishes, is very extensively
represented in Australian waters, both salt and fresh. The Murray Cod, Oligorus
macquariensis, Plate XXXL, fig. C, which represents the largest fresh-water member of
the group, has already been briefly referred to. The facts that the fish commonly
attains to a weight of 60 or 70 pounds, and has been taken over one hundred-weight,
and also that as large an average quantity as ten tons are supplied weekly to
Adelaide for several months in the year, and about half that proportion during the
residue, corresponding quantities going to Melbourne, Ballarat, and other Australian
cities, will give some idea of the abundance and commercial importance of the species.
The Murray river, traced from the source of its largest affluent, the Darling,
originating in Queensland, and flowing through the Colonies of New South Wales,
Victoria, and South Australia, describes a course of but little less than two
thousand miles. Added to this are the main river and numerous primary and
secondary tributaries, seven or eight of which have independent courses ranging in
length from 350 to 800 miles. All these streams and their affluents teem more or
less throughout their courses with the Murray Cod and _ several other allied
commercially valuable members of the Perch family, which, as will be readily
understood, provide among themselves the materials for a highly important fishing
industry.

The Golden Perch, Ctenolates ambiguus; the Silver Perch, Therapon
Richardsoni; Macquarie’s Perch, Macquaria australasica; and various species of
Murrayia, the majority of which attain, in their adult state, to weights ranging from
three to five or six pounds, contribute substantially towards swelling the supply,
consisting chiefly of Murray Cod, that is perennially transported from the
Murray river to the larger Australian cities. While the Murray Cod is commonly
regarded as being limited in its distribution to the Murray river system, it occurs
also in several of the rivers of Queensland and New South Wales that debouch
upon the eastern coast-line.

Western Australia possessing many rivers in its southern district which have
hitherto been devoid of any fish of economic value, one of the writer’s latest
professional undertakings in that colony was the transportation thither from the
Murray river of a stock of young Murray Cod and Golden Perch, which should, a few

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL, 159

years hence, increase to such an extent as to be available as a food supply. The
‘fish transported, numbering several hundred, averaged from a quarter to half a pound
in weight. After porterage by train from Morgan, on the Murray river, to Adelaide,
they were there stored for a while in a pond in the Botanic Gardens of that
city. Thence they were shipped in batches by the Orient and P. and O. mail steamers
to Albany, a distance of over one thousand miles, and from there conveyed by rail
again to their ultimate destinations. The majority of the fish were liberated in the
waters of the Upper Swan or Avon, in the neighbourhoods of York and Beverley
and the residue were turned into a lake, receiving constant accessions of fresh water,
some ten miles out of Albany. It will be interesting to note the results of these
acclimatisation processes a few years hence, and should the fish have commenced to
multiply, steps should be taken to distribute them to other waters suitable for their
reception, where their presence will be of public utility. A year previously (1893) a
small tentative consignment of the Murray river Golden Perch, Ctenolates ambiguus,
and also the Victorian Silver Eel, Anguilla australis, was transported by the writer
vid Adelaide to the Upper Swan river, and according to latest accounts are doing
well there. The last-named type has, in fact, already commenced to multiply.

Before dismissing the subject of the Murray Cod, it is worthy of record that
several huge members of the same genus, Oligorus, frequent the Australian sea coasts
and estuaries, being most abundantly represented among the coral reefs and in the
estuaries of the tropical districts. One of the best known of these species, Oligorus
gigas, first reported from New Zealand, attains to a weight of three or four hundred-
weight. Two distinct species, 0. Goliath and O. terra-regine from Queensland and other
North Australian waters, rival it in dimensions. The popular title attached to these
huge fish in Australia is that of Gropers, a name, however, which must not be
confused with the several varieties of fish, Cossyphus, Chironemus and Chilodactylus,
locally bearing the same name, which belong to the southern or temperate Australian
waters. The so-called Rock Cods, including the allied genera, Serranus and Plectropoma,
are additional representatives of the Perch family, which enter very extensively into
the commercially important fish fauna of Australia, being especially abundant, in both
numbers and varieties, in the sub-tropical and tropical districts. Many of these fish
are remarkable for their brilliant colouration, being variously ornamented with stripes
or bars or spots. In one especially handsome species, Plectropoma Richardsoni, not
unfrequently exposed for sale in the Fremantle fish market, Western Australia, the

ground colour of the body is a most brilliant carmine with a tendency to yellow

160 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

beneath, diversified throughout the back and sides with ultramarine spots of an almost
sapphire-like intensity.

Among the Australian members of the Perch family, the Gippsland Perch of
the Victorian markets, Lates or Percolates colonorum, is worthy of brief mention, on
account of the excellent sport it will afford, fished for- with rod, line and artificial fly,
after the manner of the lordly salmon. As its popular name implies, it is specially
abundant in the fresh-water lakes of Gippsland, Victoria, and their tributary rivers.
The distribution of the species is, however, tolerably extensive, it frequenting the
majority of the river estuaries throughout the Victorian, New South Wales, and South
Australian coasts, and also certain of those on the north coast of Tasmania. In aspect
and habits of feeding from the surface, the Gippsland Perch suggests points of
comparison with the English Bass, Labrax lupus, also a percoid, which likewise
yields good sport with the salmon rod. Lates colonorum grows to a weight of some
six or seven pounds, and is, in this respect, thrown altogether into the shade by its
near ally, Lates calcarifer, which is exclusively a denizen of tropical waters.

This magnificent species, most appropriately designated the Giant Perch,
frequents the estuaries of all the inter-tropical Australian rivers from the Fitzroy in
(Queensland around the northern sea-board to the Ashburton in Western Australia. It
attains to a length of four or five feet, and a weight of over sixty pounds. This fine
fish, known in India as the Cock-up or Nair-fish, occurs also in China, and has
been observed by the writer in the Singapore fish market. At Rockhampton and
Cooktown on the Queensland coast, the Giant Perch is most familiarly known
by the native name of Barramundi, a title which is rather misleading, it
being applied indifferently to other large fresh-water fish, including the Lung Fish,
Ceratodus, and also to Osteoglossum. Some surprise was experienced by the writer
on hearing the term of Barramundi applied to the fish in the Fitzroy district of
Western Australia, but the mystery was solved on finding that it had been
instituted by a recently imported Queensland native. A characteristic photograph
from life of this Giant Percoid is included in the series of illustrations of Queensland
fish embodied in the author’s “ Great Barrier” book.

Next in order to the Perch family, that of the Sea-Breams, Sparide, demands
brief notice. This also is a most cosmopolitan group, its members being distributed
throughout the world, and including some half-a-dozen British species. That
Australian representative of the tribe, however, which above all others is held in

highest repute, both for sport and on gastronomic grounds, is the so-called Snapper,

PLATE

Collotype, W. & S. Ltd, W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

A. DIAMOND TREVALLY, Caran gallus ; B. WESTERN AUSTRALIAN SNAPPER, Pagrus major.

One-third nat. size, p. 169. One-sixth nat. size, p. 161.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 161

Pagrus unicolor. This fine species is abundant all round the Southern Coast-line,
extending northwards on the Eastern Coast to Mackay, in Queensland, and to
Adelaide, in South Australia. What would appear to be a racial variety only of
the same fish occurs also on the Coast of Western Australia, as far north as the
Abrolhos Islands and Shark’s Bay. Adult individuals of this magnificent Bream not
unfrequently attain to a weight of as much as twenty or even thirty pounds. A
specimen, indeed, weighing twenty-nine and a half pounds, taken in Hobson’s Bay,
passed through the writer’s hands, when making a model of it for inclusion with a
series of typical Victorian fish for the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in 1888. A
peculiarity of the Australian Snapper, shared with some few other species of fish, is
the circumstance that the adult males are distinguished by the development of a large
bony knob in the fore part of the head, and which in very old specimens is accom-
panied by a fleshy excrescence on the snout. The profile outline of these individuals
so strongly resembles that of a human face that they are popularly distinguished in the
Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide fish markets by the title of the “Old Man is
Snapper. As previously remarked, the Snapper taken on the Coast of Western
Australia presents some slight variations from that of the Southern and Eastern
Colonies, and it is for that reason correlated by many ichthyologists with the distinc-
tive title of Pagrus major. The technical differences between the two, as hitherto
recognised, are, however, very obscure and difficult to define. Among other points, a
slightly larger number of scales goes to form the lateral line in the last-named species,
and a greater number to the transverse series in the former. Again, whereas in Pagrus
unicolor the second anal spine is described as being longer but not stronger than the
third, in P. major the same spine is stronger but not longer than its successor.

In connection with the considerable number of examples of the Western
Australian Snapper that have recently fallen within the writer’s observation, a point
has been noted that may furnish an additional clue to the distinction of the two
species under discussion. It relates to the respective contours of the heads of the
adult males. Although extensively familiar with the typical “Old Man” individuals
of the Southern and Eastern Colonies, the writer has not seen among them that
particular modification that obtains at Fremantle, or vice versd. In these “ Westralian ”
examples there is no abnormal development of the occiput, but on the other hand the
nasal protuberance takes an even more exaggerated form, giving a most bibulous
expression to the fish’s countenance. Should this recorded distinction prove to be a

constant one, the title of the “ Bottle-nosed” Snapper might be appropriately
x

162 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

conferred upon it. Photographic presentments of both the “bottle-nosed” male and
normal female individuals of the Western Australian Snapper are reproduced in
Plates XX VII. and XXIX. respectively.

Brief consideration may now be given to those fishes frequenting the
Australian seas and rivers, which, with regard to the area of their distribution, are
essentially Australasian, Indo-Pacific, or at all events unrepresented in European
waters. A front position among this considerable assemblage must undoubtedly be
given to that family group, the Cirrhitide, which includes, par excellence, that
most justly celebrated fish, the Hobart or Tasmanian Trumpeter, Latris hecateia.
The known representatives of the genus Latris are entirely limited in their distribution
to the seas of New Zealand, Tasmania, and the southern shores of the Australian
Continent, while the particular species named is almost exclusively confined to the
colder waters of Tasmania and New Zealand. The Hobart Trumpeter, in both
contour and colour, is a most handsome fish. Like the Snapper of the adjacent
colonies, it affords excellent sport with the hook and line, and in deep water, fifty or
sixty fathoms, using a crawfish bait, is not uncommonly taken weighing as many
pounds. In addition to the considerable quantities of this fish that are disposed
of in the Hobart market, a large number are dispatched in both the fresh and
smoked conditions to Sydney and Melbourne.

The admirable practice is followed by the Hobart fishermen, as at Grimsby
in England, of storing their catches in well-boats, and of transferrmg them on
arrival in port to floating trunks. The Trumpeter, in common with many other
species well adapted to this method of conservation, are in this manner kept alive
to meet the fluctuating requirements of the local market; or any customer, if he
should so desire, may avail himself of the opportunity of picking and choosing
his own living fish. The life colours and distribution of the markings of the
Trumpeter are very characteristic and attractive. In the diagnoses given in technical
works on Ichthyology, the colour patterns as recorded of spirit-preserved examples
are described as consisting of “four whitish longitudinal bands on a brown ground.”
In life, the paler hues predominate, the ground colour of the body being a most
delicate opaline tint, silvery white ventrally, and with shades of palest green and
blue upon the sides and back. Three dark olive-green longitudinal bands, originat-
ing immediately behind the head, traverse the upper part of the body. The
top and bottom bands terminate independently at the base of the caudal fin, but

the central one fuses with the lowermost one at a point corresponding with

FISHES—-PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 163

three-quarters of the total length of the band it joins. Beneath this lowest band,
which is straight and divides the fish’s side into two subequal moieties, there is
usually a small linear patch of .similar olive green, and narrow irregular lines
of the same tint are produced from the eye to the end of the snout, and on the
cheeks. The fins are more or less golden yellow, suffused with olive green, this
latter tint being generally developed in regular striations on the membrane of the
spinous dorsal, while the tips and edge of the caudal fin are frequently almost
black. These details have been described at some length, on account, not only of
their not having previously been correctly chronicled, but with reference to a
singular phenomenon observed and recorded by the writer a few years since.

A number of these Trumpeters were kept alive for a considerable time in
the sea-water tanks and ponds of the experimental fishery establishment inaugu-
rated by the writer at Battery Point, Hobart. While in the daytime the fish
were notable only for the colour pattern above described, it was observed on
visiting the tanks at night, with the light of a lantern, that the fish had under-
gone a very distinct metamorphosis. The longitudinal colour bands were still
conspicuous, but in addition to them, and as though belonging to a deeper
sub-stratum of the integument, there were now distinctly visible five broad equi-
distant transverse blackish bands extending from the back to a little below the
lowermost of the olive-green longitudinal stripes. It was observed at the same
time that examples of the Silver or Bastard Trumpeter, Latris Forsteri, which, while
of a different colour, is likewise longitudinally striped, exhibited at night similar
dark transverse band-like markings. Later on, a specimen of Latris hecateia, in one
of these fishery tanks, was attacked, apparently by a cat, or possibly a musk rat,
and so injured that it lost the sight of both its eyes, though in other respects it
recovered its health and appetite. The remarkable circumstance concerning this fish
now, however, was that, being blind, it habitually exhibited the dark transverse
markings that were only visible at night under normal conditions. It would
appear that in ordinary daylight the stimulus upon the optic nerves and correlated
system is such as to keep the pigment cells or chromatophores entering into the
composition of these transverse bands in such a state of contraction that they are
not visible. With the removal of the stimulating light or power of appreciating it,
the tension is.relaxed, and the expanded chromatophores become visible.

The existence of these supplementary colour-bands is of interest from another

point of view. A further investigation revealed their constant though latent

164 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

presence in many other unrelated species of fish. It was also observed by the
writer that a very large number of sea fish exhibited these cross-bands constantly
when in their young condition, though they gradually lose them, except in a
latent state, as they attain maturity. These several facts all seem to favour the
assumption. that these cross-bands represent the residual traces of what constituted
a conspicuous and permanent character in their ancestral forms. The familiar
“parr” markings of the young of the majority, if not all, of the known Salmonide,
appear in a similar manner to indicate that their ancestral archetypes were
likewise permanently cross-barred. This subject was dealt with at some length in
a paper communicated by the writer to the Hobart, 1892, Meeting of the Australian
Association for the Advancement of Science. It is one worthy of further investi-
gation and of discussion in a future edition of such a work as Mr. F. Beddard’s
interesting and instructive book on “ Animal Coloration.”

A fair idea of the general contour of the form and distribution of the colour
markings of the Hobart Trumpeter will be afforded by a reference to Plate XXVIII,
in which are depicted the photographic presentments of some two dozen species of
Tasmanian sea fishes taken from a series of coloured plaster casts executed by the
writer a few years since, which were presented by him to the Tasmanian Museum.
The species under notice, Latris hecateia, is represented by two figures in this Plate,
the one of a small example occupying the first place to the left of the third row
in the series from the top, and that of a larger individual, which in life measured
two feet and weighed eight or ten pounds, being situated to the extreme right in
the second row below it.

The special facilities with which fish lend themselves to reproduction ‘in Plaster
of Paris was first recognised by the late Mr. Frank Buckland, whose personally
executed casts of British fish, and notably Salmonide, on exhibition in the Buckland
Museum, South Kensington, constitute probably the most extensive series of such
models that has been brought together. Many of these plaster casts have been
coloured from life by the late noted fish artist, Mr. H. L. Rolfe, “the Landseer among
fishes,” as he was justly and familiarly styled, and supply a far truer presentment of
the living originals than is obtainable from the most carefully preserved specimens in
which the softer parts become invariably more or less shrunk or otherwise distorted,
and the natural colours completely obliterated. Similar, but yet more artistically
finished, life-coloured models of various of the softer skinned lizards and snakes

have been recently executed with great success under the auspices of the United

PLATE XXVIII.

‘
we

ae

me
GiNiCR ELD Tee
—

Collotype, W. & S. Ltd : W. Saville-Kent, Photo,
PLASTER CASTS OF TASMANTAN FISH.

Exkcurep FoR AND Presenrep py tik AuTrnor ro tuk Hosarr Museum.

One-eighth of natura] size. Index p. 165.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 165

States National Museum authorities, to whom we are indebted for the several
perfected examples of the art now on view in the Central Hall of our own
Natural History Museum. As a recent exponent of the perfection with which
certain animal forms may be thus immortalised in paint and plaster, it may be men-
tioned that Professor E. Ray Lankester’s exhibit at last year’s Conversazione of the
Royal Society consisted of a couple of finely executed models of the New Zealand
Lizard, Sphenodon punctatus, to which, on account of the soft, wrinkled character
of its skin, it is almost impossible to render justice by any ordinary process of
taxidermy. A diagrammatically arranged index which will allow of the ready identifi-
cation of the many fish forms reproduced in this Plate, is herewith appended. The
circumstance that the Barracouta, No. 2, occupying the central position in the top
row, was, in the flesh, precisely three feet long, will afford a convenient key to the
dimensions of the various species there portrayed.

In addition to the Hobart and Silver Trumpeters, Latris hecateia and
L. Forsteri, there are two or three other species of the same genus, one of which,
L. ciliaris, is common in New Zealand, and is met with as far north as Sydney.

A large but rare form that is occasionally taken in Tasmanian waters has been

INDEX TO COLOURED PLASTER CASTS OF TASMANIAN FISH PHOTOGRAPHICALLY
REPRODUCED IN PLATE XXVIII.

1 2 3
LEATHER JACKET. BARRACOUTA. LEATHER JACKET.

Monacanthus sp. Thyrsites atun. Monacanthus sp.

a 5 6 7 8
PORCUPINE FISH. VELVET FISH. ROCK COD. FLATHEAD. FLOUNDER.

; Chilomycterus jaculiferus, Holoxenus cutaneus. Pseudophycis barbatus. Platycephalus bassensis. Rhombsolea monopus.

9 10 41 12
HOBART TRUMPETER. COLONIAL SALMON. SILVER TREVALLY. AUS. DOREY.

Latris hecateia. Arripis salar. Caranz georgianus. Cyttus australis,

13 14 15 16
MAGPIE PERCH. SEA PERCH. SEA CARP. SILVER TRUMPETER.
Chilodactylus bizonarius, Chilodactylus macropterus, Chilodactylus Allporti. Latris Forsteri.

17 18 19
BLUE HEAD PARROT FISH. CAT FISH. HOBART TRUMPETER.
Labricthys ceruleus. Kathetostoma levis. Latris hecateia.
20 21
ELEPHANT FISH AND EGG CASE. BUTTER FISH.

Callorhynchus antareticus, Chilodactylus spectabilis,

22 23 2a 25
RED PERCH. ROCK GURNET. PARROT FISH. GARFISH.

Anthias rasor. Sebastes percoides. Labricthys laticlavius, Hemirhamphus intermedius.

166 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

described by the writer under the title of Latris Mortoni, and two small and some.
what doubtful species, Z. bilineata and L. inornata, have been reported by Count
Castlenau from the Victorian coast-line. The genus Chilodactylus, belonging also to
the Trumpeter family, that of the Cirrhitide, possesses representatives which are
much more extensively distributed. It includes the so-called Sea Carp, Chilodactylus
Allporti; Sea Perch, C. macropterus; Magpie Perch, C. bizonarius and Butter-fish,
C. nigricans, of the Tasmanian and Victorian markets. Two species, Chilodactylus
nigrescens, the so-called Groper, and C. carponemus, the Leather Mouth, are not
unfrequently exposed for sale in the Fremantle market, while a small form, C. gibbosus,
which is also met with in Western Australia, occurs likewise on the eastern coast-line
as far north as Moreton Bay. The several species of Chilodactylus of economic value
that frequent the coast of New South Wales are distinguished in the Sydney market
by the aboriginal title of “‘ Morwongs.” ,

The portraits of coloured plaster models of the majority of the species of the
genus Chilodactylus above enumerated will be found among the series illustrated by
Plate XXVIII. The four fish occupying the fourth row from the top are all Cirrhitide,
and with one exception referable to the aforesaid genus. The fish to the extreme
left, characterised by its boldly defined black and white bands, is the so-called Magpie
Perch. In captivity it proved to be specially susceptible of domestication. One
example was, in fact, so tame that it was accustomed to thrust its head out of water
and permit itself to be stroked and fed from the hand with its favourite food, which
consisted of the small round Pea-crabs, Pinnotheres, which abounded as mess-mates or
commensals in the common mussels that were opened and cut up for the general
commissariat. This Magpie Perch, and also a Tasmanian Flounder, which manifested ;
similar sociable proclivities, constituted, it may be remarked, special objects of
admiration and attraction to the late Admiral Sir George Tryon, who, when
visiting Hobart with the Australian squadron, was a frequent visitor to the writer’s
Fisheries establishment.

The fish next on the line to the Magpie Perch is the so-called Sea or Black or
Silver Perch of the Tasmanian market, and is especially notable for the abnormal
length of one of the free rays of its pectoral fin. The larger, transversely striped fish
next to this is “the Carp” of the Hobart market, Chilodactylus Aillporti, notable in life
for its handsome colouration, in which alternate bands of white and vermilion red
predominate. Soon after removal from the water the whole body becomes suffused

with the vermilion tint, but that again speedily gives place to a more uniform hue

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. , 167

of dusky brown. The fourth fish to the extreme right in this series is the Silver
Trumpeter, Latris Forsteri, having much the same pattern of colour markings as the
“Real” or Hobart Trumpeter, Z. hecateia, immediately beneath it, but entirely wanting
the finer lines and symmetry of form of that species. The tints of the colour bands
in this species are also very distinct, varying in individuals from a golden brown to a
more or less definite red-brown or light red hue. The remaining example of the
Cirrhitide represented in this plate is the large fish to the right in the second row
from the bottom. This is the “ Butter-fish,” Chilodactylus nigricans, of the Hobart and
Melbourne markets, a somewhat rare visitor to the southern island colony, but plentiful
on the Victorian coast-line. Extending westward, it constitutes one of the commoner
market fishes at Adelaide and Fremantle. The colours of this species are somewhat
attractive, consisting of a blue-grey ground, variegated with more or less well-defined
oblique bands of blackish spots. A large fish is often over three feet in length and
weighs ten or twelve pounds.

The yet larger massive fish, Callorhynchus antarcticus, on the same line as
Chilodactylus nigricans, is, as will be recognised by the formation of its tail, a
member of the shark tribe. As such it is appropriately referred to among other of
its more immediate congeners at the end of this Chapter.

The genus Beryx, of the family of the Berycide, has several representatives
in Australian waters that are greatly esteemed for food. One of these, Beryx afinis,
is known in Sydney as the “ Nannegai.” The same species and an allied form,
B. Mulleri, are supplied to both the Adelaide and Fremantle markets, and are there
distinguished by the title of ‘“ King Snappers.” The fishes of this genus are among
the most resplendent of known species. Both of the two forms named are, when
freshly caught, the most brilliant scarlet carmine with various opalescent tints, chiefly blue
and lilac reflections. Added to this, their abnormally large and lustrous eyes confer
upon them a most distinguished appearance. The chief interest attached to these
Berycide is, however, the circumstance that they represent the oldest known group of
spine-finned or Acanthopterygian fishes. They were most abundantly represented in the
cretaceous epoch, and their known living representatives are mostly confined to deep
water. The occurrence of the few existing littoral species which still linger around the
Australian coast-line is of high significance, taken into account with the many other
ancient forms of animal and vegetable life that so notably distinguish this Island-
Continent. An illustration of Beryx Mulleri, the most abundantly represented Western
Australian member of this interesting genus, is given in Plate XXIX.

168 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The Tassel fishes, Polynemide, constitute one of the leading groups of economic
value indigenous to Australian waters, though in this instance most abundantly
represented in the essentially tropical rivers and estuaries. The distinguishing features
of the most characteristic species of the single genus, Polynemus, is the almost salmon-
like contour of their shapely bodies, correlated with which is the peculiar free style-
like or filamentous character of a certain number of the rays of the pectoral fins.
The most highly esteemed esculent species, Polynemus tetradactylus, is distinguished in
the northern districts of Queensland and Western Australia with reference to its shape
as the northern salmon. As its technical name implies, its free pectoral rays are
only four in number, and these do not exceed in length the adjacent membrane-
united rays. In the majority of other known species there are five free pectoral, and
in one small but new form discovered by the writer in the Ord river, Western Australia,
in association with the surveying expedition (1888) of H.M.S. “ Myrmidon,” there are
seven such rays, four of which may extend backwards beyond the extremity of the very
elongate lobes of the caudal fin. By way of compliment to Captain the Hon. H. P.
Foley Vereker, in command of the above-named vessel, as whose guest the writer
first visited Cambridge Gulf, the name of Polynemus Verekert has been conferred
upon this species.* This phenomenal fish not having been previously figured,
except in diagrammatic outline, its aspect as drawn and coloured from life is

herewith reproduced in monochrome.

W’, Saville-Kent, del.

SEVEN-RAYED TASSEL FISH, Polynemus Verekeri, ORD RIVER, CAMBRIDGE GULP, W.A. NATURAL SIZE.
f

The life tints of this newly discovered species are very distinctive, the ground

colour being a prominent chrome yellow with darker shadings, the pectoral and

* Proc. Royal Soc., Queensland. Vol. VI. part V., 1889.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 169

long-forked caudal fins bright orange, and the remaining fins a lighter shade of
the same tint. The long filamentous free rays forming a fringe beneath the pectoral
fins were, by way of contrast, a bright vermilion red.

Several of the Australian Polynemi attain to a considerable size. One
species, P. Sheridani, first recorded from the Mary and Burnett rivers in
Queensland, and there locally known as the King-fish, has been taken up to a
weight of one hundred pounds. Polynemus tetradactylus, which occurs also in India,
and is locally known there as the “ Bahmeen” or “Pamban Salmon,” is recorded
in Dr. Day’s “Fishes of India” as attaining to a weight of over three hundred
pounds. In conjunction with the Giant Perch, or “Nair Fish,” Lates calcarier,
previously referred to, it affords most excellent sport with rod and line, using a
spinning bait, and as such is the subject of special mention in Mr. H. S. Thomas’
angling work, “The Rod in India.” All of the larger Indian Polynemi are further
noted on account of the excellent isinglass that is manufactured from their sounds
or swimming bladders.

The family of the Carangide or Horse Mackerels, while embracing many
species that are practically cosmopolitan in their distribution, includes also numerous
essentially Australian or Indo-Pacific types. The genus Caranx, which represents one of
the first-named groups, comprises a species, C. trachurus, which is regarded as
identical with the British Horse Mackerel. What are known as Trevallies on the
‘North and Eastern, and Skipjacks on the Western, Australian Coast-lines, are
also members of the same genus, but mostly of a much deeper and more
compressed shape than the familiar British species. In the form Caranz gallus,
selected for illustration, Plate XX VII., fig. A, both the head and body are remarkable
for their angular contours, and the dorsal, anal, and pectoral fins for the filamentous
elongations of their primary rays. In C. radiatus, there is a more rigid, fringe-like
development of the second dorsal and anal rays, but the body does not depart
from the ordinary ovate type. Both of these two last-named species belong to
the tropical Australian Coast-line, and have been observed by the writer on the
Queensland and Western Australian sea-boards. The first-named species is
locally known, with reference to its shape and appendages, as the Diamond-fish
or Plumed Trevally, while that of the Fringed Trevally has been conferred on
Caranx radiatus.

The photograph of a young individual of the first-named species, Carana gallus,

in which the filamentous appendages are relatively longer than in the adult fish,
Y

170 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

has been utilised as a head-piece to this Chapter. A Tasmanian species, Caranx
georgianus, known as the Silver Trevally, which is much esteemed for the table, is
represented by No. 11 in the series of Plaster Casts photographically reproduced in
Plate XXVIII.

The giants of their tribe in this group of the Carangide are the several
members of the genus Seriola, which are extensively represented throughout the
temperate Australian waters, and are known locally as Yellow-tails, Samson-fish,
and King-fish, Two species, Seriola grandis and S. Lalandii, are found as far
south as Tasmania; while S. gigas, of the Western Australian Coast, is especially
plentiful in the neighbourhood of Houtman’s Abrolhos. This species attains to
a weight of over one hundred-weight, and is locally known there as the King-fish.
The Tailor-fish, Zemnodon saltator, while a near ally of Seriola, is much more
cosmopolitan in its distribution. It abounds on the Eastern, Southern, and Western
Coasts of Australia, and, ranging throughout nearly all the tropical and sub-tropical
seas, constitutes an important fishery on the Atlantic Coast of the United States,
where it is distinguished by the title of the Blue-fish.

The occurrence of the Frost Fish or Scabbard-fish, Lepidopus caudatus, belonging
to the family of the Trichiuride, in New Zealand and Tasmanian waters, has
already been referred to among the cosmopolitan species that are indigenous to
European as well as to Australian seas. A more essentially Australian type,
belonging to the same family, and of a correspondingly elongate band-like form, is ©
the well-known Barracouta, of the Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart markets.
Even this species, however, while not represented in the Northern Hemisphere, is
abundant upon the Coast of Chili, and also at the Cape of Good Hope, where it
is known by the popular title of the “Snook.”

The photograph of a coloured cast of a fine specimen of the Barracouta occupies
the greater portion of the top line of the series represented in Plate XXVIII. Its
length in the flesh was just three feet. Much difficulty was experienced in securing a
specimen of this fish for modelling in which the elongate but deeply indented dorsal
fin was uninjured, this structure in the majority of the examples brought to market
being much mutilated as a consequence of the rough conditions that attend their
capture. The habits of the Barracouta are essentially gregarious, the species
‘assembling in large numbers, and pursuing and preying upon the shoals of smaller
fish of every description at the surface of the sea. It is in fact the presence of

these marauding shoals of Barracouta that to a large measure renders it impracticable

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 171

to prosecute fishing in Southern Australian waters by means of the drift net, which
is so extensively used in the fishery for Mackerel and other surface species in the
British seas.

The most approved method of capturing the Barracouta on the Tasmanian
Coast is by means of the “ Maorie jig,” so-called since it is supposed to have been
first employed by the natives of New Zealand. This fishing apparatus consists simply
of a strong pointed but unbarbed hook, fastened to a small block of wood, preferably
cedar. This again is attached by a strong line, a yard or two long only, to a
stout staff. A bait, consisting of a piece of coloured cloth or of shark’s-skin, is
sometimes added, but is not necessary. With this very simple equipment, and the
boat at full sail, the fish, when abundant, are hauled in as fast as the fishermen
can throw over and recover their baited or unbaited hooks. The deck at such
times speedily becomes one struggling mass of snapping, slippery monsters, and the
fun and excitement, as the writer can testify, is most exhilarating for those partial
to this class of sport. Off the Victorian Coast-lme, and more especially in the
neighbourhood of Warnambool, the Barracouta is more commonly captured from
sailing boats with a long hand line and a glittering metal lure and hook trailed astern,
much after the method practised in England for the capture of Mackerel, known as
“ whiffling” or “railing.”

From a utilitarian point of view, the Barracouta is undoubtedly one of the,
if not the, most important of the Tasmanian food fishes. While the Real or Hobart
Trumpeter may be said to typify the species fitted, like the Turbot, to grace the table
of the wealthy, the Barracouta may be as essentially styled the “poor man’s fish.” It
takes in Tasmania the place that is occupied by the modest Herring or the Haddock
in the English market. The fact, indeed, that a six or eight pound Barracouta of the
best quality can at most times be bought for sixpence, or at less than half that price
if any number are taken, places this fish at the command of the very poorest.
Notwithstanding its cheapness, the Barracouta as a food fish is by no means to be
despised. Carefully smoked, after the manner of the familiar Findon Haddock, it
constitutes a no less toothsome adjunct to the breakfast table. Barracouta pie, again,
the invention of a Tasmanian culinary genius, is a savoury dish that would tickle the
palate of the most fastidious.

There is a second species of fish closely resembling the Barracouta, and
belonging to the same genus, which, while somewhat uncertain in its appearance,

occasionally visits the Tasmanian coast in vast shoals. This is the so-called Tasmanian

172 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

“ King-fish,” Thyrsites Solandri. It considerably exceeds the Barracouta in size and
may weigh as much as from twelve to over twenty pounds. This King-fish is caught
in the same manner as the last-named species, and, in seasons when it is plentiful,
“three men in a boat” have been known to capture forty dozen, or over two tons
weight, in a single night. Not many years ago this King-fish appeared in the bays
and inlets adjacent to the Derwent estuary in such remarkable numbers that tons were
stranded on the beaches. Such large supplies were at the same time taken by the
fishermen that, in the absence of a sufficient market demand or ready means for their
conservation, vast quantities of them were used for manuring the hop gardens and fruit
orchards for which Tasmania is so justly famous. As though by way of retribution
for the previous lavish waste of this magnificent food species, this King-fish has
since been an almost entire stranger to the Tasmanian coast.

Another group of elongate predaceous fishes, having, with regard to both aspect
and habits, much in common with the Barracoutas, Thyrsites, is that of the Sphyreenidz
or Sea-pikes, represented by two genera, Sphyreena and Lanioperca, and many species
in both the temperate and tropical Australian waters. In the higher latitudes,
beyond the range of distribution of Thyrsites, one species, Sphyrena langsar, is often
locally distinguished by the corresponding title of the Barracouta. Large examples of
this species have been known to attain to a length of seven or eight feet and to
weigh as much as forty pounds. One of the most widely distributed of the
Australian Sea-Pikes, Sphyrena obtusata, is photographically portrayed in Fig. C of
Plate XXIX. The specimen figured was obtained at Fremantle, Western Australia.
The “ Barracuda” is the common name given to tropical Atlantic representatives of
the genus Sphyreena in the West Indies.

The family of the Trachinide is deserving of brief notice, since it includes the
several greatly esteemed species of so-called Australian Whitings, referable to the
genera Sillago, Isosillago and Neosillago, but having necessarily no relationship to the
European Whitings, which are true Gadide. Although there are no European
representatives of these generic groups, the Weever fishes of the British seas, Trachinus
draco and T. vipera, as also the Star-gazer, Uranoscopus scaber, of the Mediterranean, are
usually assigned by ichthyologists to the same family. The association of these respective
generic groups by no means recommends itself as a natural system of classification.
In Dr. Gunther’s “Introduction to the Study of Fishes” all the members of the
family Trachinide are referred to as bad swimmers, whose locomotive powers are
confined to moving along the bottom in small depths. This description applies

PLATE XXIxX.

Collotype, We § S LAd, ma : W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

A.—BOTTLE-NOSED SNAPPER, Pagrus major, p. 161. B.—KING SNAPPER OR “NANNEGAI,” Berya Mullert, p. 167

C.—SEA PIKE, Sphyrena obtusata, p. 172.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 173

correctly to the more considerable number of genera referred to this family, which
possess the physiological distinction of being devoid of an air-bladder. To that
anatomical fact they owe the circumstance of being sluggish, bottom-reposing fish.
The Australian Whitings, Sillago and its allies, on the other hand, possess a well-
developed air-bladder, and are of the most active habits, cruising about in shoals,
after the manner of Red Mullets, over the surfaces of the sandy banks upon which
they feed. Different species of these Whitings abound throughout Australian waters
from Tasmania to Torres Straits, and are all held in high esteem for the lightness
and delicacy of flavour and whiteness of their flesh. It is upon this account that
they have received the title that has been popularly awarded them.

The Flathead, genus Platycephalus, is another essentially characteristic Australian
group that, like Sillago, possesses specific representatives throughout the seas of that
Island-Continent, all of which are more or less esteemed for food. A character-
istic representative of the commonest Tasmanian species, Platycephalus bassensis,
occupies the second position from the right immediately beneath the Barracouta in
Plate XXVIII. While unrepresented in European waters by any specific type, the genus
Platycephalus is closely related to the Bull-heads and Gurnards, and is on such
account relegated to the same family of the Cottide. The true Gurnards or Gurnets,
belonging to the genus Trigla, are typified by several Australian species, many of them
being remarkable for the brilliant, butterfly-wing-like aspect of their large pectoral fins.
None of them, however, attain to a large size or are sufficiently plentiful to constitute
a marketable species, as in British waters. A fish of somewhat rare occurrence that
is occasionally taken on the Tasmanian coast, and is also referable to the Cottide
family, is the singular Velvet Fish, Holoxenus cutaneus. A photograph of a coloured
plaster cast of this species occupies the second position from the left in the same serial
line that contains the Flathead. The most remarkable feature of this species is not so
much its form as its wonderful colouring, which may be a brilliant scarlet vermilion
throughout, or a varied mixture of vermilion and orange. Added to this, the skin,
which is devoid of scales, is very soft and loose and of a granular or pilose texture
suggestive of the surface of wet flannel or velvet.

The Grey Mullet family, Mugilide, is represented so abundantly, numerically and
specifically, in the Australian seas and rivers as to constitute one of the leading
economic groups. Its members agree, however, so nearly in all essential characters
with their British, or it might be said, cosmopolitan, congeners as to dispense with

the necessity of elaborate notice.

174 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The Labride or Wrasse and Parrot-fish tribe embraces a multitude of forms,
mostly of phenomenally brilliant colouration, but also including many species that are
esteemed for the table. Among these, Platychwrops Gouldii, the so-called Blue
Groper, of the Sydney fishermen, is one of the largest and most important. repre-
sentatives, growing to a. length of three or four feet and a weight of over forty
pounds. In its adult state it is of a uniform dark purplish-blue hue, but is variegated
in its-earlier phases of development with orange bands and spots. This species is
met with round the entire southern coast-line to King George’s Sound, in Western
Australia, and is also reported from Tasmania. The head and shoulders of the Blue
Groper boiled, with egg sauce, has been pronounced by Australian epicures to surpass
the Cod and to closely approach the English Turbot in its delicacy of flavour.
The so-called Pig-fish, Cossyphus unimaculatus, of a brilliant scarlet-vermilion hue, with
a single large blue-black spot near the centre of the spinous dorsal fin, is also highly
esteemed in the Sydney market. The Blue-head, Labricthys ceruleus, of Tasmania,
and several species of Odax, known locally as “Strangers,” Ground Mullets, or Rock
Whitings, indigenous to all of the southern or temperate Australian Colonies, repre-
sent the leading remaining forms of the family group of the Labride that occupy
a recognised position in the Australian markets. A cast of a fine example of
the Tasmanian Blue-head, executed by the writer, occupies a position to the extreme
left in the series of three fishes that constitutes the fifth row from the top in
Plate XXVIII.

Apart from the foregoing there are numberless other Labride, chiefly inhabitants
of the tropical coral reefs, that are much appreciated as a source of food supply by
those engaged more especially in the Béche-de-Mer and Mother-of-Pearl shell fisheries.
They embrace fish of the most brilliant hues, commonly known as “ Parrot-fishes,”
while some of the more sober-tinted types, belonging to the genus Cherops, are locally
known as “Gropers.” One of the commonest of these, C. cyanodon, is of a uniform
greenish grey hue, having its dorsal, anal, ventral, and caudal fins edged with a fine
line of turquoise blue, and also prominent canine teeth of the same tint. Coloured
illustrations of some of the more phenomenally brilliant-hued of these Australian
Parrot-fishes are depicted in Chromo-Plate XV. of the author’s recently published work
on “The Great Barrier Reef.”

Among the few remaining fish groups that demand brief attention with reference
to the phenomenal as well as economical character of their component members, that

of the Herring tribe, or Clupeide, must be included. The presence in Australian

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 175

waters of species regarded as identical with the English Sprat, Clupea sprattus, and
others, such as C. sagaz, very closely resembling the English Pilchard, has been
recorded in a previous page. The comparisons then under discussion did not, how-
ever, permit of a reference to certain members of the same family which are essentially
Australian or Indo-Pacific in their distribution and veritable giants of their tribe.
These giant herrings, represented more especially by the two specific types Chanos
salmoneus and Megalops cyprinoides, are restricted in their distribution to tropical and
sub-tropical waters, and within these limits have been met with by the writer at the
greater portion of the coastal and estuarine districts visited, from Moreton Bay on the
east coast to the Gascoigne River in Western Australia. Both of these two species
are most excellent eating. They ascend the rivers into fresh water in the young
condition, and grow to lengths of four and five feet. In India and the Malay
Peninsula, where both species are also found and much esteemed, they are made
the subjects of cultivation in suitable tanks.

While of these two last-named giant members of the Herring family, Chanos
salmoneus is the more prized for the table, the second form, Megalops cyprinoides,
would appear to possess the most conspicuous potentialities for sport. This species
is, in point of fact, very closely allied to the North American Tarpon, a species
which, while long known to ichthyologists, has quite recently sprung into notoriety
with regard to the magnificent sport it has been found capable of affording. The
American Tarpon, Megalops thryssoides, attains to no less a length than six feet,
with an accompanying weight of over 200 Ibs., and is now systematically fished for,
with a salmon rod and a live fish bait, in the tropical estuaries of Florida. The fish,
when hooked, is a most game one, surpassing the salmon in the vigour of its leaps
and in its rushes to every point of the compass to free itself from the restrain-
ing hook, and will frequently show fight for the space of several hours before
yielding itself to the hands of its captor. A most fascinating account of Tarpon
fishing, with illustrations and technical instructions as to the modus operandi, were
published in the August and October (1895) numbers of the “ Badminton Magazine.”
Enthusiastic anglers disposed to initiate similar exciting sport in Australian waters
may be profitably referred to those pages. There can be no doubt, in the writer’s
opinion, that in addition to the Ox-eye Herring, Megalops cyprinoides, there are half-
a-dozen other tropical estuarine-frequenting Australian fish that would yield equally
exciting sport on the same lines. Included in such list would be the Giant Perch,

Lates calcarifer; at least two of the Tassel fishes, genus Polynemus; the Gropers,

176 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Oligorus gigas or Terra-regine; the Jew-fish, Sciwna antarctica ; the Giant Mackerel,
Cybium Commersoni; and several of the Yellow-tails, referable to the genus Seriola.

The extensive family of the Siluridee or Cat-fishes, represented by but a single
fresh-water species, the Wels or Sheet-fish, Si/urus glanis, in European waters, is a
conspicuous group in Australia, numbering many species that inhabit both salt and
fresh water. The detached island-colony of Tasmania is, in fact, the only province
which is destitute of members. Only one species, the large eel-like Cat-fish, or so-called
. Tandan,.” of the River Murray, Copidoglanis tandanus, possesses a commercial status,
and is made the subject of an export trade to the Melbourne and other markets.
Several allied forms, including other species of Copidoglanis and representatives of the
genus Plotosus, are nevertheless, and notwithstanding their repulsive aspect and for-
midable spinous armature, excellent eating. In the tropical districts, the large sea and
estuarine Cat-fishes of the genus Arius, differing from the preceding in having forked
instead of eel-like tails, are by no means to be despised for the table when better
fish are scarce. One species of this group, identical apparently with Arius thalassinus,
is not unfrequently taken in the neighbourhood of Wyndham, Cambridge Gulf, weighing
as much as fifty or sixty pounds. All the Cat-fishes are distinguished, as their name
implies, by the tentacular appendages or barbels which adorn their snouts, and which
are suggestive of the whiskers, or more correctly the moustaches, of a cat. One of
the commoner northern species of Plotosus or Cat-fish Eels is represented by Fig. C.
of Plate XXX.

There are two fish represented in the Plate last quoted that are very essentially
Australian. The first of these is Aulopus purpurissatus, Plate XXX., fig. A., known
to the Sydney fishermen as the “Sergeant Baker.” This local appellation appears to
have been conferred upon the species with reference to its having been first taken in the
early days in Sydney Harbour by a sergeant of that ilk. In form, and in its brilliant
livery of scarlet and purple, the fish is, to a considerable extent, suggestive of a
gurnet, and is in consequence sometimes invested with that name. As a matter of
fact, it belongs to the characteristic family of the Scopelide, a group which includes
the much-esteemed “Bummuloh” or “Bombay Duck,” Harpodon neherens, the deep
sea Plagiodus ferox, and many singular pelagic and abyssal forms, armed with, in
relation to their size, most formidable teeth and, in many instances, brilliant phosphoric
organs. A diagnostic family character, clearly discernible in the photograph of Aulopus
here reproduced, is the presence of the small dead or adipose fin, like that of a trout,
situated immediately behind the long dorsal one. The male individual of the Sergeant

EPR E dee. | FR ERAS

nee

od ae WANED, De
Se a FR Se
WN Sy - i!

S

B. W.A. JEW-FISH, Glaucosoma hebraicum, p. 177.

A. SERGEANT BAKER, dAudlopus purpurissatus, p. 176.
C. CAT-FISH EEL, Plotosus sp., p- 176.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 177

Baker, of which the specimen figured is an example, is readily distinguished by the
long filamentous development of the united second and third rays of the dorsal fin.
The species, while hitherto recorded only from the New South Wales and Victorian
coasts, has been obtained by the writer at Fremantle and the Abrolhos Islands,
Western Australia. The illustration here reproduced represents a specimen from the
last-named habitat.

The remaining fish, Fig. B. in Plate XXX., is Glaucosoma hebraicum, the
so-called Jew-fish of the Fremantle market, and appears, so far as is known, to be
restricted to the Western Australian coast-line. It is taken with hook and line on the
Snapper Grounds, attains to as large, or even a larger, size than Pagrus unicolor,
and is esteemed by many to be superior to it from a gastronomic point. The colours in
life, which are represented by opalescently interblending tints of purple, red, and gold,
correspond to a marked extent with those of the last-named, and much more
familiar, species. A second representative of the genus, Glaucosoma scapulare, occurs on
the coasts of Queensland and New South Wales. It, also, is highly esteemed for
the table, but is of such rare occurrence as to be but seldom seen in the market.
The distinctive titles of Epaulette-fish and Jew-fish have been respectively conferred in
Queensland and New South Wales upon this species. It differs most conspicuously
from the Jew-fish, par excellence, G'. hebraicum of Western Australia, in the abnormal
size and smoothness of its scapular or shoulder bone and in the black tint of the
integument that covers it. ,

This point is a suitable one for drawing attention to the utter confusion that
prevails with regard to the nomenclature of the Australian market fishes. The Jew-
fish is an example in point. The name, as applied to the Western Australian Gilauco-
soma hebraicum, might be appropriately retained for that species. In Sydney and
Brisbane, however, Scicena antarctica, which is, to all intents and purposes, identical
with the European “ Maigre,” is invested with this title, while the same name is also
applied almost indiscriminately throughout the Colonies to the Cat-fish eels of the
genus Plotosus. The title of the “King-fish” is even more heavily weighted. In
Victoria and in the southern districts of Western Australia, this is the name by which
Sciena antarctica is distinguished, while the same form in Adelaide is known as the
“ Mulloway.” The King-fish in tropical Queensland waters, identical with the “Seer-
fish” of India, is a large Mackerel, Cyboum Commersoni. In the same colony, one of the
Tagsel-fishes, Polynemus indicus, bears the same title, while in Tasmania it is a fish,
Thyrsites Solandri, closely allied to the Barracouta. Finally, the King-fish of the Sydney

Z

178 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

market is a species of Yellow-tail, Seriola Lalandii. Examples might be multiplied, but
the intricacies involved by the plurality of application of the two names above quoted will
suffice, perhaps, as an object lesson to the lay mind in demonstration of the fact that
there is some virtue attachable to the intelligent application of technical terminology.
King-fish, as obtained in Tasmania, the most toothsome of its race and a most
delicious fish, would undoubtedly under any other name taste as sweet, but its fair
title and reputation is open to serious disparagement at the hands of connoisseurs
who, say at Sydney or at another of the Australian capitals, ordered for their feast
the like-named fish.

Especially must the traveller be warned against expecting, on investing in a
so-called Colonial Salmon, Arripis salar, anything approaching the British “ King of
fishes.” It attains to a weight of ten or twelve pounds and upwards, possesses fine,
almost salmon-like lines, and, fished for with rod and spoon bait, will yield magnificent
sport. Placed upon the table, however, it proves to be one of the poorest and
coarsest of the Australian market species. A specimen of this fish, which is a
member of the Perch family, and occurs in vast shoals throughout the southern
Australian sea-board, is portrayed in No. 10, or the second fish from the left of the
series of casts of Tasmanian fishes represented in Plate XXVIII. A smaller, closely
allied species, Arripis georgianus, is much superior from a gastronomic standpoint.
It: constitutes the so-called “Roughy” of the Melbourne market, but in Fremantle,
Western Australia, is popularly known as Herring, and yields abundant sport to line
fishermen throughout the year from the fine jetty of that sea-port. Large quantities
of this fish are also kippered,-and, so treated, bear a by no means inconsiderable
resemblance, in both aspect and flavour, to the familiar kippered Herring of English
celebrity.

Flat-fishes, Pleuronectide, are relatively scarce in Australia, though. there are
some excellent Flounders, Rhombsolea monopus, Plate XX VIII., No. 8, in Tasmanian and
Victorian waters, and Soles, Plagusia or Synaptura, that are distributed throughout
the coast-line. None of these latter forms, however, occur of sufficient size or in
sufficient abundance to constitute an important item in the colonial fish markets. A
few years since the writer discovered in the estuary of the Endeavour river, North
Queensland, the presence of a larger member of this family group than had been
hitherto recorded from Australian waters. This was the Psettodes erumei of the Red
and Indian Seas, a form attaining to a weight of several pounds, and so much
resembling the Halibut, Hippoglossus vulgaris, of the North Atlantic, that it has been

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 179

referred to the same genus by some authorities. It is an excellent table fish, and if
procurable in any quantity would be a valuable addition to the Australian market
list.

The fish species illustrated by two examples, No. 25, at the base and to the
extreme right in the series of casts figured in Plate XX VIIL., is, although of small size,
highly esteemed for the table in Australia. This is the Gar-fish, Hemirhamphus inter-
medius, a slender, cylindrical type, rarely exceeding a foot in length, which occurs in
vast shoals throughout the temperate Australian seas. From the English Gar-fish,
genus Belone, of which there are also Australian representatives, it may be readily
distinguished by the circumstance that it is only the lower jaw, in place of both upper
and lower jaws, that is developed in a characteristic beak-like manner. In the lower
of the two figures given the small rudimentary character of the elevated upper jaw is
clearly shown. Over half-a-dozen Australian species of this genus Hemirhamphus
have been described, several of which are exclusively denizens of the tropical
sea-board. In an allied Australian form, Arhamphus, the beak, as the name betokens,
is entirely suppressed.

The fresh waters of Australia yield some fish of more phenomenal interest than
the few already referred to. In Ceratodus Forsteri, the Lung Fish or Burnet and
Mary River Salmon, of the Queensland colonists, is presented the only known surviving
member of a genus which, with numerous allies, was abundantly represented in the
Triassic and Jurassic formations of Europe, India, and America. Of its peculiar
sub-order—the Dipnoi or lung-breathing fishes—Lepidosiren paradoxus of the Amazons
in South America, and Protopterus annectens of tropical Africa, are again the only
other known living types. In common with such other large-scaled fresh-water
fishes as the Giant Perch, ZLates calcarifer and Osteoglossum Leichardti, Ceratodus
Forsteri is commonly associated by the Queensland natives with the name of the
“ Barramundi.” This title, in its restricted sense, is now, however, exclusively attached
to Osteoglossum. |

This last-named form is almost as remarkable as is Ceratodus, with reference
to the present geographical distribution of its nearest allies. A second species,
Osteoglossum Jardinei, has been recorded by the writer from North Queensland ;
otherwise, the only known additional specific forms of the same genus, Osteoglossum
bicirrhosum and O. formosum, are inhabitants respectively of the fresh-water rivers of
Brazil, and of Borneo and Sumatra, while two allied genera Arapaima and Heterotis
are indigenous, like the previously recorded Dipnoi, to the rivers of tropical South

180 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

America and Africa. One of these Arapaima gigas, of the rivers of Brazil, and the
Guayanas, attains to the phenomenal dimensions of fifteen feet in length, with a weight
of four hundred pounds, and is the largest living representative of the Teleostian
or bony-skeletoned fish, as distinguished from the Chondrostian or Cartilaginous-
skeletoned group, of which the Sharks and Sturgeons are familiar examples. The-true
Australian Barramundi, Osteoglossum Leichardti, has been obtained chiefly from the
Fitzroy, Dawson, and other inter-tropical rivers debouching on the Eastern Coast of
Queensland ; while the second species, O. Jardinei, belongs to the river systems that
flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Both species attain a length of two or three feet,
and are most excellent eating, their flesh being even pronounced by connoisseurs to
compare favourably with that of the European salmon. It remains yet to be discovered
whether or not representatives of these two last-mentioned interesting genera, Ceratodus
and Osteoglossum, have not living representatives in the few but as yet little explored
rivers of the Northern districts of Southern and Western Australia. The typical
illustrations of these two forms that are reproduced in Plate XXXI., figs. A and B,
will assist towards the recognition of any near allies of these fish by those whose
avocations may place them on a familiar footing with the indigenous fish fauna of
these remote regions.

Among other members of the fresh-water fish fauna of Australia that invite
brief notice is the small family of the Galaxiide, embracing many of the so-called
species of the Native Trout, genus Galavias, briefly referred to in Chapter I., which,
in addition to many species distributed throughout all of the Southern and temperate
colonies of Australia, has representatives in New Zealand and the southern districts
of South America. All of the members of this family are of small size, not exceeding
a few inches in length, and derive their popular name from their somewhat trout-like
contour and spotted markings. In Prototroctes marcena, common to the rivers of Victoria
and Tasmania, Australia possesses a fish very nearly akin, superficially, in contour and
habits, to the English Grayling, Thymallus. It is an excellent sporting fish, and,
possessing a corresponding cucumber-like odour, is commonly known as the “ Cucumber
Mullet.” In this instance also it is of interest to note that its nearest generic and
specific allies are found in the rivers of New Zealand, the Falkland Islands, and the
extreme south of South America.

This brief record of phenomenal Australian fresh-water fish would be very
incomplete without some reference to the remarkably fine races of English Trout
and Salmon trout, Salmo fario and S. trutta, which for many years past have

*

PLATE XXXIl.

A. LUNG FISH, Ceratodus Vorstert, quarter natural size, p. 179.

B. YORK PENINSULA BARRAMUNDI, Osteoglossum Jardiner, quarter natural size, p. 179.

Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. WW. Saville-Kent, Photo,

C. MURRAY COD, Oligorns macquariensis, quarter natural size, p. 15%.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 181

been thoroughly acclimatised in the rivers, lakes, and estuaries, more especially of
Tasmania and Victoria. In the first-named Colony, the trout introduced have tended
to grow to prodigious size, taking on all the characters of the English breed which is
now known to be only a variety, but was formerly regarded as a distinct species and
distinguished by the title of Salmo ferox, or the Great Lake Trout. An example
referable to this racial variation was taken in the Huon river by the late
Sir Robert Hamilton, formerly governor of Tasmania, which weighed no less than
twenty-nine and a half pounds, while fish weighing twenty pounds and upwards
are of common occurrence. Some of the large inland lakes of Tasmania, and
notably the Great Lake, are famous for the size and abundance of the Trout
they produce. The following, epitomised from a report which appeared recently
in the columns of the “Field,” will convey some idea of the sport that Tasmania
can place at the disposal of the enthusiastic angler. These larger fish, it is
scarcely necessary to say, will not rise to the fly, but may be successfully laid siege
to with a variety of real or artificial spinning baits.

The magnificent bag referred to below and reported in the “ Field” was made by
three anglers who camped for a few days at the Great Lake, a sheet of water no less
than 100 miles in circumference. The total number of fish taken was only 82. These,
however, weighed collectively 759 lbs., yielding an average of 94 lbs. per fish, though,
as a matter of fact, they varied in weight from 23 up to as much as 20 lbs. It is
also recorded in this account that a fish had, a short while previously, been found
dead on the shore of this lake which possessed an estimated weight of no less than
35 Ibs. That such a phenomenal specimen may have actually been seen is by no
means incredible. There is a remarkably large race of the ordinary brown trout
indigenous to certain lakes in the Orkney Islands, and it has on that account been
denominated Salmo fario var. orcadensis. As heavy a weight as 36 lbs. has been
authentically recorded of one colossal individual belonging to these veritable Tritons
of their tribe.

A second typical species of the British Salmonide has been permanently
established in both Victorian and Tasmanian waters. This is Salmo trutta, or the
so-called Salmon-trout, Sea-trout, or Sewin of the English, Scottish and Welsh fish
markets. It is an essentially migratory form, going down to the sea and returning to
the rivers to spawn. Its finer varieties very closely resemble the true salmon in
shape and aspect, but it is a relatively smaller fish, rarely exceeding ten or twelve

pounds in weight.

182 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Much time, labour and treasure has been expended on the very laudable object
of establishing the true salmon, Salmo salar, at the Antipodes ; but, unfortunately, these
attempts have not been rewarded with the same measure of success that has attended
the experiments made with the Trout and the Salmon-trout. This subject of the estab-
lishment or otherwise of real salmon, in Tasmania more particularly, is one which has
to be approached with some degree of diffidence. There are those who, not having the
courage of their convictions, have acquiesced with and encouraged Tasmanians in the
belief that their superb, but in comparison ungainly, trout are no other than lordly
salmon. It has been a sore point, too, and a sincere source of regret to the writer,
that when called upon to invest this or that fish which has been submitted to him,
including the magnificent 294 lb. Huon fish, with the aristocratic title of Salmo
salar, he has been unable, conscientiously, to pronounce the verdict that was
expected.

Prophets have even been summoned, like Balak, from afar to prophesy pleasant
things concerning them. The only, and to most minds very cold, comfort accruing
from such a course, however, has been the oracular announcement that certain of
these fish would be sold “as salmon” in the English market. Now, according to
the English Salmon Fisheries Act, 1861, all migratory species of salmonide, including
the salmon-trout or the brown trout that frequent the river estuaries and run up the
rivers to spawn, are “salmon.” In the eye of the English law, consequently, the
Hobart Museum Curator is perfectly justified in labelling the Huon trout a salmon,
or any other authorities in declaring that “salmon” are established in Tasmania. If,
however, sportsmen repair to Tasmania with the express object of enjoying salmon
fishing as understood in the British Islands, and as correlated with the capture of
Salmo salar, they are undoubtedly doomed to grievous disappointment.

A brief account of what has actually been accomplished in the direction of
acclimatising the “King of fishes” in Tasmania may be acceptable. From the year
1852 down to within quite a recent date, the attempt to establish salmon in that
Colony has been the main object of operations prosecuted by the Government, aided
by a Board of Salmon Commissioners and liberal private assistance. The introduction
of Trout and Salmon-trout, while conducted concurrently, was held to be of secondary
importance. For several years the writer enjoyed the privilege of officially participating
in these acclimatisation operations, and he was thus afforded the opportunity of making
himself acquainted with all the attendant circumstances, and of arriving at what

would appear to be the only logical explanation of the results obtained.

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 183

Since the date of the earliest successful consignment of salmon ova to
Tasmania, by the ship “Norfolk” in the year 1864, literally millions of salmon ova
have been similarly imported, their fry being hatched out at the Salmon Ponds, near
New Norfolk, and subsequently liberated in the Derwent and other apparently
suitable rivers. Sometimes these young salmon were turned loose into the rivers in
the earlier or parr form, and at other times in the silvery “smolt” condition when
they were ready to make their first migration to salt water. In ‘no instances,
however, have these salmon smolts been authentically known to return to the rivers
the following year as “grilse” or in subsequent years as full grown salmon. Some
have suggested that the young salmon on arriving at the sea were invariably devoured
by sharks, barracouta, or other predatory fish. In that case, however, the salmon-
trout that descended as smolts with them at the same time would have shared their
fate. That, however, by no means happened, numbers returning to the rivers. It
may be added that the active young salmon were far better qualified to take care of
themselves in the salt water than many of the species of fish indigenous to Tasmania.

It occurred to the writer that possibly the question of temperature was an
essential element in the refusal of the salmon to adapt themselves to their new
environments, and a series of thermometrical observations was inaugurated. From these
experiments it was ascertained that the sea water on the Tasmanian coast averaged
some ten degrees higher than that of the British seas, and corresponded more nearly
with that of the Mediterranean on the South Coast of France.

This fact was in itself a sufficient explanation of the disappointing results so
repeatedly obtained. The salmon, unlike its hardier relation the trout, is known to
be particularly sensitive to any changes of external conditions, and more especially
to those of temperature. Consequently, the millions of young salmon fry and smolts
that have been liberated in the rivers of Tasmania and made their way to the ocean,
finding the temperature of the sea water in the vicinity of Tasmania too warm for
their comfort, have, it may be predicted, wandered away, presumably in the direction
of the Antarctic Ocean, in search of colder water. Interesting evidence in support
of the correctness of this interpretation is afforded by the fact that precisely similar
results have attended the attempts to establish salmon in rivers of the South of
France which debouch upon the correspondingly warm waters of the Mediterranean.
The young salmon have thriven as fry, parr, and smolts in the French rivers, but,
on migrating to the sea, they wandered away and did not return to their native

streams to spawn, as they would have done under their normal conditions.

184 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

That this temperature interpretation is the only one that will logically
account for the decided objections manifested by Salmo salar to establish itself in
Tasmanian waters—all other conditions being so favourable—is now pretty generally
recognised. Tasmania, nevertheless, if not possessing salmon, may rest contentedly on
her laurels as being facile princeps among the surrounding colonies in the production
of Brobdingnagian trout. At the world-famous Trout-Hatchery on the River Plenty,
of which the writer is proud of having been entrusted with the enlargement and _ re-
organisation on modern principles, trout have been bred and the ova dispatched far
and wide for stocking the streams of New Zealand, Victoria, New South Wales,
South Australia, and, in these latter days, Western Australia. The latest operations
undertaken by the writer in the last-named colony included the establishment of a
trout-hatchery in the neighbourhood of Bunbury, and the distribution of fry raised
there from Tasmanian ova in various of the more suitable rivers in the southern district
of that colony. These included the Rivers Preston, Collie, Capel, Blackwood, Hervey,
and Murray, from some at least of which streams satisfactory bags of trout are being
hopefully anticipated in a few years’ time.

English Perch, Perca fluviatilis, the Tench, Tinca vulgaris, and also the Prussian
Carp, Carassius vulgaris, have long since been successfully introduced into Australian
waters, the first-named species thriving most conspicuously in the artificial lakes and
reservoirs in the vicinity of Ballarat, Victoria. In the writer's humble opinion there
are, however, a number of indigenous fresh-water species more worthy of attention
than the several last-named European types. Silver Eels, Anguilla australis, of high
gastronomic excellence, and very nearly resembling the much esteemed English species,
A. vulgaris, abound in the Southern Colonies, and about two years ago were experi-
mentally introduced by the writer into rivers in the southern district of Western
Australia, where they were hitherto unrepresented. According to recent reports,
they have already commenced to multiply in the Upper Avon, where the majority were
liberated, and, being distributed from this centre, should hereafter prove a welcome
addition to the riverine settlers’ commissariat.

Some little space may now be devoted to those representatives of the Austra-
lian fish fauna which are of an essentially phenomenal but non-economical character.
Among these, no more appropriate group can be selected for illustration than the
Lophobranchiate family of the Syngnathide, which embraces such types as the Pipe-
fishes, Sea-horses and Sea-dragons. A few of the more notable of these are accordingly
included in the coloured drawing, Chromo-Plate VI., which faces the commencement

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL, 185

of this Chapter. No other part of the world, it may be asserted, produces so
varied and remarkable an assemblage of members of this group as are to be found
in Australian waters, and more especially within its southern or temperate limits.
In this association it may be mentioned that the little European Sea-horse, Hippo-
campus antiquorum, scarce in British seas but common in the Mediterranean, and
rarely exceeding a length of three inches, is represented in Tasmanian waters
by a form, Hippocampus abdominalis, fully four times that size. Such a species as
this would create a sensation at Brighton or other of the large public aquaria,
and with suitable precautions could be successfully transported to England from the
Antipodes. The colours of this Tasmanian Hippocampus vary considerably, ranging
through all the gradations of creamy white, with usually a pale yellow chest and
sparsely dark-spotted back, to examples in which a dark golden or more sombre brown
predominate. In this item of colour the Mediterranean species exhibits even greater
variability, the writer having had specimens in his possession, supplied to him
by Mr. G. Hoadley King, the Aquarium naturalist, of Great Portland Street,
London, in which some individuals were, while living, red, others pale yellow, or
white, or brown with many intermediate tints. Two of the smaller forms of
Australian Sea-horses or Hippocampi are included in the coloured plate previously
referred to.

If the large Tasmanian Sea-horses are calculated to create a sensation at a public
aquarium, the addition thereto of living examples of their relatives the Australian
Sea-dragons, of the genus Phyllopteryx, might be expected to inaugurate a decided
boom in favour of these aquatic institutions. This generic group is most essentially
and peculiarly Australian, numbering three or four species, the two most remarkable
of which are illustrated in Chromo-Plate VI. One of these, Phyllopteryx foliatus, is
most abundant on the Tasmanian coast, and the second one, P. eques, is frequently
taken in their dredges by the oystermen of Port Lincoln, in South Australia. While
of somewhat smaller size and considerably less elaborate in contour and in the number
and dimensions of its membranous appendages, the Tasmanian species is much the
more brightly coloured. As shown in the illustration above quoted, its general ground
tint is a brilliant scarlet carmine, spotted on the sides of the body and head with
white. On the sides of the neck are seven or eight transverse stripes of violet or
cobalt blue, while the narrow ventral surface of both neck and abdomen is bright
yellow. The leaf-like appendages of both body and tail are deep crimson, with a yet

darker linear outer border. Large examples measure as much as fourteen or
AA

186 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

fifteen inches in length. The aspect of this species when swimming in a semi-vertical
position, as shown in the illustration, is remarkably suggestive of a hopping kangaroo,
the two ventral appendages corresponding with the marsupial’s fore-paws.

The South Australian Sea-dragon, Phyllopteryx eques, which occupies the central
and most extensive area of our coloured plate, attains to a greater length than the
Tasmanian type by several inches. Its most remarkable peculiarity, however, as
indicated in the figure given, is the more angular contour of the body and the
wonderfully luxuriant development upon it of outstanding spines and membranous
leaf-like appendages. These structures bear a striking resemblance to the fronds of
the seaweeds among which it commonly takes up its abode, and may be regarded as
a special adaptation to ensure the animal’s effectual concealment amid its thoroughly
harmonious environment. In this manner bunches of a finer species of seaweed
appear to spring from the head, while the broader leaf-like fronds of a larger variety
grow seemingly from all of the more prominent angles of the creature’s body. In
addition to these there is a series of flattened plumeless spines along both the
dorsal and ventral surfaces, which present a strong general resemblance to newly
sprouting algal growths. Writing of this species of Sea-dragon, as illustrated in Dr.
Gunther’s “ Introduction to the Study of Fishes,” page 682, the Rev. Tennison Woods
remarks, “It is the ghost of a sea-horse with its winding sheet in ribbons around it,
and, as a ghost, it seems in the very last stage of emaciation, literally all skin and
grief.” In the figure alluded to, drawn from a specimen abnormally shrivelled up
by conservation in strong alcohol, the spectre-like comparisons are by no means
inappropriate. In its native element, however, resplendent in its natural colouring, in
which various shades of light crimson or lilac predominate, bravely bedecked with
flowing frills and furbelows, and with resplendent jewel-like eyes of sapphire blue,
this fish constitutes one of nature’s most exquisitely wonderful productions, capable
of and distinctly manifesting the fullest capacity for life’s enjoyment.

The fish at the bottom of Chromo-Plate VI. is a _ type, Solengognathus
spinosissimus, that is intermediate between the slender Pipe-fishes—represented by a
species of Syngnathus towards the left-hand top corner—and the Sea-horses,
Hippocampi. Like the latter, it has a prehensile tail, with at the same time a
gorgeous scarlet and yellow livery resembling that of the Sea-dragons. The form
figured is occasionally taken with Phyllopteryx foliatus in Tasmanian waters, while
a second species, S. Hardwickii, occurs as far north as Houtman’s Abrolhos on the

west, and Moreton Bay on the eastern Australian sea-board.

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FISHES--PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 187

In Gastrotokeus biaculeatus, an elongate, grass-green species, a yet nearer
approach is made to the ordinary Pipe-fishes. The tail, however, possesses the same
prehensile character as that of the Sea-horses. Gastrotokeus is an essentially tropical
type, occurring on the North Queensland coast and on the north-west coast of
Western Australia. In common with Phyllopteryx and Solengognathus, the male
individual of Gastrotokeus fulfils the ré/e of foster parent to the infant brood,
receiving and taking care of the ova, which throughout the period of incubation are
firmly embedded by their bases in the soft abdominal membranes, until they are
hatched. The ova of both Phyllopteryx and Gastrotokeus are of large size, of a
delicate pale pink hue in the latter and a bright clear red in the first-named type.
In many of the ordinary Pipe-fishes the eggs, carried by the male, are enclosed in
membranous folds of the skin, while in the Sea-horses, Hippocampus, there is a true
pouch or marsupium for their reception. As may be anticipated by the small aperture
of the mouth in all of the members of this group here enumerated, their food is of
the most minute description, consisting almost exclusively of Entomostracous crustacea
and the larval forms of the larger species.

Some of the most outré-shaped and brilliantly coloured members of the
Australian fish fauna are included in the very distinct group of the Plectognathi.
This series is represented most conspicuously by what are known popularly in
Australia as Leather Jackets and Cow-fishes, belonging respectively to the genera
Monacanthus and Ostracion. Although the Plectognathi are usually represented
as fish which are essentially characteristic of tropical or sub-tropical seas, the
greater number and more brilliant of the Australian species pertain to the tempe-
rate waters of that Island-Continent, and are notably abundant on the extreme
southern sea-board of Tasmania. As with the Syngnathidee, a coloured plate, Chromo-
Plate VII., has been set specially apart for the illustration of characteristic members
of this group.

Of the Australian Cow-fishes, so-called with reference to the _ horn-like
prominences which are usually developed from the frontal region of their indurated
carapace-like integument, the Tasmanian species Ostracion or Aracana ornata is a
brilliant example. The males and females of this species are so differently coloured
that they were originally, as in the case of the British Cuckoo Wrass, Labrus miztus,
supposed to represent two distinct species, and had conferred upon them the separate
titles of Ostracion ornata and O. aurita. The specific identity of the two species has
been amply demonstrated in examples examined by the writer, one particularly interesting

188 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

individual, an hermaphrodite, exhibiting the characteristic colours of the two. presump-
tive species on opposite sides.

The Tasmanian Cow-fish rarely exceeds six inches in length, but is quite the
gem of its tribe from an esthetic standpoint. In the male fish, which is the more
brilliant of the two, the ground colour of the body of the living fish is a bright
grass-green above and on the sides, and pale lemon-yellow beneath; that of the tail
or caudal fin orange-yellow; and the remaining pectoral, dorsal and anal fins a neutral
transparent tint. Excepting the pale-yellow ventral area, the remaining surface of the
of his body is traversed by broad, irregular, more or less interrupted, stripes of the
most brilliant ultramarine blue, the edges of which are usually distinctly defined by
narrow border-lines of dark chocolate brown. Two or three of the central blue
body stripes are usually continued into the tail, forming upon that member loop-like
patterns. The pale-yellow ventral region is further variegated by a broad reticulated
pattern in pale blue.

It is especially remarkable of the broad blue stripes that ornament the general
surface of the body that they are never of a precisely similar pattern in any two
individuals. Some three or four, at the most, of the horizontal central stripes are
continued uninterruptedly from the head or snout to the posterior region. Those
belonging to the upper or dorsal area, more particularly, are usually broken up into
short lengths or isolated spots, and this more rarely occurs also with relation to the
central and lower stripes. An example of a characteristically marked male specimen
of this Cow-fish is represented by Chromo-Plate VII, fig. A.

The female of the species, formerly known as Ostracion aurita, depicted oppo-
site the letter B in the same Plate, possesses somewhat the same pattern markings,
but is distinguished by altogether distinct tints. The ground colour of the body of the
female individuals is chiefly a pale pinkish grey or dove-colour, with local flushes
of a more decided pink, and the lower surface entirely pure yellow. The broad blue
longitudinal stripes destinctive of the males are represented in the females by
corresponding ones which are of a rich reddish-brown hue, and are rarely, if ever,
broken up into short isolated lengths or spots. In place of this, however, the stripes
commonly coalesce more or less extensively with one another in individually varying
patterns, and very frequently in the neighbourhoods of the bases of the dorsal
and pectoral fins assume an irregular helicoidal or spiral design.

' The number of spinous processes developed on the carapace of this Tasmanian

species are considerably in excess of those possessed by other familiar types, such as

i

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 189

Ostracion cornutum. In addition to the two horn-like frontal spines, two pairs are
developed on the back, a single pair from the centre of the side, and two or three
pairs on each side of the abdomen, making from twelve to fourteen in all. The
supremely restless habits, bright colouration, and grotesque shape of the little Tas-
manian Cow-fish, rendered this species a highly popular attraction at the writer's
Hobart fisheries establishment, where a tank was temporarily devoted to the reception of
a selected series of individually varying specimens. Among the more bizarre aspects
exhibited by this Cow-fish reference may be more especially made to that presented
in an end-on view as delineated in the two figures opposite the letter C in Chromo-
Plate VII. In its young condition Ostracion cornutum is common in Summer in the
shallow inshore waters of the innumerable coves and bays of the southern coast-line
of Tasmania, while the larger, adult, individuals are frequently taken in the “ grab-all”
nets set by the fishermen in deeper waters for the capture of Silver Trumpeter.

The Leather Jackets or Trigger-fishes, referable to the genus Monacanthus,
are among the most abundant of the representatives of the Plectognathi in Aus-
tralian waters. They take the first of their popular titles with respect to the
texture of their scaleless, finely granulated or hispid skins, which may be stripped
from their bodies with the greatest ease in a form highly suggestive of a piece
of fine kid leather. The second title of “Trigger-fishes” has been bestowed upon
them with reference to the peculiar construction of the anterior dorsal fin, which
in Monacanthus, as its technical name implies, consists of a single large sharply-
pointed spine and its attached membrane. This spine is capable of elevation and
depression at the will of its owner, and when erected is so rigidly held in its place
that it will break before it can be pressed into its recumbent position by main force.
There is, however, a small bone behind and at the base of this spine, which, on being
moved mechanically or by the muscles of the animal, immediately causes the spine to
drop down in a manner suggestive of the trigger and hammer arrangement of a gun-
lock. In the allied genus Balistes, with which the name of Trigger-fishes is more
exclusively associated, this mechanical peculiarity is most conspicuously developed.
Behind the large anterior spine there are two shorter and relatively slender ones, and
the pressure of one of these when the fin is erected causes the immediate collapse of
the larger spine. Several representatives of this genus frequent the coral reefs of the
Northern tropical Australian sea-board.

Of the more cosmopolitan single-spined Leather Jackets, genus Monacanthus,

no less than forty Australian species have been described. These may vary in size

190 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

respectively from a few inches to about a foot and a half in length. Several of them
inhabit the colder waters of the Southern Tasmanian coast-line, and one of these,
Monacanthus rudis, has been selected as the central illustration in Chromo-Plate VII.
It is worthy of remark that the individual here portrayed is a male fish, bedight in
what might be denominated his wedding livery, his resplendent garb of blue and
yellow being at other seasons of the year replaced by sober tints of brown and white.
This fact was ascertained through the writer keeping this specimen for a considerable
interval at the Hobart fishery establishment. A familiar instance of a British fish
undergoing an almost equally remarkable colour metamorphosis is afforded by the
male of the common Stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, who, during the mating
season, exchanges his everyday dress of silvery grey for a most gorgeous corselet of
gold and scarlet and shining green.

In many of the common species of Australian Leather Jackets, notably
Monacanthus hippocrepis and M. Ayraudi, lines, spots or suffused patches of rich cobalt
blue are permanently conspicuous, rendering them among the gayest members of the
Australian fish fauna. Added to this, many of the species are distinguished by an
abnormal development of their fins or by body excrescences, which impart to them a
most bizarre aspect. Thus, in one species, M. megalurus, a pouch-like membrane
is developed on the chest ; in many instances, horny, hook-like structures protrude in
the male individuals on each side of the tail; while in one form, M. Browni, also
taken in Tasmania, these horny hooks are replaced by a lozenge-shaped, tooth-brush-
like patch of bristles.

Notwithstanding their somewhat abnormal appearance, and the fact that they
represent an order which includes the highly poisonous Toad-fishes, Leather J ackets,
though but rarely brought to the fish market, have been pronounced by
connoisseurs to be most excellent eating, and, if skinned before cooking, as
being equal to the much-esteemed Sole or Flounder. In such high estimation, in
point of fact, were these fish regarded by one of the earlier Tasmanian settlers,
an ancestor to a reigning judicial functionary, that these fish are still known to
the local fisher-folk by the patronymic of their whilom appreciator. Leather
Jackets are by no means regarded with favour by the ordinary line fishermen.
The smaller species have a special knack of nibbling the bait off the hook
with their trenchant chisel-like teeth, while the larger ones can with the same
weapons easily sever a stout line or a steel hook of moderate thickness. When
caught, they on the same account demand wary handling, a nip from the

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 191

formidable teeth of a large specimen being liable to lead to a loss of flesh, blood,
and—with any but evenly-balanced minds—serenity of language and temper.

One other interesting member of the order of the Plectognathi is included
in Chromo-Plate VII. This is the Tasmanian Porcupine-fish, or prickly Globe-fish,
as it is sometimes called, Chilomycterus jaculiferus, Fig. D. It very nearly resembles
the common Poreupine-fish, Diodon maculata, of the tropical Australian coast-line
but possesses more slender spines and other obscure points of distinction. When
brought to the surface of the water it shares with the familiar tropical species the
property of inflating itself with air into an almost perfect sphere, around which the
spines stand rigidly erect. A fish thus floating and inflated was always observed
to occupy a considerable interval, it might be half-an-hour, in getting rid of the
injected air and thereby recovering the capacity to descend again into the profun-
dities of its native element.

The Toad-fishes, belonging to the genus Tetrodon, which are very abundantly
represented in Australian waters, possess the same power of inflating their bodies,
and are on this account pre-eminently distinguished in Australia by the title of Blow-
fishes. Several of the smaller varieties, and notably a handsome golden-green, black
spotted form, Zetrodon Hamilton, are plentiful on the Tasmanian coast, but the larger
species of a foot or more in length are chiefly limited to the tropics. It is worthy of
remark that the members of this genus are notoriously poisonous, and that several
fatalities have occurred in both Tasmania and on the Australian mainland through the
injudicious participation in a meal of Toad-fish. A portrait of the above-named

common and highly poisonous Tasmanian species is annexed.

TASMANIAN TOAD-FISH, Tetrodon Hamiltoni, TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.

192 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

A somewhat grotesque name has been bestowed on one member of the
Plectognathi by the Fremantle fishermen, with whom the Toad-fishes are familiarly
known as “ Blow-fish.” The species in question is one of the Trunk or Cow-fishes,
Ostracion lenticularis, differing from the type previously described, by the entire
absence of horn-like protuberances. In recognition of its obvious natural affinity
with the more familiar Tetrodons the title improvised for it is the “ Bony Blow-fish.”

This list of Australian Phenomenal Fishes would be culpably incomplete without
a brief reference to the so-called Port Jackson Shark, Cestracion Phillipi, which has
been selected as the tail-piece illustration to this Chapter. The chief interest
attachable to this fish is centred in its remote antiquity. It representing the only genus
of a family group traceable back through the cretaceous and triassic to the more
remote Devonian or carboniferous formations. For a shark, the fish is of but small
size, rarely exceeding four or five feet in length. A tolerable idea of its form and
peculiarities may be obtained by a reference to the figure mentioned, which was
taken literally from life. As there shown, the head is especially large and massive, and
provided with conspicuous brow-ridges, while in front of each of the broad dorsal fins
there is a strong spine, as is found in the Piked Dog-fish, Acanthias, of the British seas.

The armature of the mouth of Cestracion is highly characteristic. It consists
in front of prehensile elements, but to the rear of these there is a pavement-like
arrangement of crushing teeth, wherewith their owner breaks up and feeds upon
various descriptions of hard-shelled Invertebrata. Oysters are a favourite food of this
Shark, and, in consequence of its predilections for this bivalve, it has proved
a formidable enemy to oyster growers in both Tasmania and on the mainland
sea-board. At Spring Bay, in the former island Colony, the writer found it even
necessary to fence round certain of the Government Oyster Reserves with closely
wattled brush wood in order to protect the oyster stock laid down from this shark’s
depredations. In some localities Cestracion feeds almost exclusively upon Sea-Urchins
or Echini, the sharp spines of which have apparently no other effect than the pleasant
titillation of its palate. The proof of the extent to which this piquant food is
favoured by this Shark is afforded by the fact that the entire pavement of teeth of
captured specimens are not unfrequently permanently stained a deep purple, through
constant indulgence in a dietary of the commoner purple Urchin. The name of Port
Jackson Shark was conferred upon Cestracion Phillipi with reference to its having
been first captured in that locality, to which it was then supposed to be restricted.
It has, however, been since found pretty well throughout temperate Australian waters,

FISHES—PHENOMENAL AND ECONOMICAL. 193

and has been met with by the writer at such remote locations as Tasmania, Moreton
Bay in Queensland, and Fremantle in Western Australia. The specimen figured on
page 194 was taken at the last-named station. The Oyster-Crusher, Pig-fish, and.
Bull-Dog Shark are names by which it is locally known to Australian fishermen.

Phenomenal Sharks of the more ordinary type are by no means strangers to
Australian waters. Examples of the Tiger Shark, Galeocerdo Rayneri, and the Blue
Shark, Carcharias glaucus, have been authentically attested to up to twenty or twenty-
five feet in length, and according to their measurement with relation to the boats
alongside which these monsters have occasionally put in an appearance, may even
attain to thirty feet. An original method of disposing of a large shark was recently
brought before the notice of the writer. The fish, as commonly happens, was cruising
around a steam-boat anchored in Sydney Harbour on the look out for flotsam and
jetsam. The cook happened to have a pumpkin on the boil in the galley and, by a
sudden inspiration, conceived the idea of throwing it to the shark. It was imme-
diately seized and swallowed, followed by a commotion suggestive of a dynamite
explosion. When the troubled waters sank to rest the shark lay lifeless on their
surface! The experiment, though novel and successful in its object, was, it must be
admitted, rather rough upon the shark.

The Elephant-fish, or Southern Chimera, Callorhynchus antarcticus, undoubtedly
claims a front place in the ranks of abnormal or phenomenal members of the Shark
tribe. It has already received a brief share of attention at page 167, in conjunction
with the reference to its effigy in Plaster of Paris, photographically reproduced in
company with many other species in Plate XXVIII, The specimen No. 20, there
portrayed, represented a full-grown female individual, which, after capture, deposited
one of its singular, flattened, horny, egg cases. This structure, allowing for the
absence of the horny tendrils at the four corners, somewhat resembles those of our
_ British Dog-fishes, of the genus Scyllium. The edges of the case are, however,
much more flattened and expanded, while, in order to secure the adherence of the
organism to submarine objects, the whole under surface is coated with fine flocculent
filaments, which are viscid and adhesive when the structure is first extruded from the
oviduct. As shown by the replica of the egg case that was made in plaster in
conjunction with the parent fish, its size is relatively considerable.

The chief interest attached to this type is its near relationship, and occurrence
as a complementary form, to Chimera monstrosa, the Chimera or Rabbit-fish, and

other species of the same genus, of the North Temperate and Arctic seas. The male
BB

194 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

individual of Callorhynchus shares with Chimera the possession of a peculiar hinged
spinous process, which is developed from the centre of the forehead. The true
significance of this peculiar organ has never, as yet, been satisfactorily determined.
The writer is disposed, however, from an examination of it in living fish, to believe
that it is employed during the mating season as a grasping organ. The slender
cartilaginous proboscis of the female of Callorhynchus, or the whip-like tail of that of
Chimera, furnish, in either instance, fulchra which can be tenaciously grasped ‘by
the organ in question.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

PORT JACKSON SHARK, Cestracion Phillipi, p. 192. ONE-TENTH NATURAL SIZE.

Photo.

W. Saville-Kent,

PEARLS.

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ical
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W. Sa -Kent, Photo.

PEARLING LUGGERS IN BROOME CREEK, ROEBUCK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 197.

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS.

CONSIDERABLE space was devoted in the author’s recent work, ‘“ The
Great Barrier Reef of Australia,” to the subject of the Pearls and Pearl-

shell fisheries of Queensland. It is not proposed in this Chapter to re-
traverse that ground, but to chronicle a few data of interest relating to cognate
subjects accumulated during the writer’s later peregrinations in Western Australia.

As a matter of fact, a higher interest, from a naturalist’s point of view, attaches
itself to these fishing industries as pursued in this more recently exploited territory
on account of the circumstance that they have here to deal with two very distinct
varieties of pearl-oyster in place of being practically limited, as in Queensland, to a
single type. In Torres Straits, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and along the northern confines
of the Great Barrier Reef, where the Queensland fisheries are exclusively prosecuted,

the shell sought after is the large essentially tropical species known technically by the

196 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

name of Meleagrina margaritifera. This variety is obtained chiefly on account of
the valuable nature of its shell, its substance representing the finest texture of
Mother-of-Pearl, out of which knife handles, the largest descriptions of pearl buttons,
and all other pearl articles of the best quality are manufactured. Although pearls
of the most valuable description are also obtained from this shell, their acquisition
is held to be of practically secondary import, while, through the inability of the
boat-owners, in the majority of instances, to exert a strict control over the opening and
cleaning of the shells, it is admitted that a very large percentage of the pearls obtained
are surreptitiously disposed of. Notwithstanding this undesirable filtration, it has been
estimated that the value of the pearls obtained ranges from about one-tenth to one-
sixth of that of the shells, and as this in Queensland alone commonly averages
£100,000, the item of pearls is by no means insignificant.

In Western Australia the large tropical Mother-of-Pearl shell is more or less
abundant throughout the coast-line northwards of Exmouth Gulf. The main portion
of the pearling operations is, however, carried out between there and King’s Sound.
North and east of this, as far as Cambridge Gulf, large areas of shell-producing
grounds exist, but owing to the as yet unsettled condition of the adjacent mainland
and the hostility of the natives towards boats’ crews landing for wood and water,
this section of the coast-line has so far remained almost undeveloped. Judging
from the much indented reef and island-bestrewn character of this coast-line, and
the observations made and impressions formed by several voyages between King’s
Sound and Cambridge Gulf, the writer is of the opinion that this section of the
coast will in future years prove to be the most prolific of the Western Australian
Pearl - shelling grounds. With it will probably be also associated Béche-de-Mer
fisheries, approximating in character and value to those of Torres Straits and the
Great Barrier.

At the present time the fishery for Béche-de-Mer on the Western Australian
sea-board is scarcely worthy of notice, being limited to the takings of a few isolated
fishermen, chiefly Chinamen, who. ply their avocation in the neighbourhoods of King’s
Sound and Dampier’s Archipelago. With the latter exception there are very few
favourable reefs south of King’s Sound of sufficient extent to yield a profitable fishery,
while, as ascertained by the writer, the qualities produced are inferior to the Queens-
land types. As chronicled, however, in the preceding Chapter, the majority of the
most esteemed Torres Straits and Great Barrier Reef species were discovered by the

writer in Houtman’s Abrolhos Islands, and though these do not appear to occur on

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 197

the mainland coast-line up to and among the reefs of the Buccaneer Archipelago off
King’s Sound, it-is by no means improbable that they may be met with again further
north and east of that point.

The fishery for the larger tropical species of Mother-of-Pearl shell is conducted
in Western Australian waters on precisely the same lines as in Queensland. In
the earlier days, as in Queensland, the shell was obtained by simply wading on and
collecting it from the reefs. Native or Malay naked divers were next employed to
bring the shell up from relatively small depths, while finally, as the shell became
exhausted in the shallower and was found to be obtainable in quantities only in the
deeper water of from ten to twenty or more fathoms, recourse has been had to
schooners and luggers equipped with the most perfected diving apparatus. From
convenient ports, such as Broome and Cossack, luggers will run out to, and work
independently on, the adjacent shelling grounds. Where, however, as mostly happens,
these grounds are at a considerable distance from any port, a number of luggers
belonging to a company or private firm are escorted to the grounds by a schooner
which both acts as a tender for needful supplies and receives all the shell collected.
Even under these conditions both schooners and luggers commonly return to port at
spring tides when the currents are too strong to permit of the divers working. The
photograph reproduced at the head of this Chapter represents one such occasion when
a large number of the boats had come in for stores and shelter to Broome Creek.

The port of Broome in Roebuck Bay, may be said in respect to the Pearl-
shelling industry of Western Australia, to occupy a position much akin to that
of Thursday Island with relation to Queensland, it being the port furthest north to
which the pearling fleet is accustomed to resort for supplies and repairs. As with
Thursday Island (Port Kennedy), when first visited by the writer about a decade
since, Broome is not very far advanced in the amenities and conveniences of modern
civilisation. Thursday Island, however, revisited a few years later, had made such
rapid strides as to possess a well-built jetty, obviating the necessity of landing in
small boats. It could also boast of that indispensable anti-climax of British citizenship
—a hansom cab. Broome revisited will, no doubt, a year or two hence, cap the
precocity of Port Kennedy by the production of a motor car. In the interim, a
substantial jetty at which vessels can land or embark freight and passengers at
all tides is no doubt the sine qud non of Broome, and possessed of it she should,
with the enterprising guiding spirits now at the helm, speedily achieve distinction.
In direct touch by cable station with the hub of the world, affording the greatest

198 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

facilities for access to the Kimberley goldfields, and the last convenient port of call
for steamers arriving at or departing for Singapore and the farther East, Broome
possesses abundant claims for substantial recognition and support beyond those
relating to its intimate connection with the Pearl-shelling industry.

Landing at Broome under ‘conditions other than those of highest tide is, to
the ordinary traveller, a gruesome undertaking. Even to the born naturalist a mud
wade—and such mud—of close upon half-a-mile with, albeit, here and there a spotted
whelk and here and there a winkle, all new to him, if not to science, to beguile his
attention, becomes a somewhat toilsome pleasure. Such a wade, handicapped with
a black cockatoo on his wrist, a cage of live lizards under his arm, boots slung
round his neck, and a few unconsidered trifles of less account otherwhere disposed,
represents the writer’s last parting touch with Westralian soil. A new Broome, with a
clean swept landing stage, is the devoutly-to-be-wished-for innovation looked forward
to by the writer on the occasion of his next visit to Roebuck Bay. The foregoing
experiences notwithstanding, mud-larking among the mangroves unencumbered with
travelling impedimenta is undoubtedly, to the naturalist, a right royal treat that may
be profitably reverted to later on.

In connection with his investigations of, and reports to the Government
upon, the Mother-of-Pearl shell and other local fisheries, the writer spent some little
time at separate intervals at the Port of Broome. He gladly avails himself
of this opportunity of recording his grateful acknowledgments to Mr. Skelton
Streeter and his worthy henchman, Mr. W. Male, for most liberal hospitality and
accommodation, otherwise unattainable, accorded him while visiting the remote “nor-
west.” Mr. Streeter being, moreover, the owner of the largest fleet. of Pearling boats
that sailed from Roebuck Bay, and his station being the trade centre to which a large
percentage of the shell and pearls derived from other local sources was continu-
ally flowing, the writer, during his sojourn there, enjoyed exceptional facilities for
acquainting himself with the wealth of material derived from this district. A small
corner from a couple of the many traysful of pearls that in this manner passed within
the writer’s purview has been photographically reproduced in Plate XXXII. The
material embodied in this series is what might be denominated a mixed lot. It con-
sists to a large extent of irregular-shaped, or what are known to the trade as
“Barok” pearls; mixed with these, however, are a goodly number of first-class gems
of both large and medium-sized dimensions. The group occupying the lower portion

of the Plate is composed for the most part of pearl blisters, hollow excrescences of

PLATE XXXIII.

Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. W, Saville-Kent, Photo.

THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN “SOUTHERN CROSS” PEARL, p. 199.

PLATE XXXIV.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

REMARKABLE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN PEARL. “L’ Enfant Prodige, ” p. 202.

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 199

pearly substance, which, when symmetrically shaped and suitably mounted, are only
distinguishable by the initiated from solid pearls. Pearls themselves often grow
attached to the surface of the shell, and in course of time become enclosed by and
buried within its matrix; these immersed pearls can be disengaged and trimmed or
“faked” into perfect shape. Samples of such immersed pearls are conspicuous
towards the left-hand corner of the Plate. In common with the “blisters” they are
in the first place punched free from their shelly matrix, and in that rough form
consigned to the hands of the expert.

A few choice pearls of more exceptional size and quality placed by Mr. Streeter
at the writer’s disposal for photographic delineation have been reproduced in the form
of a tail-piece illustration to this Chapter.

The amount of pearls produced by any given weight of shell is an altogether
problematic quantity, incapable of even approximate determination. There are, at the
same time, grounds upon which the shell produces pearls in phenomenal abundance,
such shell, however, being invariably of inferior quality. Pearls, in fact, as is
tolerably well known, represent a diseased product of the mollusc. It might, indeed,
be suggested that they partake somewhat of the nature of chalk-stones in the human
subject. Were puns permissible, we might add the moral “Chacun a son goft ”—
not even excepting oysters. Although the best quality of Pearl-shell produces com-
paratively few pearls, those obtained from it are of the finest shape and lustre. As
an illustration of phenomenal pearl production, it may be mentioned that when he was
last travelling up the Western Australian coast about two years ago, the discovery
was announced to the writer of a new bank of shell that had been made off the
coast near Onslow in the Ashburton district. The shell proved to be of a very
diseased and inferior description, but from a few tons’ weight of it pearls to the
value of no less than £10,000 were secured by one company.

Pearls may assume the most fantastic shapes. The two specimens photo-
graphed in Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV., obtained from Western Australian
waters, are probably the most remarkable examples that have been hitherto dis-
covered. The one portrayed in the former of these two Plates is the world-celebrated
“Southern Cross.” In place of representing, as might be reasonably supposed, an
artificially arranged congeries of pearls of approximately equal form and _ size, it
constitutes a natural cross-shaped group, firmly united to one another by their
lateral surfaces, and in the precise relationship in which they were discovered on

opening a shell collected during the fishery off the coast near Cossack in the year

200 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

1874. This remarkable pearl, or more correctly group of pearls, was brought to
London and exhibited in the Western Australian Courts of the Colonial and Indian
Exhibition of the year 1886, the value there placed upon it by the company to
whom it then belonged being no less than £10,000. The opportunity of its advent
to London was utilised for a most critical examination at the hands of experts
to discover whether or not this product was a genuine lusus nature, or the
outcome of a more or less assisted artificial combination. The gem, however,
withstood the severest tests applied, and it emerged from the ordeal with the
added lustre of high scientific testimony as to its bond jides.

A purchaser of the “Southern Cross” at the above price was not forth-
coming, and it still remains in the hands of a Western Australian Syndicate,
from whom it may yet be bought at a very material reduction upon the fancy
sum originally placed upon it. While in Western Australia the author enjoyed
the privilege of the possession of this wondrous Cross for two whole days and
nights, in order that he might examine and immortalise it with his camera. The
responsibility of sleeping with a gem under one’s pillow for the loss of which damages
to the extent of £10,000

might be claimed was

Through an accidental fall
since its original discovery,
somewhat nerve - stirring, the two adherent pear! ele-
and would not have been ments at the foot of the
as lightly undertaken, and combination have become
probably not as promptly slightly loosened from the
conceded, in London as in preceding five, but the
the as yet unsophisticated manner in which the whole
capital of Western Aus- series fit into one another
tralia. The author’s inves- by reciprocal convex and
tigation of the “Southern concave surfaces, or, so to

Cross” has led him in no say, shallow cup and ball

way to dissent from the ver- articulations, leaves little

99) casey

THE “SOUTHERN CROSS”? PEARL, NATURAL SIZE.

dict previously pronounced. or no room for scepticism.

The Cross, in its entirety, consists of what may be defined as nine amalgamated
pearls, seven of which constitute the main shaft, and the remaining two, disposed
laterally and almost, but not quite, symmetrically on opposite sides of the second
pearl in the central row, represent the arms. The superficial likeness in size and

contour of the central shaft, regarded separately, to a row of plump, closely-adpressed

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 201

marrow-fat peas, as they lie in a newly-opened pod, is very suggestive. In order to
preserve it from accident, and to facilitate its handling, this pearl cross has been
mounted in a light open gold setting that in no way interferes with the full
display of its unique character. It was under these conditions that it was laid upon
a pearl shell corresponding in dimensions with that from which it was originally taken,
and photographed as portrayed in the accompanying plate of its precise natural size.
For the second photograph of this gem, reproduced on the preceding page, and represent-
ing it in its original unmounted condition, the writer is indebted to Mr. Maitland Brown
of Geraldton, Western Australia, one of the Members of the Syndicate to whom this
celebrated Cross belongs.

Much speculation has been indulged in respecting the probable nature of the
foreign matter or nucleus, if any, that has formed the foundation of this remarkable
pearl combination. It is suggested by Mr. Edwin Streeter, in his interesting treatise
“ Pearling and Pearling Life”: London, 1886, that such a nucleus is possibly repre-
sented by an adventitiously intruded fragment of serrated seaweed. There is, as a matter
of fact, a species of seaweed, Hormosira Banksii, abundant in Australian waters,
that takes the form of concatenations of spheroidal nodes which might be likened
to strings of pearls. Pearl is, unfortunately, one of the substances impermeable to
the recently discovered Rontgen rays; otherwise, the solution of this mystery of the
“Southern Cross” might be easily achieved. Maybe, however, in the near future, a
new X.X., X.X.X., or other occult luminant will be evolved which shall possess the
property of laying bare and naked the nuclei of Pearls, the marrow within our bones,
and even the quantity and quality of the packing of our brain-cases. The physician’s
diagnosis of the eligibility or otherwise of candidates for Hanwell, or of paterfamilias’
determination of the most appropriate career for the training of his verdant olive-
branches, will, under such conditions, be a lightsome task.

As an illustration of the réle that adventitious substances may take in the
fashioning of the form of pearl concretions, it may be mentioned that there is on view in
the Conchological Gallery of the British, Natural History, Museum a Western Australian
pearl shell into which a small fish, Fierasfer, which not unfrequently occurs as a
commensal of the Pearl-oyster, having intruded, died, and, in lieu of ejectment, became
imprisoned and completely enswathed in a nacreous cerement. Through the kind
courtesy of the Director, Sir William Flower, the writer has been provided with
facilities for taking a photograph of this remarkable specimen, which is reproduced

overleaf. It sometimes happens that a little correspondingly commensal crab,
cc

202 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

referable to the genus Pinnotheres, dies and becomes similarly embedded within a

pearly matrix.
The second exceedingly remarkable example of pearl formation referred to on a

previous page, which
has been selected for
special illustration, is
the one portrayed in
Plate XXXIV. This
photograph is a_life-
sized replica of a
Western Australian
Mother-of-Pearl shell,
with its attached pearly
excrescence, contained

in the author’s collec-

tion. This most extra-

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
PEARL-OYSTER, WITH PEARL-EMBEDDED FISH, CONTAINED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM COLLECTION.

markable not only for TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE. p. 201.

its size, for it measures just two inches in its largest diameter, but for the fact that

ordinary pearl is re-

it presents a most singular resemblance to a human head and torso. Some experts
have associated with this pearl an essentially
infantile cast of countenance—child-like and
bland, like that of the heathen Chinee—
which to some minds has proved a direct
stimulus to a fuller faith in the late Charles
Kingsley’s enunciated doctrine of the exist-
ence of Water Babies. A German acquaint-
ance, on the other hand, to whom it was
submitted, recognised in it a most distinct
likeness to his illustrious countryman, Prince
Bismarck, and suggested that the specimen
only required the addition of a gold-spiked
helmet to perfect the portrait. This example,

being for the present on public view, in com-

pany with a considerable series of pearl and

PEARL-OYSTER LAID OPEN, SHOWING AT A DOUBLE PEARL,
AND AT B SMALL COMMENSAL CRAB. HALF NATURAL SIZE.

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 203

pearl-shells and other indigenous products lent by the writer to the Western
Australian Court of the Imperial Institute, those specially interested in such /usi
nature are afforded an opportunity of examining and deciding for themselves as to
the most manifest resemblances of this infant prodigy.

Included in the collection above referred to are several pearls of fantastic shape,
some of them, notably, resembling the bodies of spiders and various insects. One of
these practically double pearls is photographically reproduced to a scale of a little
less than one half of its natural size in the lower figure on page 202, which represents
it as it was originally exposed to view, embedded in the living tissues of the pearl-
oyster. This specimen is the more interesting since it likewise reveals the presence
of one of the little commensal Pea-crabs, Pinnotheres, already referred to as not
unfrequently occurring in this bivalve. Another little crustacean ‘commensal ”— so-
called to distinguish it from a predaceous parasite, it being dependent upon its host
only for comfortable lodgings—takes the form of a tiny lobster of a transparent hue,
sprinkled with red. This species, which is known to science by the title of Alpheus
avarus, is more plentifully met with in the Mother-of-Pearl shells on the Queensland
coast and is figured in Plate XIV. of the writer’s book descriptive of the fish and
fisheries of the Great Barrier Reef.

As attested to on a previous page, not many years since—Pearl-shelling on the
Western Australian coast, having commenced in the year 1868—shell was to be
obtained in quantities by simply wading and gathering it from the inshore reefs.
These were the happy times when the Pearl-sheller could rapidly make his pile,
effecting a grand coup perhaps in a single day by the purchase of a pickle bottle
full of pearls from the unsophisticated natives for no more substantial a consideration
than a pound of bad tobacco. Times have changed since then, the former inshore
reefs have been stripped clean, and it is with much toil, trouble and a frequent loss
of human life that profitable returns are filched from the deeper water from which the
shell is now alone to be obtained in abundance.

Within a measurable distance of time it will probably come about that the
banks at present workable will become exhausted, and the goose with its golden eggs,
like the oyster industry in some of the South Australian colonies, will be well-nigh, if
not absolutely, done to death. The one remedial measure for this untoward condition
of affairs is undoubtedly that of artificial cultivation. This expedient may not perhaps
recommend itself to the generality of the reapers of to-day, to whom the outlook for

the harvesters of the morrow is a matter of supreme indifference. The waste involved

204 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

to a considerable extent through the destruction of immature shell has been checked
in Queensland waters by the enactment of an Act of Parliament framed on the
recommendation of the writer, prohibiting the taking of pearl-oysters for the market of
less than certain judiciously prescribed dimensions. Greater hope for the future, however,
undoubtedly lies in cultivation, and towards the practical demonstration that such
operations were, though hitherto unaccomplished, perfectly feasible, the writer devoted
some time and attention in both Queensland and Western Australia.

Full particulars regarding the modus operandi pursued, and the results arrived
at in Queensland, being recorded in the author’s “Great Barrier Reef” volume, those
data will not be recapitulated in detail. It will suffice in the present connection to
relate that the shell was brought in from the outer grounds and laid down in natural
lagoons in the Coral reefs of Thursday Island, and that it both throve and multiplied
under such conditions. The greatest difficulty connected with these operations
was found to be the transport ‘of. the living pearl shells, which, unlike ordinary
oysters, were found to be exceedingly impatient of removal from their native
element. It is absolutely necessary, in fact, that they shall be immersed in pure and
frequently changed sea water throughout the voyage. As the result of the success
attending the Thursday Island experiments, certain of the Torres Straits fleet owners
have carried out similar operations on a practical scale, one of these, due facilities
being now provided, leasing a large area from the Government between Friday and
Prince of Wales Islands for the purpose. A photograph of a portion of the area of
the Coral Reef at Thursday Island, which was the scene of the writer’s first success-
ful experiments, is reproduced in the upper portion of Plate XX XV. The four corner
posts of one of the cultivation frames in which the shells were for safety’s sake
deposited are clearly seen projecting above the surface of the nearer coral pool.
At high tide the entire area of this reef is covered by from two to three fathoms
of water, over which there then rushes a deep current of mill-stream-like strength
and velocity.

The Archipelago of Islands in Torres Straits undoubtedly presents exceptional
facilities for the inauguration of Mother-of-Pearl shell cultivation. Not only on account
of the innumerable sheltered reefs and bays that are there eligible for the purpose,
but with regard to the fact that this extreme Northern district lies outside the range
of the devastating hurricanes which during the North-West monsoon are liable to
visit the more southern tropical zone, and which might cause incalculable damage
to Pearl-shell beds laid down in shallow waters.

PLATE XXXV.

yi: S ‘ anes).
: IV. Saville-Kent, Photo,

EXPERIMENTAL PEARLSHELL CULTIVATION SITES: A. CORAL REEF, THURSDAY ISLAND.
B. MANGROVE THICKET, ROEBUCK BAY, pp. 204, 205.

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 205

South of King’s Sound on the Western Australian sea-board, the coast-line
is for the most part far too open and exposed, and, within the tropics, subject to the
risks indicated in the preceding paragraph, for the encouragement of prospects
of successful Pearl-shell cultivation. From King’s Sound northward, however,
which is outside the hurricane zone, there are almost limitless areas that might be
eligible for such an industry when the country is more settled. Making the
most of the few facilities that were available, the writer was enabled to demon-
strate the possibility of cultivating the large Mother-of-Pearl shell in Western
Australian waters under seemingly altogether unfavourable conditions. The site elected
in this instance was no other than a mangrove swamp, close to Broome, in Roebuck
Bay, which had a firmer bottom than the general run of these areas, and in which
natural ponds of a foot or two in depth were left by the retreating tide. At the
writer’s suggestion, and on his supplying him with cultivation frames as used at
Thursday Island, Mr. G. S. Streeter obtained a suitable selection of living pearl-oysters
and laid them down in one of the indicated ponds. As the result, within a year
of the initiation of the experiment, the shells had not only increased in size but com-
menced to propagate, several young ones being attached to the parent shells and to
the substance of the wood and wire frames.

A photograph of this site in the mangrove thicket forms the lower of the two
illustrations in Plate XXXV. This was necessarily taken at extreme low tide; two
of the cultivation frames have been lifted out of the pool on to the surrounding bank,
and one of them is propped open to display its contents. Among these a matured
shell, which has been purposely tilted against the lid of the frame, distinctly shows
one of the locally grown young shells attached to its surface. Except for the
presence of these oyster-frames it might be supposed that this picture represented a
piece of inland sylvan scenery, a happy interblending of wood and stream, in the
depths, maybe, of Epping Forest. Appearances are, however, in this case eminently
deceptive. At high water of spring tides these trees are more than half submerged
by the sea, which not unfrequently comes rolling through them and breaks with
considerable force upon the beach on the shoreward side of this forest-like mangrove
band. The trees composing this woodland scene consist almost exclusively of what
are known as the White Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis, A very characteristic feature
of this type are the somewhat asparagus-like vertical sprouts, known locally as
“Cobbler’s pegs,” which are developed in more or less thickly aggregated bunches

from their horizontally extending roots. Numbers of these structures are visible close

206 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

to the bases of the isolated larger trees, and form a thick carpet on the farther side
of the water in the illustration quoted.

Although it was thus proved that the large Mother-of-Pearl shell would live
and even multiply amid such apparently uncongenial surroundings as a mangrove
swamp, it is not suggested that such locations should be selected in preference to
their natural reefs for cultivation purposes. When, however, it happens, as at Broome,
that there are no contiguous suitable reef areas, mangrove ground, having a firm shell
and gravel bottom, is capable of being turned to substantial practical account.
Such areas can be utilised not only as convenient or necessary store ponds for the
temporary accumulation of supplies of shell to be subsequently transported to more
remote cultivation beds, but also for the conduct of operations and experiments
bearing upon the growth and even possible artificial production of pearls. The
question, at all events, of the feasibility of cultivating the large species of Mother-of-
Pearl. under the most varying conditions within its indigenous tropical area of
distribution was now fully solved, and the steps next initiated were with the view
of ascertaining to what, if any, extent such cultivation might be practical outside these
limits. An oyster whose shells have a market value of from £100 to £200 per ton,
and a matured individual pair of which may weigh as much as ten, twelve, or even
fourteen pounds, is, from a commercial standpoint, far too valuable an asset among
Nature’s products to be abandoned to ruthless decimation, if not ultimate extinction,
at the hands of reckless and irresponsible fishermen.

There is no reason, indeed, why the bulk of the easily accessible, and consequently
denuded, shallow water coral reefs, from which the shell was originally gathered, should
not be again restocked and leased by the Australian Governments to enterprising and
responsible companies or individuals on lines nearly corresponding with those that are
at present applied to Oyster banks in Queensland, where, at the author’s suggestion,
a start has been already made. Western Australia, aud the Northern Territories of
South Australia, alike possess facilities for the establishment of this highly profitable
industry.

The site selected by the writer for the first extra-tropical experimental
cultivation of Meleagrina margaritifera was in Shark’s Bay, Western Australia.
This Bay, lying roughly between the parallels of 25° and 263° south
latitude, is noteworthy for the production of a smaller and much less valuable
species of Pearl-shell, which receives full attention later on. In the neighbourhood
of Dirk Hartog Island, towards the southern extremity of this Bay, there are

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 207

extensive shallow water coral reefs, composed almost exclusively of the encrusting
or frondose expansions of Madrepores, belonging to the genus Turbinaria. This
coral group, it has been observed by the writer on various parts of the Coast of
Australia, represents the one that is most abundantly developed in extra-tropical
waters, it being capable of surviving lower temperatures than any of the more
ordinary tropical Madreporide. Nevertheless, the presence and exceedingly luxuriant
growth of this Coral, combined with the circumstance that many shell fish and
other organisms, indigenous to the waters in which the larger Pearl-shell grow,
inhabited Shark’s Bay, encouraged the anticipation that this species also might be
artificially induced to become established there.

The Government approving of the suggested experiment, it was forthwith
carried into practice. The chief difficulty that presented itself was the transportation

of the living shell from the

nor-west to Shark’s Bay.
During the writer’s cruise of
investigation in the Govern-
ment schooner ‘“ Meda” to
the Pearling grounds, some
two dozen healthy living
pairs of shells were pro-
cured from the fleet then
working near the Lacepede
Islands, and, being kept in
tubs of sea water that was
constantly changed, were
ultimately brought in safety,

with only a single loss, to

their appointed destination.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

Here they were placed in

YOUNG TROPICAL PEARL-OYSTERS, ATTACHED TO A PORTION OF THE PARENT SHELL,
GROWN IN SHARK’S BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. NATURAL SIZE. p. 208.

frames, similar to those used
at Thursday Island and Broome Creek, and lowered into suitable situations on the
coral reef near Dirk Hartog Island. Examined at intervals, the shells were found
to be progressing favourably and increasing in size. Finally, on the frames being
taken up and opened in the writer’s presence, in November, 1894, precisely twelve

months from the date upon which they were first put down, a number of young

208 é THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

ones were, as happened at Broome, discovered growing on the parent shells.
While on the boat’s deck, and before being again lowered to their coral bed, the
opportunity was utilised of securing several photographs of these interesting
specimens. A portion of one of these, which shows two young examples of the
imported species attached to a corner of the parent shell, is reproduced in the
illustration on the preceding page.

The possibility of growing this large tropical species of Mother-of-Pearl shell
in Shark’s Bay in place of, or in conjunction with, the small indigenous type was thus
practically demonstrated. What has been shown to be capable of accomplishment in
that colder inlet of the sea could undoubtedly be repeated with even better prospects of
success among the coral reefs and lagoons of Houtman’s Abrolhos. These islands, as
pointed out in a preceding Chapter, though lying considerably to the south of Shark’s
Bay are, owing apparently to a warmer current from the Indian Ocean impinging
upon them, tenanted by a far more essentially tropical marine fauna, including
more especially types of Béche-de-Mer that are most abundant in Torres
Straits. The character of the reefs and lagoons at the Abrolhos, combined
with their short distance and easy access from the commercial port of Geraldton,
render them, in the writer's mind, particularly eligible for the inauguration of the
cultivation of the larger species of Mother-of-Pearl shell on a substantial com-
mercial basis. The chief obstacle to be surmounted in the event of this suggestion
being turned to practical account will undoubtedly be the ‘transportation to the
Abrolhos of a sufficient quantity of living shell to lay down as breeding stock.
To accomplish this on a commensurate scale one or more large well-boats, as used
in Tasmania for the transport of living fish, might be most advantageously employed.
The wells in this case, however, should be modified in such a fashion that a more
abundant circulation of water should be admitted, and at the same time horizontal
screens or partitions should be added for the purpose of keeping the shells in
separated layers, through which the water could freely percolate.

In the carrying out of the above suggested acclimatisation of Meéleagrina
margaritifera at the Abrolhos Islands, Shark’s Bay would undoubtedly form a valuable
entrepot for the temporary storing of the shell, pending its delivery at its destination.
From the nearest tropical pearling grounds, off Onslow or Exmouth Gulf, much by
degrees could be accomplished through the medium of small but systematically recurrent
consignments in tubs of constantly changed sea-water placed on board the coasting.
steamers, which make both Onslow and Shark’s Bay ports of call. Through the adoption

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PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 209

of this plan, additional instalments for the Shark’s Bay grounds have, as a matter of
‘fact, been recently transported to the Dirk Hartog cultivation grounds, under the able
management of Mr. John Brockman, the Shark’s Bay Pearl Shell Fishery inspector.
Some attention may now be given to that second and smaller species of
Mother-of-Pearl shell which is indigenous to Shark’s Bay and which in former years
constituted a by no means unimportant fishery. This is the Meleagrina imbricata of
conchologists, known to the trade as Shark’s Bay shell, since, though occurring in more
or less abundance throughout almost the entire northern moiety of the Australian
coast-line, it is only in Shark’s Bay, Western Australia, that it grows in such
abundance as to constitute a systematic fishery. Considerable difficulty has been
experienced in precisely fixing the technical title of this shell. The above name was
originally awarded to it by Reeve, but he at the same time conferred upon other
examples from the Australian Coast, which are evidently young or local variations
only of the same species, many additional titles, including notably those of irradians,
lacunata and fimbriata, any one of which is also applicable. Meleagrina imbricata, in
the British Museum collection, however, representing the type most nearly coincident
with the shell’s normally matured form, the name has been adopted in these pages.
The growth habit of this Shark’s Bay shell is very distinct from that of the
large tropical species. While the latter type usually occurs as solitary individuals,
which in their matured condition lie loosely on the reef or sea-bottom, Meleagrina
imbricata grows in dense clusters attached to one another or to other objects by
a permanently present “byssus,” or bundle of thread-like filaments. A similar
anchoring byssus is also possessed by Meleagrina margaritifera in its younger and
half-grown stages, but is dispensed with on its arriving at maturity. Two characteristic
groups of Shark’s Bay shell, in the one instance forming a social cluster and in the
other growing on the apex of a species of Pinna, another notable byssus-secreting
bivalve, are illustrated in Plate XXXVI. This species of Pinna or Razor shell, as
it is locally known, with its attached clusters of Pearl shells, often occurs as crowded
colonies, which cover acres in extent, Not unfrequently as many as forty or fifty
Pearl-oysters are clustered together on a single Pinna shell, so that the number
yielded by even a single acre of them is very considerable. In the larger of the two
clusters represented in the Plate quoted, the shells are depicted at about two-thirds
of their natural size, the two central ones only being matured specimens. This index
to their dimensions will suffice to show how small this species is compared with its

tropical congener, Meleagrina margaritifera.
DD

210 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

In the earlier days the Shark’s Bay shell was collected exclusively on account
of the pearls that. were obtained from them, the shells having no market value.
More recently the shells, though relatively small and thin, have been extensively
utilised for the manufacture of the smaller and poorer descriptions of pearl buttons
and other ornaments, and if of the best quality have realised from £40 or £50 to
£65 per ton.

The fishery for this shell is conducted on an entirely distinct system from that
applied to the large tropical type. As it grows thickly, much after the manner of
ordinary oysters, on shallow banks or over large areas of the sea bottom, it is
either gathered by the hand at low spring tides from what are designated the
“ Pick-up banks” or is taken with sailing craft and oyster dredges from the deeper
water, one cutter often working as many as from four to six dredges simultaneously.
As the result of reckless dredging and the indiscriminate destruction of every descrip-
tion of shell, young and old, in former times for the acquisition of the pearls they
might contain, the Shark’s Bay fishery was about three years since depleted almost
to the verge of annihilation.

One of the principal missions delegated to the writer by the Western Australian
Government about that time was the investigation of this fishery and the possible
prescription of some remedial measures. These were submitted and adopted in the |
form of the restriction of the fishery to the taking for sale of mature shell only, the
closing of overworked banks until such time as they had recovered sufficiently to
permit of moderate but not exhaustive fishing, and more particularly the encourage-
ment of the establishment of systematically cultivated private fisheries, as represented
by the leasing by the Government of banks of varying dimensions to private individuals.
Notwithstanding the circumstance that some years must necessarily elapse before this
fishery recovers its former prosperity, the measures adopted have already begun to
yield highly satisfactory results. Many of the more important banks are fast becoming
restocked with shell; the facilities for leasing areas for cultivation have been
extensively utilised; and, as a consequence of the restrictions placed upon the age
and condition of the shell taken, a marked improvement in the quality of the exported
article has ensued.

A fair idea of the general aspect and appointments of a Shark’s Bay Pearl-
shelling Station is afforded by Plate XXXVII., which contains two views taken by the
writer at the principal settlement in the Bay known as Fresh Water Camp. A most

delusive title! Galvanised iron, drifting sand-dunes, a torrid sun, and odours of

W, Saville-Keut, Photo.

Pstistie W.
PEARLSHELLING STATIONS, FRESH WATER CAMP, SHARK’S BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 211

decaying shellfish reign supreme. Little cause for marvel that amid these surroundings
long residence there without change generates a most decided tendency towards the
development of hepatic and splenetic disorders.

The view given in the upper illustration of the Plate just quoted embodies
everything that is essential in the equipment of a Shark’s Bay Pearling Station.
Pearling cutters anchored in the Bay. Heaps of shell brought in by the boats and
awaiting attention at the hands of the native boys and “belles” who are extensively
engaged here to perform the savoury task of. detaching the half-putrid gem-bearing
fish from their shelly tenements. To the left, on the beach, may be seen a
number of barrels set upright, into which are consigned the abstracted shellfish, of
which more anon. A half-windlass, half-barrel-organ sort of apparatus in the mid-
ground is the happy inspiration of a local genius for the reception and rapid revolution
of the roughly-cleaned shells, whereby all the brittle outer and useless margins are
rubbed off and fall through the coarse wire-netting framework to the ground
beneath. In the yet more immediate foreground the cleaned and bagged-up
shells are ready for dispatch to the London market. The lower of the two
pictures gives a nearer view of the same station from a different standpoint, in
which the shell supplies and much of the paraphernalia above described are still
more clearly defined.

The pearls yielded by the Shark’s Bay shell are of a somewhat unique character.
While a large portion of them are of the ordinary milk-white or opalescent tint,
_a not inconsiderable percentage are a brilliant straw or golden hue. “Golden
Pearls” from the “Golden West” represent a happy and altogether appropriate
conjunction. Although not ranking at present in the trade so high as their colourless
compeers, there can be no doubt that, from an esthetic standpoint, these golden
pearls possess a richness and warmth of tint that, to many minds, is incomparably finer.
In the upper half of Plate XXXVIII., a photographic representation is given of
the separated valves of a Shark’s Bay shell, and in the hollow of the one to the left
a small series of these golden pearls were temporarily deposited. Both the shell and
pearls are in this instance represented at about three-quarters of their natural size. A yet
finer series of this particular description of pearls derived from Shark’s Bay has been
recently placed on view among the writer’s loan collection to the Western Australian
Court of the Imperial Institute.

The modus operandi of abstracting the pearls from the animal substance of the
Shark’s Bay shells differs in a marked direction from that practised with relation to

212 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the large tropical species. With this last-named type the pearls are almost invariably
obtained during the initial process of cutting open the valves and detaching the
fish. Not unfrequently, when opened fresh, the firmer muscular part of the fish is
saved, strung up in the rigging to dry, and, in this form, supplies a very palatable
material for soups, curries, or stews. Its flavour as an article of food may be said to
coincide more nearly with that of the Scallop than the ordinary oyster. In the case
of the smaller Shark’s Bay species, the greater portion of at least the larger pearls
are secured during the like operation. The flesh of each individual fish is, however,
not minutely examined, but consigned wholesale to the tubs previously mentioned. In
these tubs the accumulated mass, locally known as “ pogee,” is allowed to stand and
putrify, maybe for a year or more, occasional stirrings being given to it, until at
length it assumes a purely liquid condition. Arrived at this state, the liquor is poured
off, and a greater or less number of pearls, which apparently suffer in no way from
their prolonged putrescent surroundings, are picked out from among the sediment.
The accumulation of pogee tubs in and around Fresh Water Camp, invests that
settlement, as might be imagined, with an odour of un-sanctity which is most
peculiarly and distinctly its own, and which for penetrating pungency might give
‘points to the celebrated two-and-seventy Stinks of Cologne. The pogee tub is,
moreover, a power in the land for the adjustment of social differences. If the wind
be in the right direction, an aggrieved party can inflict the most condign punish-
ment on an offending next-door neighbour. He must at the same time give due
heed to the fact that the weather-cock is proverbially shifty, and that the original
“stirrer up of wrath” runs the risk of having his own measure meted unto him
again.

In addition to Meleagrina imbricata, which is the typical Shark’s Bay commercial
Pearl-shell, it occasionally happens that solitary examples of the similar-sized but
more cup-shaped M. fucata are taken in the dredge. This species is identical with
the so-called “lingah” shell of the trade lists, which is obtained abundantly in
the Indian seas and in the Persian Gulf. It has been observed by the writer to
occur sparingly in Torres Straits and at many other stations on the Australian
Coast. Lingah shell, though of inferior quality, is the most formidable foreign com-
petitor with’ the Shark’s Bay species in the European market. The small black-
edged Pearl-shell, Meleagrina Cumingii—as distinguished from the larger Polynesian
black-edged variety—is also occasionally collected from the reefs near the South

Passage in Shark’s Bay, but in insufficient quantities to be of commercial value.

PLATE XxXxVIII.

Collotype, W. &
W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

SHARK’S BAY GOLDEN PEARLS; 3. ARTIFICIALLY-PRODUCED

PEARLS AND PEARL-OYSTERS. 213

On the coast of Queensland, where it is in some districts tolerably abundant,
occasional consignments to the home market realize from £60 to £70 per ton. By
way of illustrating the up-to-date market values of the various descriptions of Mother-
of-Pearl shells, we reproduce here an excerpt from the latest Report upon a recent
sale held by the well-known Shell Brokers, Messrs. Henry Kiver and Co., and to
whom the writer is indebted for this abstract.

HENRY KIVER & COS
REPORT ON THE MOTHER-OF-PEARL SHELL, &c., SALES, 14rx OCTOBER, 1896.

MotTHER-OF-PEARL SHELLS, &c.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.—378 packages offered and all sold, good clean bold and medium
£8 7s. 6d. to £8 15s., slightly yellow ditto £7 15s to £7 17s. 6d., medium £8 10s. to £8 17s. 6d., medium
and chicken £8 15s. to £9 5s. chicken £9 2s. 6d., to £9 10s., good slightly defective £5 15s. to £6, fair
ditto 92s. 6d. to 107s. 6d., pieces £6 10s. to £6 12s. 6d., and dead and stale 45s. to 77s. 6d. per cwt.

PORT DARWIN.—227 packages offered and all sold, good to fine bold medium £7 12s. 6d. to
£8 2s. 6d., yellow Manila character £6 10s., good medium £8 15s. to £9 5s., yellow ditto £6 to £6 5s.,
chicken £9 10s., yellow ditto £6 to £6 2s. 6d. defective wormy 80s. to 92s. 6d., good pieces £6 5s. to
£6 15s., and yellow ditto 90s. to 97s. 6d. per cwt. o

SYDNEY* AND QUEENSLAND.—2,204 packages offered and all found buyers, fine selected bold
£9 to £9 12s. 6d., fair to good bold and medium £7 10s. to £8 7s. 6d., ditto rather grubby and yellow
£7 5s. to £7 7s. 6d., medium £8 to £8 12s. 6d., pieces £6 5s. to £6 10s., defective ordinary to good 80s.
to 117s. 6d. per cwt. Country sorted sold at £8 to £8 15s. for medium, £7 7s. 6d. to £7 17s. 6d. for
stoutish bold and medium, £7 2s. 6d. to £7 12s. 6d. for bold slightly defective; 85s. to 95s. for defective ;
and 45s. to 47s. 6d. for common ditto.

MERGUI.—Only 21 packages offered and 16 sold, bold slightly yellow £6 10s. to £7, medium
£6 2s. 6d., pieces 95s., good defective £6, and ordinary ditto 87s. 6d. to 90s. per cwt.

NEW GUINEA.—72 packages offered and sold, good to fine bold £8 5s. to £9, yellow ditto
£6 10s. to £7, medium and chicken £8 5s., defective £5 to £6 17s. 6d., and pieces £5 17s. 6d.

MANILA.—710 packages offered and 373 sold, fine stout bold £9, fair to good bold slightly
yellow £6 7s. 6d. to £6 15s., yellowish medium £6 to £6 2s. 6d., good defective £5 to £6 7s. 6d., ordinary
ditto 90s. to 97s. 6d., and pieces 92s. 6d. to 97s. 6d. per cwt.

MACASSAR.—39 packages offered and 11 sold, fair bold £7 12s. 6d., ordinary yellow ditto £6,
yellow medium £6, good ditto £8 12s. 6d., and wormy 90s. to 115s. per ewt.

BOMBAY.—389 packages offered and partly sold, fair stout bold 90s. to 92s. 6d., medium 90s.,
small 90s. to 92s. 6d., and small and oyster 85s. per cwt.

EGYPTIAN.—191 packages offered and sold, bold 82s. 6d. to 87s. 6d., medium 85s. to 87s. 6d.,
medium and small 85s. to 87s. 6d., small 85s., and oyster 77s. 6d. per cwt.

PANAMA.—132 packages offered and partly sold at 46s. to 50s. for fair, and 30s. per ewt. for
ordinary.

SHARK’S BAY.—39 packages offered and all bought in. (Previous sale prices throughout the
year 1896 have varied from 27s. to 50s. per cwt.)

LING AHS.—3,844 packages offered and only a small portion sold, good to fine stout 22s. 6d. to
30s., and low 5s. to 6s. per cwt.

* This title of “SYDNEY” refers to Queensland shell gathered by Sydney boats.
Pearl shell is not a product of New South Wales.—S-K.

214 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The lower of the two illustrations incorporated in Plate XX XVIII. has already
appeared, but with less clear effect, in the authors book “The Great Barrier
Reef.” It represents a photographic fac-simile of the outcome of one of various
tentative experiments made by the writer to induce the production of pearls by
artificial means. The result obtained is obviously to such an extent encouraging that
the prosecution of kindred operations on a larger and systematic scale may be com-
mended to the attention of those who may carry into practice that artificial cultivation
of the larger tropical Mother-of-Pearl shell which the writer has now demonstrated
to be distinctly feasible.

The subjoined tail-piece illustration portrays a little group of fine Western

Australian Pearls photographed by the writer at Mr. G. S. Streeter’s Pearling Station,
Roebuck Bay.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

““ RHINOCEROS ROCK,” ROERUCK KAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER VIII.

MARINE MISCELLANEA.

[UR above somewhat sensational illustration will, we fear, encourage anti-

cipations of the record, in this Chapter, of the fossil remains of some

[ monstrous marine or terrestrial Colossus—such a Titan, in fact, that,
compared with it, the huge Dinosaurs of Professor Marsh, for all their accredited
eighty or ninety feet of length, would have shrunk into insignificance. To correct,
as speedily as possible, any misconception that may have arisen, it must be explained
that the seemingly cyclopean skull of palpably rhinocerotic contour, represents
but one out of a number of the fantastic wave and weather-carved sedimentary
rocks that fringe the coast-line of Roebuck Bay, Western Australia. Did space

permit it, a voluminously-illustrated chapter might be devoted to this special subject.

216 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

ASCIDIAN-COVERED ROCKS, ROEBUCK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

As matters stand, this rock may conveniently
serve as a guide-post to that particular spot in
the Bay, whence, when the tide was low, a con-
siderable number of the marine forms illustrated or
referred to in these pages were collected or ob-
served.

Although so high up within the tropics, the
reefs of Roebuck Bay, which render navigation to
the port of Broome extremely intricate, are not of
coral, but are stratified replicas of the much-inter-

rupted friable red sand-stone cliffs that line the shore.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

Coral grows here, but very sparingly compared with

a little farther to the north and east. In place of it, certain other marine organisms
are abundant to an extent that has not been observed by the writer on any other part
of the Australian coast-line. The zoological group most in evidence among the reefs
at low tide, at what is known as Entrance Point, close to the ‘“ Rhinoceros Rock” of
our Chapter heading, is that of the Ascidians. One particular type, referable to the
genus Colella, literally festoons every ledge and crevice of the much-eroded rocks in
such a manner that their aspect, as seen from a little distance, presents a remarkable
resemblance to stalactitic formations. The luxuriant growth of these Colelle, together
with the peculiar petrological resemblance suggested, will be recognised on a reference
to the accompanying corner illustration, which is composed of the joined-up replicas of
several photographs that were taken of contiguous areas. In the lowermost section the

Ascidians are taken from a nearer point of view, and being more considerably

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 217

distended with water, distinctly reveal their organic character. Otherwise, the upper
portion of these illustrations might pass muster as depicting scenery from the stalactite
caves or grottoes of Derbyshire. Seen at close quarters, these Ascidians are of
gelatinous consistence and of a transparent grey hue, sprinkled throughout their lower
inflated areas with minute bright blue spots. These spots, examined with the aid
of the microscope, are found to represent the separate bodies of the many hundred
zooids or individuals that are colonially associated in each of the hanging ovate masses
or capitula.

The exceedingly roughened character of the upper surface of the rocks in the
views under notice is also attributable to the accumulation of organic entities. Each
minute excrescence that contributes towards the general roughness is, in point of
fact, the conically-pointed shell of a species of Barnacle or Acorn Shell, and they
are, in many instances, piled one upon another in serried aggregations. Another
animal group which, while unobserved on the Queensland coast, is very conspicuous
in Roebuck Bay, is that tribe of the Alcyonaria, or soft flexible corals, that includes
the genus Spoggodes, and its allies. Examples of the type most abundant in the
vicinity of the rock scenes here illustrated were observed in their contracted condition,
when the tide was down, to present a symmetrically spheroidal contour, with all their
characteristic elongate, sharply-pointed, calcareous spicules projecting from the periphery
of the sphere, like the spines of an Echinus or Sea Urchin. They are, doubtless, under
these conditions effectively protected against the attacks of wading birds, crabs, or
any other ordinary enemies to which they might otherwise be exposed when left high ~
and dry or covered by but a thin sheet of water. .The transformation of these
spheroidal spinous masses of Spoggodes, when kept in sea-water, into erect, tree-like
growths, in which the most delicate transparent tints of pink, lilac and pale yellow
predominated or were variously combined, was a marvellously fascinating spectacle.

A very striking feature of some of the reef pools at Entrance Point, in
Roebuck Bay, was the brilliant pink and yellow hue of certain organisms that
bestrewed the rock surfaces. These were in places so closely crowded together as
to constitute continuous patches of several square yards in extent. On near examina-
tion it was found that the component units of these colour ‘patches consisted
of a species of Holothuria or Béche-de-Mer, technically named Colochirus anceps.
This variety, which was obtained sparingly by the writer with the use of the
dredge in Torres Straits, North Queensland, would appear to find the conditions

on the tropical Western Australian sea-board especially favourable to its growth
EE

218 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

and multiplication. A coloured representation of this species is included in that
Plate of the writer's book on the “Great Barrier Reef” illustrative of Queensland
Béche-de-Mer, of which group it is a non-commercial type. A photograph of a
cluster of over a dozen of these Roebuck Bay individuals, taken vertically through
the water, with their tentacular crowns in several instances partly extended, is
reproduced to a scale of one-third of their life size in the accompanying illustra-
tion. A remarkably fine and possibly new representative of apparently the same
genus Colochirus was obtained by the writer in King’s Sound, further north. Its

extended length was as much as nine inches, its body colour pale lilac with bright

vermilion acetabular ridges,
and the expanded tentacles
orange scarlet with yellow
tips.

Another somewhat
abnormal example of colour
development which affects
the coast scenery of the
foreshore of Entrance Point,
Roebuck Bay, when visible
at low spring tide, invites
brief notice. The above tide
conditions subsisting on the
occasion of the writer’s first

visit to the Port of Broome,

his attention was arrested by

the presence on the foreshore IG Baile Rent sEhota

SOCIAL HOLOTHURIANS, Colochirus anceps, ROEBUCK BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

of what, as viewed with ONE-THIRD NATURAL S178.

glasses from the steamer’s deck, appeared to be masses of some solid form of coral
of a bright scarlet hue. Among the innumerable species of Madreporide observed
and collected by the writer on the reefs of the Northern and Eastern Australian
sea-boards, no coral of such a tint had been met with. The earliest opportunity
was consequently seized of repairing to this reef, in the anticipation of securing
a notable scientific novelty. The goal arrived at, these great expectations were to
some extent disappointed by the discovery that the masses were corals indeed,

but that the conspicuous colouring was entirely adventitious, being derived from the

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 219

presence of a brilliant scarlet parasitic sponge, which had apparently killed the coral
and permeated itself throughout its - skeletal tissues. In this manner, this sponge
species possessed much in common with the orange-coloured British parasitic type,
Cliona celata, which, as is well known, bores into and in time will completely
infiltrate and destroy the shells of oysters and other molluscs. Several of the solid
forms of Madreporide, representing such genera as Favia, Celoria and Goniastrea,
were thus found to be completely infiltrated with this sponge. Specimens were
secured, and have been contributed to the British Museum, but it is to be
regretted that the scarlet pigment tissues of the parasitic organism lose all their
colour soon after removal from their native element.

The Sea Anemones observed by the writer on the Roebuck Bay reefs, and
indeed on the Western Australian coast generally, were, in almost all instances,
identical with types met with in Torres Straits and on the Great Barrier, and have
for the most part been already figured or described in the author’s volume bearing the
above-named title. At the same time additional observations were made, and
satisfactory photographic pictures secured of certain of these species, which invite a brief
notice or reproduction in this Chapter. Among the more noteworthy of the species
recorded from the Queensland coast were two giant forms, referable to the genus
Discosoma, whose expanded discs might measure as much as, or more than, eighteen
inches in diameter. The author’s friend; Professor Haddon, a specialist in this-branch
of zoology, having collected one of these types in Torres Straits, paid the author the
compliment of associating it with his name, and he has in reciprocation conferred on
the second species the title of Discosoma Haddoni. The most interesting feature
concerning these giant Anemones, recorded by the writer in his “Barrier” book, is the
circumstance that both of these two species fulfil the réle of hosts to fish belonging to
the genus Amphiprion, a distinct specific form being consorted as a so-called “com-
mensal” or lodger with each variety of anemone. Coloured drawings of these two
species, with their respective commensal fish, are included in the author’s previous
volume, as also a photograph, taken vertically through the water, of Discosoma
Haddoni.

In Western Australian waters, and more particularly in the vicinity of the
Lacepede Islands, the writer found the species upon which Professor Haddon has
conferred the name of Discosoma Kenti, in more abundance. It was here also
accompanied by a fish commensal—in fact, two distinct varieties—but neither of these,

though belonging to the same genus, was specifically identical with the species found

220 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

by the writer consorting with it under corresponding conditions on the Queensland
coast. Both of them were referable to the genus Amphiprion of the family of the
Pomacentride. These fish are characterised by their brilliantly contrasting tints,
broad alternating bands of scarlet and white, or black and white being usually
predominant. In the two Queensland types, Amphiprion bicinctus and A. percula,
both fish are notable for their orange-vermilion hue, this ground colour being
diversified in the first-named species by two, and in the second one by three
transverse white bands. Mention was also made of a species that had been met
with by the writer at Port Darwin, apparently identical with Amphiprion melanopus.
In this type a single white band is present which, traversing the fish’s head
and passing ‘under its chin, communicates to it the most ludicrous appearance of
having its face tied up for the toothache. A somewhat similar single white-banded
species of Amphiprion was found sparingly associated with Discosoma Kenti at the
Lacepede Islands. The more common form, however, found consorting sociably with
this anemone was a species having, like Amphiprion percula, three white bands, but
the body in place of being scarlet was almost black, and the fins were scarlet without
the black and white borders distinctive of the last-named form. In many respects the
species appears to coincide with the Amphiprion Clarkii of Cuvier and Valenciennes,
the distribution of which has been recorded as extending from Mozambique to
Ceylon, Singapore, and China.

In addition to the two above-named fish, a small species of crab, corresponding
in shape and size with the little English flat crab, Platysoma platycheles, and
apparently referable to the same genus, was found amicably sharing with the fish the
free lodging and sheltering protection afforded by the huge anemone’s convoluted disc
and spreading tentacles. From among a number of plates exposed a negative was
secured, reproduced in the lower half of Plate XXXIX., in which an example of this
anemone with three attendant fish, and also one of the commensal crabs above
referred to, is distinctly shown. One of these fish is photographed on the point of
making a swimming excursion around the anemone’s disc, and another one is, except
for its projecting black and white head and shoulders, buried among the anemone’s
tentacles. This picture, taken vertically through the surface of the water with a
whole plate camera, represents the anemone with its attendant fish on a scale of
almost precisely one-half of its natural size. It is at the same time worthy of note
that the anemone is by no means fully extended, and that its disc when completely

opened out would cover an area having a diameter equal to close upon four times

PLATE XXXIxX.

A. CYGNET BAY SEA ANEMONES, Condylactis sp. One-half nat. size, p. 222.

Collotype, W. & S. Ltd. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

GIANT SEA ANEMONE, Discosoma Haddoni, WITH COMMENSAL FISH AND CRAB. One-half nat. size, p. 220,

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 221

that of its photographic portrait. The tentacles would also be of a much more
elongate contour.

Discosoma Haddoni, the second species of giant Australian anemone discovered
by the writer on the Queensland coast, is chiefly distinguished from the preceding
type by the circumstance that its tentacles are spherical, except for their attachment
by a short cylindrical footstalk. This feature communicates to the expanded disc
the appearance of being, as it were, bestrewn with beads. Examples of this bead-
tentacled species of Discosoma were met with as far South as Shark’s Bay, on the
Western Australian coast, and were there also accompanied by a commensal species
of Amphiprion altogether distinct from the orange-red fish with two white bands_
previously observed consorting with this anemone in Queensland. The Shark’s Bay
fish had three white bands, the centre of which was continued over the upper margin
of the second dorsal fin. The caudal and pectoral fins, and also the lips and _ irids,
were lemon-yellow ; otherwise the body and remainder of the fins were almost black.
It will probably prove to be a new species. The colours of these two giant
Discosome were found to vary considerably. A dominant tint of the tentacles of the
species last referred to was a bright apple-green, or this tint mixed more or less with
lilac grey on a fawn-coloured disc. These hues were observed to prevail in examples
collected in both Shark’s Bay and Torres Straits. In no instance, however, was the
subulate-tentacled species, Discosoma Kenti, “met with in Western Australian waters
having bright blue tentacles, as not infrequently occurs on the Great Barrier Reef and
in Torres Straits. An example of this strikingly beautiful variety is figured in the
writer’s previously cited volume. The representatives of this anemone observed at the
Lacepede Islands and elsewhere on the Western Australian coast were usually of a
light grey or lilac tint, with sometimes brighter lilac or crimson tentacle tips.

The two species of fish, Amphiprion, referred to as found associated as
commensals with the Lacepede Islands Discosome, were also met with by the writer
consorting with a smaller and altogether distinct species of sea anemone. The largest
examples of this anemone when expanded rarely exceeded, or even equalled, six
inches in diameter, and when growing as isolated individuals were never found
accompanied by commensal fish. Their more customary growth habit was, however, to
congregate in clusters in the fissures of the coral rocks, their adherent bases and
columns being thrust deep within the rock crevices, leaving their densely united
masses of extended tentacles alone visible. The Opelet Anemone, Anthea cereus, of the

British seas, commonly exhibits a similar aggregated growth plan. It was among

922 THE NATURALIST IN

AUSTRALIA.

these thickly clustered tentacles that the commensal fish nestled for shelter, as within

the more voluminous tentacular folds of the isolated Discosome.

This socially consorting sea anemone was found on closer examination to

correspond very nearly with a new species observed in

and described by the writer in his “Great Barrier”

BLADDER-TENTACLED ANEMONES, Physobrachia sp.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE.

Torres Straits, and figured
volume under the title of
Physobrachia Douglasi. The
most marked peculiarity of
this type was the contour of
the tentacles, which in their
condition of full extension
were inflated in a bladder-
like manner at their distal
extremities. The shafts of
the tentacles of the Western
Australian examples were
usually either a transparent
dark myrtle green or a clear
brown, and the inflated ex-
tremities pure white or palest
lilac with a minute crimson
apical tip. A fairly success-

ful photograph of a small

area of a reef crevice thickly populated with this particular anemone, necessarily

taken vertically through the surface of the water, is reproduced in the accompanying

illustration. This anemone group represents one of many that were observed on the

reefs at Gantheaume Point, Roebuck Bay, but with which no fish commensals, as at

the Lacepede Islands, were found consorted.

A characteristic Sea
Anemone that was obtained
by the writer in Beagle Bay,
Western Australia, midway
between King’s Sound and
Roebuck Bay, is illustrated
by the photographs repro-

duced in the upper moiety of

Condylactis sp.

Plate XXXIX. Unlike the
preceding forms, it is not a
rock or reef dwelling species,
but takes up its abode on
the sandy foreshores, having a
long cylindrical column, which
extends five or six inches

through the sand to a stone

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 223

or shell fulcrum to which it is affixed, while the tentacular disc is expanded on the
sand surface. The colour of the normally concealed column is usually a bright scarlet,
while the tentacles are mottled with short alternating bars of greys, browns, or olive
green. A noteworthy peculiarity in this species is the circumstance that the individual
tentacles often present a distinctly nodular or moniliform contour, each node coinciding
with the alternating colour bands. The anemone, moreover, in its ordinary condition
of expansion shows a marked tendency to pucker its oral disc and radiating tentacles
into six symmetrically even folds. Both of these conspicuous characteristics are dis-
tinctly shown in the ‘photographs from life of this species previously cited, as also in
the smaller illustration representing two closely approximated individuals reproduced
on the preceding page. This fine anemone, which is apparently referable to the genus
Condylactis, has been met with by the writer at Port Darwin and also on the
Queensland coast. The expanded disc of the largest individual observed measured
seven inches in diameter, and the height of the elevated column but little short
of the same measurement.

Another sand-frequenting Anemone that occurs under conditions substantially
identical with those recorded of the foregoing type is photographically depicted in
the figures on the next page by two examples in varying conditions of extension. This
Anemone is remarkable for its stinging properties, which equal those of a nettle, and
is apparently identical with the type originally described by Quoy and Gaimard,
under the title of <Actinodendron alcyonidium. The individuals here figured were
obtained at the Lacepede Islands. They were of a much more brilliant tint than
those met with by the writer on the Queensland coast, of which an illustration and
description are given in his volume on the “Great Barrier Reef.” The previously
observed Queensland specimens were in all instances of mixed light brown and whitish
tints, and in such respect closely coincided with the hue of their sandy surroundings.
The Western Australian examples bore in their native element a much nearer resem-
blance to growing tufts of seaweeds, in which tints of green, yellow, and light orange
red were variously interblended. These colours, in fact, as exhibited by the animal in
a condition of semi-extension as depicted in figure A. of the two photographic
reproductions on page 224, were wonderfully suggestive of a bunch of mignonette.
The shafts of the tentacles, in pursuance of this simile, were bright green, the
secondary subdivisions a pale yellowish-green, and the terminal, finely separated
tentacular filaments, of that peculiar orange-red hue characteristic of the ordinary

growth of the flower with which comparisons have been instituted. The smooth

224 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Bi

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

STINGING ANEMONES, Actinodendron alcyonidium. TWO-THIRDS OF NATURAL SIZE, p. 223,

central area or disc which surrounds the mouth was in the Lacepede Islands
specimens of the same pale yellowish-green as the greater mass of the tentacles, but
diversified with spots of brown. This character is distinctly shown in the example,
B, to the right of the two individuals here figured.

Among the more remarkable representatives of the Sea Anemone or Ccelenterate
tribe figured and described in the author's volume relating to the Queensland Great
Barrier system, was the species upon which the writer provisionally conferred the title
of Acrozoanthus austrahw. It belonged to that particular group of the Sea Anemones
which is technically known as the Zoantharia, and whose members are recognisable
from the circumstances that the zooids or individuals form more or less extensive
socially united colonies in place of separating asunder and maintaining an independent
existence, as happens with the ordinary Sea Anemones or Actinaria. As a rule, these
social Zoantharia form encrusting colony-stocks on stones, shells, or other submarine
objects. One noteworthy form, Palythoa, is remarkable for its constant association
with the Glass Rope Sponge, Hyalonema Steboldii, on the erect rope-like spicular

stalk of which organism it develops its encrusting cenosarc. The question as to

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 225
Wo

whether the erect fascicle of elongate siliceous spicula encrusted by the polyp was
the product of this organism, or an integral part of the subspherical sponge body,
usually, but not invariably—it first falling to decay—found seated at its apex, was the
subject of a prolonged and most heated controversy in the earlier days of biological
investigation. The names of Dr. J. E. Gray and Dr. Bowerbank will be remembered by
all contemporary zoologists as the doughty champions of these respective interpretations.

The Zoantharian discovered and described by the author also possesses the
somewhat unusual distinction of an erect supporting fulcrum. The fulcrum in this
instance is, however, altogether different in character to that of the commensal Palythoa.
In place of a relatively solid axis, Acrozoanthus australie is built up on a hollow
or tubular support of parchment-like consistence, which, when denuded of the
encrusting polyps, exhibits a singularly symmetrical zigzag growth plan. Its angular
projections are, moreover, usually developed on the same plane. The polyps in the
living organism invest this structure completely with their united flesh or czenosarc,
but project in the most conspicuous clusters from the alternating prominences of the
tubular support. As figured and described in the author’s original account of this
organism, the individual polyps are attractively coloured, the semi-contracted zooids
more particularly presenting a rounded button-like contour, in which the tints of bright
emerald green and red-brown specklings are predominant. When fully expanded, the
brighter green hues of the column and sphinctral regions are concealed by the radiating,
red-brown tentacles.

Acrozoanthus was first collected by the writer on the foreshore at Port Darwin,
subsequently at Cambridge Gulf, Torres Straits, along the Great Barrier Reef, and
finally at Roebuck Bay in Western Australia. It is thus shown to be indigenous to
all quarters of the tropical Australian sea-board, and is in that respect a fitting claimant
to its allocated specific title. With the exception of the gatherings made in Western
Australia, the examples observed or obtained on the north and eastern Australian coasts,
and from which the original description was drawn up, were growing in isolated colony-
stocks only, or, at the most, in groups of two or three contiguous polyparies on the
foreshore or in the reef pools of the districts named. The abundance, however, in
which the polyp-denuded tubes were found among the flotsam and jetsam cast upon
the beaches testified to its growing in considerable abundance in some less accessible
and probably deeper area of the sea bottom.

The writer’s later quest for this interesting type on the coasts of Western

Australia was rewarded by its discovery in the neighbourhood of Gantheaume Point,
FF

226 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Roebuck Bay, in much more abundant colonies than had been before observed, and
also under conditions that yielded a satisfactory solution of the difficulties that had
previously prevented the determination of its precise zoological position and affinities.
The occurrence of a Zoantharian or polype community that built for itself a hollow
tubular axis was hitherto unknown, and the interpretation that first presented itself
to the writer’s mind with relation to the earliest observed examples obtained at Port
Darwin in the year 1888 (“Great Barrier Reef,” p. 154) was that the organism was not
improbably a worm tube, parasitically encrusted by a typical Zoanthus. This first
impression, which. was also shared, and has since been more emphatically advocated,
by another ccelenterate specialist, Professor R.'C. Haddon, has .eventually proved to
be correct. At the same time, the fact that in none of the examples previously
obtained could any trace of a worm be found, added to the essentially unique character
and growth contour of the tubular structure, necessitated the provisional treatment
of the investing polyps and their nodulated hollow support as integral elements of the
same organism.

From the abundant material obtained at Roebuck Bay, the full exposition of
the nature and habits of this interesting’ type is rendered practical, and more especially
with the aid of the photograph reproduced in Plate XL. Fig. 1 of this Plate depicts
the terminal half of a typical basal core denuded of its investing polyps, as washed
up on the coral beach. The regularity of the alternating growth-nodes and their
projection on the same plane are particularly distinct in this specimen. Fig. 2 portrays
an abnormal, bifurcating, tube. Fig. 3 in the same Plate represents a complete,
living colony-stock reproduced to a scale of one-third of its natural size, which,
having been photographed in its native element, shows many of the polyps in a
state of semi-expansion. This specimen, with others, had to be transported across
country and, being for many hours isolated from its native element, the polyps refused
under such circumstances to display their tentacular crowns to greater advantage. A
portion of the terminal half of this compound polypary is reproduced more nearly the
natural size in Fig. 4, in which the grouping of the polyps on the projecting angles
of the axial core is very distinctly shown.

The most interesting figure in this Plate is, probably, the bottom one, F ig. 5,
which illustrates the precise conditions under which this organism grows and is left for
a while uncovered at low spring tides. As many as twenty-five separate polyparies or
colony-stocks of Acrozoanthus are here discernible on one side of an isolated rock,
which is, throughout the interspaces, coated with a matted growth of: seaweeds,

PLATE XL.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

Collotype, W. 4 &. Ltd,

sactsrrs, SONSORTED ANEMONES AND WORM TUBES, derozoanthus nustralic, p. 226.

MARINE MISCELLANEA. : 927

sponges, hydroid zoophytes and other organisms. As shown in the photograph, the
weight of the clustered polyps on their nodulated axes is such as, in most instances,
to bend the organisms prostrate when uncovered by the tide, though as soon as the
water rises again they assume the vertical position indicated by one of the colony-
stocks to the extreme right.

By carefully detaching some of the polyparies from this rock and examining them
on the spot, the mystery of the hitherto seemingly abnormal constitution of their axial
cores was revealed by the discovery, within the central hollow of several of them, of an
elongate centipede-like worm. This was in some instances as much as a foot in length.
The worm belonged to the family of the Nereidz, and in that group to the genus Nereis,
of which there are many representatives in British seas. It is a common property of
these worms to exude from their body surface a mucilaginous secretion, which hardens
in the water to a silk-like consistence. Frequently, layer upon layer is added until the
tube assumes a felted texture, or it may have incorporated within its substance particles
of sand, shell, or any other contiguous foreign substances. The hollow, zigzag, felted tube-
core of Acrozoanthus was the direct product of the enclosed worm, but it owed its
erect form and anomalous zigzag shape exclusively to the directing influences of the
commensal zoophyte. Lengths of this felted worm tube, but without any attendant
polyps, were found adherent to the rock amongst the tangle of seaweeds and other
growths that covered it. In this phase they resembled the simple prostrate, cylindrical
tubes of the ordinary Nereids.

As soon, however, as the polyp attaches itself to the growing end of the
tube, it appears to impart to the worm a tendency to construct its domicile at a
tangent from the basal structure, and.thenceforward a sort of zigzag race ensues
between the worm and the polyp to get the upper hand. The polype, in fact, by rapid
sub-division and spreading ‘of its connecting flesh, or ‘“czenosarc,” soon threatens
to, and presently does, overgrow the terminal aperture from which the Nereis is wont
to thrust its head and tentacular cirrhi, and to fish in the surrounding water. Finding
itself baulked in that direction, the worm makes a new start in the same plane, and
at a divergent angle of about 60 degrees. Before, however, it has added another inch
to its dwelling tube, the polyp has once more overtaken it, and converted its front
entrance into a cul-de-sac. This process is repeated again and again with almost
mathematical uniformity, and so at length, by the accumulation of a score or so of
obliquely ascending gradations, the organism in its complete form, as here photographed,
is finally produced. Arriving at this stage, the worm apparently grows tired of being

228 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

continually outflanked, and either retires sulkily to its basement apartments or altogether
abandons the field of its repeated discomfiture to the triumphant polyps. This inter-
pretation affords a logical explanation of the fact that the majority of the adult growths
are untenanted by worms, and for the circumstance that it’ was not until an extensive
colony, as here recorded, was available for investigation that the precise nature of this
anomalous compound organisation, however shrewdly guessed at, could be absolutely
determined. |

The Coral fauna of the Australian seas, and more especially with relation to its
redundant development on the Queensland coast, has been so fully dealt with in
the authors previous volume, “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia,” that the
extensive reference to this subject that might have otherwise been appropriately allocated
to this Chapter would be scarcely justified. Considerable space has, moreover, been
devoted to this very prominent marine zoological group in Chapter V., dealing with
Houtman’s Abrolhos Islands. A conspicuous feature in that section was the attempted
portrayal, in something of its natural tints, of one of the very characteristic coral
growths in Pelsart Island Lagoon. As a counterfoil to that picture, the portraiture
of an entirely distinct type of coral reef formation, with the corresponding reproduction
of the life colours and environments of its component units, has been reproduced as
the frontispiece to this volume. The particular scene depicted in this instance is an
area of the tidally-exposed fringing reef in the vicinity of the Palm Islands, North
Queensland. Several photographic views of corresponding and neighbouring reef areas
are represented by Plates VI. and X. of the author's “ Barrier Reef” volume, but, neces-
sarily under such circumstances, in simple monochrome. The attempt here made to por-
tray such a reef scene with an approximation to its natural colouring and as sketched
on the spot will suffice, if crude, to convey to those unfamiliar with such scenery
a more realistic and natural aspect than can be imparted by an ordinary photograph.

This individual reef scene having, as a matter of fact, been taken from a point
closely adjacent to that of the photograph reproduced in Plate VI., No. 2, of the
author’s above quoted volume, the context descriptive of that illustration is in the
main applicable to the present one. The basis of the exposed reef-area in the fore-
ground is in either case composed of a solid mass of a coral species referable to the
genus Porites, which is remarkable for both the minute size of its component cells
or calicles, and at the same time for the colossal dimensions to which the compound
-masses or coralla may ultimately attain. The example here figured measures over

thirty feet in diameter, and ten or twelve feet deep, but originated, it may be

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 229

anticipated, many centuries ago, in a single minute, anemone-like polyp, scarcely
one-eighth of an inch across. It is this Madreporic genus that commonly forms the
bases of the outer or deep-water edge of growing coral reefs, and is especially con-
stituted by its hardness and density to oppose a successful resistance to the impact
of the breakers. As indicated in our coloured illustration, the tint of the living
Corallum of this species of Porites, Porites astrwoides, was in this instance of a
delicate lilac or lavender hue. It is, however, subject to considerable variations,
and in other localities was observed by the writer to assume diverse shades of light
ochre, brown, golden yellow, pale lemon, and also a delicate pink.

The circumstance that the solid Porites masses constitute the basis upon
which an infinite variety of species of lesser dimensions become established is amply
demonstrated in both the accompanying coloured plate and many of the photographic
reef-views reproduced in the writer's previous volume. The coral species most con-
spicuously represented in the coloured plate now under discussion are referable chiefly to
the more or less solid Astreeaceae, as typified by such genera as Goniastrea, Symphyllia,
Celoria, Meandrina and Mussa, with here and there a few projecting branches of
Madrepore or Stag’s-horn corals. The variety of tints that may be associated with
such an assemblage of distinct types is almost indefinite, and, in conjunction with the
marvellous hues of the overlying or surrounding waters in these tropic latitudes,
produces a picture that must be actually witnessed to be believed in. While it
has been found possible to do but scant justice to this topic in these pages, the
present opportunity may be advantageously utilised in indicating to the artistic
world what an entirely original and practically inexhaustible field for high achieve-
ments lies fallow and awaiting development at their hands in the shape of the reef
scenery of the Australian and other coral seas. To the marine artist more especially
it opens up a vista of hitherto undreamt-of possibilities.

A group of the Madreporaria or Stony Corals, which received a brief share of
attention among the many others in the author’s work on “The Great Barrier Reef,”
was the genus Turbinaria. As previously met with on the northern and eastern
Australian coasts, nothing especially abnormal was placed on record concerning the
species collected. With relation, however, to the development of this generic group
recently found by the writer to obtain in Western Australian waters, some more note-
worthy data may be chronicled.

The genus Turbinaria will be familiar to many Australian readers by reason

of the fact that the cup or vase-shaped coralla of several of its varieties, popularly

230 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

known as Cup Corals, grow attached to the large Mother-of-Pearl shells in deep
water, and, obtained in their naturally united state from the divers, are in considerable
favour as card-baskets or other ‘table ornaments. In addition to these cup-shaped.
varieties there are various other growth-modifications of the genus Turbinaria which
may take: the form of flattened discs, encrusting or mound-like masses, or of an
innumerable host of leaf-like or diversely convoluted lamine.

By a fortunate coincidence, Mr. H. M. Bernard, M.A., who’ is continuing the
cataloguing of.the Madreporaria in the British Museum Collections commenced by the
late Mr. George Brook, had selected the genus Turbinaria for his first attention, and
was consequently prepared to deal with the extensive series of Australian forms
collected and presented to the National Collection by the writer, almost immediately
on their arrival. How substantial an accession this series proved may be gathered
from the following facts. The catalogue of the genus, now published, indicates that
fifty-seven species of Turbinaria are contained in the British Museum Collection. Of
these, twenty-eight specific forms were collected and contributed by the writer from
the Australian coasts, and out of them no less than twenty were determined by
Mr. Bernard to be new to science. Of some species, e.g., Turbinaria peltata, and
T. conspicua, over twenty individual coralla were included in order to illustrate the
growth phases and remarkable number of modifications of which one specific type was
susceptible. The writer’s entire Australian collection numbers, in fact, no less than
one hundred and twenty-six specimens out of the total of two hundred and sixty
examples from all sources representing the genus Turbinaria described in the British
Museum Catalogue.

Apart from the satisfactory score won for the Australian members of this
generic group from a numerical standpoint, the author has, with relation to the
specimens most recently obtained from Western Australia, enjoyed the gratification of
enriching the National Collection with larger examples of Madreporaria or Stony Corals
than had been hitherto possessed by either the British or any other zoological museum.
The most remarkable of these examples have been correlated by Mr. Bernard with
the titles of Turbinaria conspicua and T. peltata, and were obtained in both instances
from Shark’s Bay. The photographs taken by the writer of two magnificent specimens
of these two corals, and showing them as now occupying positions of honour in
the British Museum Coral Galleries, are reproduced on pages 232 and 233. In
the matter of greatest mass and weight the palm must undoubtedly be awarded
to the example of Turbinaria peltata, in which the hemispherical aggregation of

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 231

superimposed or coalescing lamelle measures a yard in height and from four to five
feet in diameter. Greater elegance, with little inferior bulk, undoubtedly attaches
itself to the finer specimens of Turbinaria conspicua depicted on page 233. The largest
examples secured of this Turbinarian also measure as much as three feet in height
and about four and a half feet in diameter, but, in place of forming more or less solid
hemispheres, take the shape of bush-like masses of erect convoluted plates: or folia
which may be isolated or united with one another in every conceivable fashion. The
series of examples of this species contributed by the writer to the British Museum
Collection numbered no less than twenty-four, and illustrate every phase of growth,
from tiny cups, less than one inch across, to large bushes many feet in circumference.
Several of the less advanced developmental phases are, as shown in the photograph
reproduced, exhibited in the same table case. A series of small cups, which represent
the initial growth phases of the two specific forms, Turbinaria conspicua and
T. peltata, natural size, as gathered by the writer growing in close contiguity to one
another on the reefs at Port Denison, Queensland, are portrayed in the top illustration
of the same page.

In conjunction with the matured coralla of the two species of Turbinaria depicted
on the same and opposite pages, these photographic replicas might be suggestively
labelled “small beginnings and big endings.” Four out of five of the nascent coralla
contained in the top illustration of page 233, represent the life-sized initial growth of
the relatively huge foliaceous coralla portrayed to a scale of about one-twentieth
immediately beneath it. There is, moreover, on the farther side of the group of three,
towards the left, a yet smaller corallum of the same species that measures only a
quarter of an inch across and contains but four polyp cells or calicles. Turbinaria
peltata, the massive mound-forming species protrayed in its matured condition on
the next page, is represented in the group of “small beginnings” by the single,
almost circular, disc with about twelve notably large cells or corallites. Some idea of
the aspect of a young corallum of Turbinaria peltata as it appears seen through the
water with its polyps expanded may be gained by a reference to the photograph from
life of an allied coral, a cespitose Dendrophyllia, D. axifuga, reproduced overleaf. The
corallum is necessarily under these conditions completely hid, the organism presenting
the aspect of a group of daisy-like sea anemones. As previously recorded and
figured in the author’s volume on the “Great Barrier Reef,” the corallum and polypes
of Turbinaria peltata are more usually of a light cream or whitey-brown hue, but

vary from this to a most delicate rose pink.

939 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The trouble and labour in-
volved in detaching the larger coral
specimens here figured from their
ocean - bed, together with their
subsequent packing and dispatch,
were, as may be anticipated, some-
what considerable. A heavy flat-
bottomed lighter, with blocks and
tackle, was requisitioned in the
first instance to raise the more

ponderous masses after they had

been loosened from their attach-

ment with crowbars and carefully W, Saville-Kent, Photo.
: ; ; LIVING coRAL, Dendrophyllia axifuga, WITH POLYPS EXPANDED.
secured in lashings by an experl- ONE HALF NATURAL SIZE. p. 231.

enced diver. They were then found to be too heavy to be raised on deck and were
towed in and deposited as high up on the beach as the tide would permit. At low
ebb they were then uncovered for the space of an hour or two. This circumstance
permitted of the operation of their bi-section with a cross-cut saw in order to reduce

them to a calibre that would allow of their being brought on shore and packed for

[TURBINARIA PELTAT A \ eg
| Shark’s Bay, W. Australia,
Saville-Kent Coll

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 233

transport. Even then
troubles were not at
an end. The huge
cases, in the absence
of jetty, landing
stage, or any suitable

machinery, were as

much as a dozen men
could handle and place
on board the steamer’s
tender, and it was
with the utmost diffi-

culty that even so

W, Savilte-Kent, Photo. large a company could

YOUNG cUP coraALs, Turbinaria conspicua et T. peltata. PORT DENISON, QUEENSLAND. NATURAL SIZE. : :
. be mustered in this

sparsely populated district.
The large, foliaceous forms, Turbinaria conspicua, were packed intact, being,
while almost equally bulky, of lighter structure. This species, it may be observed,
covered extensive areas in Egg Island Bay, near Dirk Hartog Island, Shark’s Bay,

representing the site referred

to in a previous Chapter, which
was selected by the writer for
pearl-shell cultivation. Seen
in their growing condi-
tion, they presented a
striking contrast to the
dried skeletons
exhibited in the
museum. In the
living state, the co-
ralla of this species
mostly vary from

grass to a light

glaucous green, W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

: : FOLIACEOUS CUP CORALS, Turbinaria conspicua. sH ‘ 5
while the entire , iy SHARK’S BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
SAVILLE-KENT COLLECTION, BRITISH MUSEUM.

GG

234 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

area of their growing surfaces is thickly studded with the expanded polyps. These,
when fully extended, are about three quarters of an inch in diameter, possess twenty-
four almost uniformly even subulate tentacles, and are coloured a still lighter

yellowish green.

W., Saville-Kent, Photo.

REVOLUTE CUP CORAL, Turbinaria revoluta, S.-H. SHARK’S BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE.

An extensive reef area of Turbinaria conspicua, viewed through the clear water,
while drifting over it in a boat, presents, on account both of the colour and contour: of
its component coralla, a most remarkable resemblance to subaqueous plantations of
Brobdingnagian, crinkled-leaved, savoy cabbages. As has been previously remarked
in Chapter V., the genus Turbinaria is a coral group that would appear to attain to
the zenith of its development in the somewhat cooler waters on the outskirts of the
tropics, and has been observed by the writer to flourish under such conditions, to
the exclusion of other species, in the Gulf of Carpentaria and in South Queensland
waters. Nowhere, however, has it been found by him to attain to such a plenitude
of development, with regard both to the number of varieties and the magnitude of
their individual coralla, as in Shark’s Bay, Western Australia.

A final example of this very characteristic generic group is photographically
portrayed on this page. It represents a specimen also gathered by the writer at
Shark’s Bay, which has been retained in his collection as a sort of “ewe lamb”
out of the flock of its comrades donated to the National Museum, which it will

probably rejoin later on. This specimen takes the form of a shallow cup, between

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 235

eight and nine inches in diameter, mounted on a short, stout, central supporting
stalk or pedicle. In addition to presenting the familiar shallow cup-shaped contour
with raised central ridges common to many species, this Turbinaria possesses the
notable peculiarity of having the entire outer margin of its rim, to a tolerably uniform
depth of two inches, developed downwards and inwards again towards its central
axis, in the form of an ornamental frill or border. This revolute edge, which
represents the growing margin, is, moreover, decorated with a considerably larger
number of vertical ridges than are visible on the upper surface of the corallum.
Overlooking the existence of its revolute border, this specimen most nearly resembles
the species described in Mr. Bernard’s Catalogue under the title of Turbinaria bifrons ;
it differs essentially from that type, however, in the relatively minute size and sunken
character of the polyps cells or calicles and in other details having a purely technical
importance. This specimen, evidently representing a new and hitherto undescribed
species, is, pending a full description elsewhere, provisionally associated in this volume
with the title of Turbinaria revoluta.

Shark’s Bay can boast of some notable sponges as well as corals. One of the
most remarkable of these is figured in the illustration overleaf. By a singular
coincidence, the type of this sponge was originally described by the author in the
“Proceedings of the Zoological Society for the year 1871,” under the name of
Caulospongia verticillata. The specimen, while vaguely labelled “ Australia,” was from
an unknown locality, and was placed in the author’s hands for description by
Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., then Keeper of the Zoological Department of the British Museum,
in which Institution the writer was, at that time, an assistant. That originally
described type measured but little over a foot in length, and comprised but a single
apical cone. The specimen of the same sponge with an authenticated habitat recently
added by the writer to the National Collections is upwards of three feet in height, and,
in addition to the main central cone, has two smaller ones, each about the size of the
original type specimen, symmetrically developed on either side of the central one. This
sponge, it may be added, belongs to the so-called “ Horny ” or ‘“ Keratose” group, in
which the sponge skeleton is composed mainly of horny matter, after the manner of that
of the sponge of commerce, Euspongia officinalis. The striking feature in the present form
is that it consists of a central more solid stalk-like axis, around which are developed
closely growing flattened whorls or verticils of the finer tissues. The author was more
especially indebted for the acquisition of this fine sponge to Mr. Ludwig Stross, a
former resident at Fresh Water Camp, Shark’s Bay.

236 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

The sponge figured in juxtaposition to the type last described hails from the
hotter and more remote waters of Torres Straits, and is remarkable as being an almost
unique variety of the so-called “‘ Neptune’s Goblet” or “ Neptune’s Cup” sponge, Poterion
patera. In its normal form, this sponge takes the shape of a huge cup or goblet,
with a supporting stalk, and, as a whole, is commonly three or four feet in height
and a couple of feet in diameter. In this instance, the sponge possesses no basal
stalk, and in place of a deep, cup-shaped body, is spread flat out like a tray or
salver of over three feet in diameter, having its margin slightly turned up, after the
manner of an ordinary tray rim. From the centre of this basal tray, two other lesser,
irregular cup-like developments of the sponge mass are raised one above the other
to the height of little over one foot. Mounted flat, this sponge formerly did duty in
the author’s collection as an appropriate show-table for a choice assortment of Torres
Straits shells and is figured under these conditions on Plate XLII. of his volume on
the “Great Barrier Reef.” This fine specimen has likewise fallen a victim to the

insatiable appetite of the Sponge and Coral Galleries of the

British Museum, where it is now on view.
The companion pictures in general contour and design,
represented by Plates XLI. and XLII. are included in this

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

A VERTICILLATE STALKED sponcE, Caulospongia verticillata, S.-K.

ONE-EIGHTH NATURAL SIZE, p. 235.

B NEpPTUNE’sS CUP SPONGE, Poterion patera var. ONF-TENTH NATURAL SIZE.

PLATE XLI.

4 W’. Saville-Ke hoto.
Collotype, W. & S. Ltd. Saville-Kent, Photo.

YOUNG TURTLES, Chelone mydas, PHOTOGRAPHED WHILE SWIMMING. One-third nat. size, p. 237.

PLATE XLII.

x

*, Saville-Kent, Photo,
Collotype, W. & 8, Ltd.

JELLY FISH, Discomeduse, PHOTOGRAPHED IN WATER FROM LIFE. One-third nat. size, p. 237,

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 237

Chapter with the more express purpose of demonstrating the potentialities of the
camera for rendering marine zoological subjects in a state of active locomotion in
their native element. In each instance the camera has been arranged vertically, in
conjunction with the apparatus figured in Plate XX VII. of the author’s book on the
“Great Barrier Reef,” and described at length in that volume. Bright sunshine falling
uninterruptedly upon the subjects and an instantaneous shutter were necessarily indis-
pensable accessories. In the first picture we have a group of eight young turtles,
Chelone mydas, collected at the Lacepede Islands just as they had tumbled out of their
ege-shells on an adjacent sand bank, and were liberated for their first swim in a
large basin of sea-water. A few sprays of sargassum weed were added to the water
with the double intent of garnishing the picture, and of in some measure restraining
the almost too exuberant gyrations of the infant Chelonians. A few of the more
characteristic attitudes of the limbs during consecutive phases of natation is well
exemplified in this illustration.

The picture opposite to the turtles, Plate XLII, portrays a score of a remarkably
beautiful jelly fish collected among the reef-pools in King’s Sound, which were
in a like manner photographed as they swam freely in a basin of sea-water. These
jelly-fish are represented to a scale of about one-third of their natural size, and in
life were variously tinted with soft shades of olive and bottle-green, scarcely two
specimens being precisely alike. While referable to the group of the Discomeduse,
and among these to the sub-order of the Rhizostome, it has not been found pos-
sible as yet to identify them with any previously described species, and they may
possibly prove to be new to science. A marked peculiarity in their habits was their
tendency to float with their mouths and tentacles uppermost and to lie in that
position in the reef shallows, presenting under those conditions’ a considerable re-
semblance to certain of the branching-armed sea anemones, such as Phymanthus or
Heterodactyla.

Combining, as is befitting, the utile cum dulci, we might suggest that charming
designs for an original dinner-service might be evolved from the foregoing and
cognate zoological subjects. Could, for instance, a pattern be more appropriate than
Plate XLI, for the serving up of Calapash and Calipee at my Lord Mayor's banquet ?
The jelly-fish, again, would pass muster with the arrival of the glacées. Should, in
fact, any enterprising firm be smitten with the “notion,” we have in our mind ideas

galore wherewith to decorate and adorn the Minton or other delf for the most

gargantuan feast.

238 ; THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

This Chapter of Marine Miscellanea would be scarcely complete without some
brief reference to an example or two of the more remarkable Australian Crustacea.
There are Crabs on the Southern Coast-line, to wit, Pseudocarcinus gigas, of
Brobdingnagian proportions, and excellent eating, beside which our homely Cancer
pagurus is a dwarf. <A specimen of this crab, taken from Tasmanian waters and
presented by the writer, will be found in the South Kensington Crustacean Gallery.
Its shell or carapace is recorded as not unfrequently attaining to a diameter of as
much as two feet. In its vicinity is another representative of the same class,
also hailing from the Island-Colony, which probably represents the largest fresh-
water Crustacean in the world. This is Astacopsis Franklinii, a near ally of our
small river crayfish Astacus vulgaris, but it attains to no less goodly a weight
than 8 or even 10 lbs. avoirdupois. The species is much esteemed for the table;
it is, as proved by the writer, easily kept and fed, and is eminently worthy the
attention of practical pisciculturists. The distribution of this magnificent Crustacean is
very limited, it being indigenous, like the Tasmanian Black-fish, Gadopsis marmoratus,
to the rivers only of the northern district of the Colony. The Murray and other
rivers of the Australian Continent likewise produce a very fine crayfish, Astacopsis
serratus, but it is much inferior in size, if not in flavour, to the Tasmanian type.
The specimen of this Crustacean given by the writer to the National Collection was
somewhat remarkable as being an albino or cream-coloured variation of the customary
reddish-brown or greenish-tinged race. This specimen, however, by no means
represents the full size to which the adults will attain, being indeed a cast shell or
ecdysis of a living specimen which was for a considerable while in the writer’s keeping.
This, as also the Murray river crayfish, is popularly known in the Colonies as the
“ Fresh-water Lobster.” Of the true lobster, genus Homarus, there is no representative
in Australian waters, but an abundance of marine crawfish referable to the same
genus as the British species, Palinurus vulgaris.

The crab which is the prime favourite in the central sea-ports from Sydney, on the
east, to Perth and Fremantle, in Western Australia, is the so-called Blue Crab, Neptunus
pelagicus. It belongs to the group known as swimming crabs, on account of the paddle-
like modification of its hinder claws. Though not much larger than our English shore crab,
Carcinus menas, it is excellent eating, and, being taken in abundance with the most
simple tackle, comprising merely some string, raw meat and a small landing net,
provides an attractive stimulus to fishing excursions innumerable, which are patronised

by angling enthusiasts of every age and status. Immediately on, and even before,

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 239

entering the tropics, the large Mangrove Crab, Scylla serrata, almost equal in
dimensions to the British “ Parton,” becomes fairly plentiful, and is held in high esteem.
As its popular name implies, the favourite haunt of this crab is the dense mangrove
thickets, wherein it excavates deep burrows, from which the experienced fisherman is
wont to dislodge it with a long hooked wire.

Apart from the economical varieties, Australian waters produce an infinity of bizarre
Crustacean types. Not the least notable among these are the relatively small mangrove-
frequenting crabs belonging to the genus Gelasimus. As many as seven species have been
recorded as inhabiting Australia. They all share the same eminently gregarious habits,
forming regular warrens with their associated burrows on the sea-shore, or more commonly
among the mangroves. The special structural distinction of the members of this genus
is the huge relative size of one of the larger fore-claws, or “cheele,” of the male
individual. Sometimes it is the right and sometimes the left claw which exhibits this
abnormal development; though, as shown in the photographs of one of the most con-
spicuous North Australian species, reproduced on the following page, in as many as
five out of six of the crabs figured, this larger chela is the left one. The particular
species, Gelasimus coarctata, here portrayed, is remarkable for its brilliant colouring,
as well as for its grotesque shape. Except the back of the carapace, which is
glossy black, the huge claw, the under surface, and all the other limbs are a most
brilliant scarlet vermilion, inclining to crimson. The aspect, in fact, of a number
of these crabs seen from a little distance, as they lie stationary at the mouths
of their burrows, against the dark background of mud and mangrove, is that of hot,
glowing coals. Presently one of these living coals will move out towards another one.
It is the literal carrying of a firebrand into the enemy’s camp. The two presently become
engaged in a deadly combat, there is a rapid retreat of the vanquished warrior, and
he disappears into his hole like an extinguished spark. Advance a step nearer, and
the whole community as suddenly and simultaneously vanish, leaving the spectator in
possession of the seemingly utterly barren and untenanted mud-flat. If he stands still for
a brief interval, they one by one re-appear at the mouths of their burrows and illumine
the landscape with their glowing tints. In the third figure, from the top of the group
here portrayed, a male crab of this species is represented very nearly the natural size.
The female is somewhat smaller, and possesses two very tiny pincers, as homologues
of the large and little claw of the male. Two examples of this relatively unarmed sex
may be readily identified in the lower portion of the accompanying illustration, one

of them occupying a position immediately above the two champions fighting in the left-

240 THE NATURALIST IN

AUSTRALIA.

hand corner. With reference to their highly pugnacious propensities and_ scarlet

colouring, the species is commonly distinguished by the local titles of the “ Fighting”

or “Soldier Crab.” The eyes in the members of the genus Gelasimus are, as will be

recognised by their portraits, remarkable organs.
Being set at the extremities of long moveable
footstalks, their owners command an extensive
all-round vision, a fact which accounts for the
readiness with which these crabs take alarm and
disappear when approached. These elongated
eyestalks are, moreover, possessed of completely
independent powers of motion, and when, as
often happens, a single “ optic” only is lowered
into the elongated groove that is provided for
its reception, the action is ludicrously suggestive
of a sagacious wink.

Broome Creek, of which an illustration is
given and to which reference is made in Chap-
ter V., is conspicuously rich in Gelasimi. In

addition to this commonest scarlet

type, G. coarctata, the writer met
with no less than four other not-
ably distinct species as the result
of a few hours’ “ mud-larking.”
As a rule, all of these several

varieties were found to frequent in-

dependent
zones, in
relation to
the tide
level. One
form,equal
in size to
the scarlet

species,

WR

and, in this

MANGROVE FIGHTING CRABS, Gelasimus coarctata.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 241

instance, living in its vicinity, had the large, but somewhat shorter and _ thicker,
fighting chela in the male cream colour, while the body and all the other limbs
were a slaty black. The smallest species of all, having a carapace, or shell, scarcely
half an inch in diameter, makes its burrows in sandy situations, far up on the
beach near high spring level. Its strikingly delicate colouring included a pale lilac
carapace, rose pink legs, and a large lemon-yellow fighting claw. Out on the
mud-flats below the mangrove zone there was a species nearly as large as the scarlet
one, but much less abundant, having a purple carapace, lilac and ochre yellow ambu-
latory limbs, and a portion only of the large fighting chela orange red. This species
is possibly identical with Gelasimus variatus. The fifth variety observed at Broome
was smaller than the preceding one, had the carapace in the male bright blue cen-
trally, with a brown anterior border. The ambulatory limbs were pale yellow, and
the fighting and rudimentary chela a most delicate rose pink. It was most abundant
in a zone between that of the scarlet type and the form last referred to. Probably
one or more of these Broome Gelasimi will be found on nearer investigation to be
new to science.

An essentially characteristic Australian group of the Crustacean class is that
represented by the genus Mycteris, and including what are familiarly known on
the Australian littoral as “ Army Crabs.” Two species have been described, Mycteris
longicarpus and M. platycheles, which differ from one another chiefly in the relative
length of their limbs. Tasmania in the South, and Port Jackson and Botany Bay,
New South Wales, on the Eastern Australian sea-board, represent their range
of distribution, as recorded in Mr. Haswell’s Monograph. The larger crab, MJ. longi-
carpus, has, however, been observed by the writer in abundance in Moreton and
Wide Bays, on the Queensland coast, and the second or an_ allied form at
Carnarvon and as far north as Roebuck Bay, in Western Australia. Both species
agree with one another in the remarkable habits which have gained for them
their above named popular title. Sandy-flats, in more or less sheltered bays that
are extensively exposed at low-water, represent the conditions under which
they are most abundantly met with. They are eminently gregarious, and in the
situations indicated associate together in numbers that may often be more correctly
expressed in terms of thousands rather than of hundreds. When the tide is high
nothing is seen of them, nor, probably, are they visible till some time after the
tide is down. Then, as though by magic, armies of them will rise up from

beneath the previously barren sand, and, assembling in battalions, march in open
HH

242 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

order, the separate companies it may be in different directions, as though amenable
to strict military discipline. It commonly happens, moreover, that several larger
male individuals lead the van
of these moving battalions, and
seemingly fulfil the 7é/e of com-

manding officers. If followed

at a little distance, they will
continue their march at an sone Jog
accelerated pace, but if over-
taken or pressed hard, they ARMY CRABS, Mycteris longicarpus. NATURAL SIZE.
will disappear beneath the surface of the sand almost as suddenly as they emerged
above it. The body of these crabs being usually pale blue or lilac, and all the limbs
light flesh colour, they constitute, when seen in masses under their characteristic
auspices, a conspicuous feature in the landscape.

The structural peculiarities of Mycteris distinguish it from all other crab
genera, and indicate and explain the singular celerity with which its members burrow

into or underneath the sand,

together with their general
adaptation to their sandy
habitat. The body in these
crabs is almost globose, but
more dilated above. The
so-called foot-jaws or ex-
ternal maxillipedes differ

from the usual formula in

being set nearly vertical,
are much the wider supe-
riorly, and form in their
conjoined condition an in-
verted cone. When de-
scending into or burrowing
through the sand, the apex

of this cone is driven fore-

most; a spiral motion is

W. Saville-Kent, Photo, _
ARMY CRABS, Mycteris platycheles. “A DESPERATE MELEE.” communicated to the body

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 243

by the action of the ambulatory limbs and claws and the complete organism thus
coustitutes itself a sort of animated centre-bit. While the writer had not the good
fortune to secure a satisfactory photograph of the Army Crabs on the march, the
accompanying snapshot taken of about eighty living individuals engaged in a desperate
mélée, added to the adjacent life-sized drawing, will convey a tolerable idea of the
aspect and contour of these Crustacean oddities. In this photographic replica, two
contending crab armies are ostensibly striving for the mastery. A near examina-
tion will reveal several couples among the general scrimmage engaged in single combat,
and one or more encuirassed warriors lying hors de combat on the field of battle.

In the authors volume on the “Great Barrier Reef,” some space and a
coloured plate have been devoted to the description and delineation of a few of the more
remarkable members of the Starfish tribe characteristic of that region. The handsome
cerulean blue, Linckia levigata, the jewel-bestudded Cushion Star, Culcita grex, and
the massive Nodose Cushion Star, Oreaster nodosus, are among the more noteworthy
types included in that record. As is the case with the fish, however, the colder waters
of the Tasmanian seas produce, if not so abundant, yet a goodly number of forms that
vie with the tropical species in the brilliancy of their tints. Even in our British seas
the gorgeous crimson and scarlet livery of the familiar Sun Star, Solaster papposa,
is almost aggressively irradiant with the reflected glow of, as it were, tropic climes.

The Tasmanian Starfish types that have been chosen for reproduction in
Chromo-Plate VIII., have been selected with the object more particularly of
illustrating a few of the almost kaleidoscopic series of colour variations to which
one particular species is susceptible. The most prominent form in this group, repre-
sented by Figures 1 to 6 in the Plate quoted, belongs to the same genus as the little
Asterina gibbosa, or “Starlet” of the British coast, but in this type, Asterina calcar,
attains to a much more considerable size, and is notable among starfish for its
octagonal fundamental structure. With the great majority of starfishes and all other
members of the same class, that of the Echinodermata, the number five, or a pentagonal
formula, is dominent with reference to both the numbers of arms, angles, and
internal structural details. The examples of Asterina calcar here figured were all
obtained within a few yards from one another on the rocky foreshore of Spring Bay, on
the East Coast of Tasmania. Several plates might have been filled with as conspicuously
divergent tinted individuals of the same species. No two examples, indeed, are
precisely alike. The latent possibilities possessed by these many-tinted Starfish for

utilisation for decorative purposes will possibly occur to the esthetic mind. Surely in

244 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the no-distant future some de, -ture will be made from the monotonous repetition of
impossible floral inanities that are year after year foisted upon the public as the latest
triumphs of inventive genius in the matter of wall papers, draperies, and cognate
subjects !

Dame Nature teems with new suggestions in both form and colour that appeal
most urgently for recognition at the hands of the decorative artist. Not the least
noteworthy among these is her wealth of treasures yielded by the sea. As an initial
notion in that direction, what a vista of original distinction and success is open to the
artist who, turning his back upon the egregious conventionalities and bastard banalities
of every flower that blooms, shall strike out a new path! Taking, say, a wall paper
for his theme, a well-thought-out design might have the body of the subject represented
by coral branches. There are a thousand or more varieties to choose from of every
form and tint, and these might again be indefinitely diversified by the inclusion or
otherwise of their living flowers. For the dado of such a paper what is more
capable of lending itself to elegant and artistic uses than the Pentacrini or stalked
Feather-stars, many of them with their tall, graceful and finely divided articulations
singularly suggestive of peacock’s feathers? The frieze, again, by way of harmonious
compliment to the dado, might be suitably composed of a cordon of Sea-stars. Here,
in form as well as in colour, there is, both literally and metaphorically, a perfect galaxy
of beauty to select from. Asteroids and Sun-stars of the first magnitude and flame-
like lambency, down to Starlets, Asterine, scarcely half-an-inch in diameter, with
every intermediate gradation, are, in point of fact, awaiting in the Sea-star firmament
the epoch of their artistic recognition.

Between the lines of the larger Asterina calcar figured in Chromo Plate VIII,
three or four smaller forms have been intercallated which are conspicuous for
their brilliant colouration and shape. The violet- tinted example, Figure” 9,
occupying the centre of the plate quoted, is an antipodeal representative of the
-familiar “ Bird’s foot” Sea-star, Palmipes membranaceus of the British seas. This
specimen, with many others, was dredged up by the writer in the estuary of the
Tamar river, North Tasmania. The majority of these individuals were coloured a
dark dull crimson, but this and one or two other examples, evidently the aristocracy
of their race, were clad, as delineated, in royal purple. Their rows of bright
yellow acetabula, or sucking feet, which decorate and adorn their under surfaces,
suggest the further simile of chains of gold. The specimen here figured repre-
sents a half-grown individual, the adult ones measuring from three to four inches

See, See OER OE

Waterlow & Sons, Ltd. Chromo

W Saville-Kent, del. et pinx

A SEA=STAR GALAXY, 242.

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 245

in diameter. It is noteworthy that this Sea-star, in common with the Asterine
previously referred to, departs from the pentagonal structural formula. The majority
of the specimens dredged were six-rayed or hexagons, while the one figured is
heptagonal. It would seem that Sea as well as Society-stars at the Antipodes have
decided to abate somewhat of the hard and fast lines of the Old World conven-
tionalities.

A perfect little gem—small, but of the first water—is portrayed by the diminutive,
irreproachably pentagonal type bedight in crimson and scarlet situated near the top of
the Plate. It also belongs to the genus Asterina, but of an as yet undetermined
species, and was dredged by the writer in Western Port Bay, Victoria. An essentially
characteristic Australian species concludes this series. It is represented by the two
individuals respectively numbered 8 and 10, notable for their perfectly flat pentagonal
shape and the tesselated pattern of their component structure and ornamentation. The
species, Pentagonaster australis, is abundant in Tasmania and throughout the Australian
sea-board. More usually the tint of these Sea-stars is a light ochreous yellow, a
colour which, in conjunction with their flattened symmetrical shape, imparts to them
a remarkable resemblance to some sort of fancy biscuit, for which, if exposed for
sale in a confectioner’s window, they would undoubtedly pass muster. The two
colour - variations figured in Chromo-Plate VIII. were obtained by the writer in
Tasmania.

The marine zoological organism that finds most favour in the public estimation
at the close of the day’s “doings is that luscious bivalve, the Oyster. We
have consequently reserved it by way of a _ valedictory bonne bouche to this
present Chapter. The Common Oyster, Ostrwa edulis, flourishes, or, more correctly,
used to flourish, in all of the Southern Australian Colonies. The demand, however,
has overtaken and nearly annihilated the supply of this particular bivalve in both
Victoria and Tasmania, its former headquarters, and the oyster eaten most extensively
now throughout the length and breadth of Australia is the so-called Sydney Rock
Oyster, Ostrwa glomerata. Although formerly obtained in the greatest abundance in
New South Wales, over-exhaustion has greatly diminished the output from that colony,
and the largest supplies are now derived, and exported to all of the other colonies,
from Queensland.

So much has been said regarding the Oysters and Oyster fisheries of Queensland
in a chapter extensively devoted to this topic in the author’s recent work on the
“Great Barrier Reef,” that it is not proposed to deal with this subject at any length on

246 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

the present occasion. The same species of Rock Oyster is found, though not so
abundantly, up the Western Australian coast, and a considerable quantity are
systematically consigned from Shark’s Bay and stations higher up the coast to Perth
and Fremantle. The species attains to the zenith of its development a little south of
the tropics, and on this account, other conditions being favourable, it grows to the
greatest perfection in Moreton and Wide Bays in Queensland, and their corresponding
parallels on the Western sea-board. The experiment has been initiated by the writer
of laying Rock Oysters down in the Swan River estuary at Fremantle. During the
_writer’s stay in the colony these oysters had increased in size and commenced to
propagate, though whether the species can be permanently acclimatised in a station
so far south of its natural habitat remains to be demonstrated.

In prehistoric years the Swan River estuary was the site of enormous banks
of the ordinary cold water or Common Oyster, Ostrwa edulis, which, in the Australian
colonies, is most commonly known in contradistinction to the Rock species as the
“Mud” variety. Portions of the river bed are at the present date solid masses of
this oyster’s shells, and similar accumulations on either side. mark the former
much more considerable area of permanently salt water. With the process of time
the river channel and its connecting reaches have become more or less extensively silted
up, and so it has at length been brought about that where, formerly, water sufficiently
salt for the growth of oysters was permanently present, it has been, as now during flood
seasons, so long replaced by that which is perfectly fresh that the oysters have been
destroyed. A somewhat. similar process of oyster extermination by natural causes
was in course of actual operation in the Tamar estuary, Tasmania, some years since,
when the writer was investigating and reporting to the Government of that Colony on
the causes of the decadence of the local oyster fisheries and the prospects of
rehabilitating them. On this occasion, it being winter and the floods out, a crust
of ice had to be broken to obtain access to the few surviving bivalves.

In Western Australia the most promising area for the establishment or
re-establishment of prolific oyster fisheries is, beyond doubt, in the vicinity of Albany
and King George’s Sound. It formerly produced the so-called “mud” variety, Ostrwa
edulis, in great abundance, and there are even yet a few surviving from the reckless
depletion of the beds that was practised in years gone by. On the writer's advice,
Government oyster-breeding reserves are being established in the most suitable
locations in this vicinity, from which, in course of time, it is anticipated that
the former prolific beds may be again restocked. Denudation has, however,

PLATE XEITY.

AL ROCK OYSTERS, Ostrea mordaz, GREAT BARRIER REEF, p. 247.

ea is

A.—COR

S. Ltd,

Colloty pe, W. g

B.—ROCK OYSTERS, Ostrea yglomerata, KEPPEL BAY, QUEENSLAND, p. 247.

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 247

unfortunately proceeded so far that considerable difficulties are experienced in the
matter of obtaining a sufficient stock for the insurance of substantial results within
a reasonable period of time. Port Lincoln, on the South Australian coast, as a matter
of fact, represents the nearest and about the only spot where this most estimable
oyster still abounds in sufficient quantities to be available for importation and
laying down.

For the resuscitation of the exhausted, and the maintenance of the existing, oyster
fisheries throughout Australia, there can be no doubt that methods of artificial
cultivation will have to be ultimately resorted to on a much more extensive scale,
and on more scientific principles, than have been hitherto pursued. Much has been
written upon this subject by the writer in his previously quoted volume and in Govern-
ment Reports to various of the Australian Colonies, and it will suffice here to refer
only to the illustrations of the apparatus introduced by him with marked success
at the Antipodes for the catchment of the free swimming oyster spat. This
apparatus, as shown in the top figure of Plate XLIV., consists merely of lengths
of board, the Australian “split pailing,” having a brick attached at each end, and
a wire loop handle. The under surface of the board, immediately before being
placed in the water, is thinly coated with Portland cement. Three such “collectors,”
with their crops of attached Rock oysters, which were laid down and taken up
by the writer in Moreton Bay, Queensland, after an immersion of about three
months, are portrayed in the lower photograph reproduced in the same Plate. This
description of spat collector was found to be equally efficacious when previously,
and for the first time, employed by the writer on the Tasmanian Government Reserves
for the artificial collection of the so-called “Mud” Oyster, Ostrewa edulis, which is
held to be only an Antipodeal variety of the British “ native.”

A couple of hitherto unpublished photographs representing remarkable growths
of the ordinary Australian Rock Oyster, Ostrwa glomerata, and also of an
allied species, Ostrwa mordax, are reproduced in Plate XLIII. The growth of the
first-named species, occupying the lower half of the Plate, was photographed by the
writer in the Narrows, Keppel Bay, near Rockhampton, Queensland. It portrays
what may be denominated a virgin oyster reef as exposed to view at extreme low tide.
The representation of Ostrea mordaxz in the upper of the two prints is a typical
illustration of the tendency of this species to form definite zones of growth around
restricted areas of the rocks to which it is attached. This zone of most luxuriant

development coincides, as a matter of fact, with half-tide mark; scarcely an oyster

248

THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

is to be seen above
defined lower edge.

inches, and it projects

it, and they are very thinly scattered beneath its abruptly
The depth of this veritable oyster girdle is about eighteen
from the surface of the rock to a thickness of over one foot.
This and other photographs illustrative of this remarkable
growth condition were taken by the writer in the vicinity of
Rocky Island, off Cooktown, Queensland, one of the many
granitic island formations that are hereabouts intercallated
among the Great Barrier system.

The popular title of the Coral Rock Oyster has been
given by the writer to Ostrwa mordax with reference to the
fact that it occurs in great abundance and to the exclusion of
the ordinary Rock oyster, O. glomerata, on the outlying rocks
and reefs of purely coral origin throughout the tropical Aus-
tralian coast-line. A very singular modification of this oyster
species is represented in the adjoining process-prints. Through
growing in crowded juxtaposition much after the manner shown
in Plate XLIII., the lower or attached shell elongates in-
definitely, while the outer or opercular one retains its normal
dimensions. The originals of these illustrations, which are re-
produced life-size, were obtained in the neighbourhood of
Keppel Bay, Queensland. A very closely corresponding variety
of the ordinary Rock Oyster, O. glomerata, produced under
parallel conditions, has been more recently obtained by the
writer at Shark’s Bay in Western Australia.

Australia is, par excellence, to the unsophisticated
Britisher, the land of incongruities and _ topsy - turvydom.

Christmastide is a mid-summer festival; the swans are black;

CORNUCOPIA-LIKE VARIETY OF OSTRHA MORDAX. KEPPEL BAY, QUEENSLAND. NATURAL SIZE.

a , me . i s Bistetn nin t,
Collotype, W. & S. Ltd. . Saville-Hent, Photo.

THE AUTHOR’S OYSTER CULTURE APPARATUS, p. 247

250 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

of both these forms of oyster growth are characteristically represented in Plate XX XIX.
of the author’s “ Barrier” book.

The most notable example hitherto recorded of oysters growing upon trees is
probably afforded by that delineated in the illustrations on page 249. These portray a
new and remarkably minute species of oyster discovered by the writer in the estuary of
the Ord River, Cambridge Gulf, Western Australia, when accompanying, as a guest, the
surveying cruise of H.M.S. “Myrmidon,” in the year 1888. With reference to its re-
corded habitat, the name of Ostrwa ordensis was conferred upon this species in a paper
entitled “ Oysters and Oyster Culture in Australasia,” contributed by the writer to the
Auckland, New Zealand, meeting, 1891, of the Australian Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Ostrea ordensis grows not only on the roots, stems, and respiratory
shoots, or “cobbler’s pegs,” of the White Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis, but also on its
leaves. As shown, in fact, in the photographic figures reproducing the specimens their
exact natural size, as many as forty or fifty individual oysters may be crowded together
on a single leaf, measuring about two inches in length. That these oysters had attained
to a state of maturity was established by the fact that, on being opened, they were
found to be crowded with well-developed embryos. The growth zone of these oysters.
was, moreover, considerably nearer high-tide mark than that affected by the only other
type, a stunted race of Ostrwa glomerata, which grew sparingly on the rocks at a lower
level in the near vicinity. It happens, as a consequence of their inhabiting this high-
level growth area, that these oysters are covered by the tide for a few hours only
during the course of the day. During neaps, indeed, they may be left uncovered for
several consecutive days. There is a famous oyster, celebrated in song, accredited
with a penchant for walking upstairs. The particular variety here figured has, at any
rate, manifested the predilection to climb higher up a tree than any oyster species
previously described.

A companion picture to the “Rhinoceros Rock” heading to this Chapter has
been selected for its tail-piece. The rock scene in this instance portrays a somewhat
remarkable sandstone formation on the foreshore of Sweer’s Island, a member of the
Wellesley group, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The anomalous nature of this rock
formation is recorded in Dr. Fitton’s Geological Appendix to Captain King’s “Survey
of the Coasts of Australia,” Vol. II., 1826, and is briefly referred to on page 570,
in the following words :—“<In Sweer’s Island, a hill of about fifty or sixty feet in
height was covered with a sandy calcareous stone, having the appearance of

concretions, rising irregularly about a foot above the general surface without any

MARINE MISCELLANEA. 251

distinct ramifications. The specimens from this place have evidently the structure
of stalactites, which seem to have been formed in the sand.” The tubular character
of some of the examples of these and similar stalactite-like concretions collected, and
their attribution to the passage of calcareous or ferruginous solutions through the
sand masses of which they are fundamentally composed is further referred to at pages
621 and 622 of the same treatise.

The photograph here reproduced depicts this peculiar strata under conditions more
favourable for the illustration of its characteristic features than obtained at the epoch
of its earlier observation. Sweer’s Island, when visited by the writer in 1891, had a
few years previously been the scene of a violent hurricane. The low sandstone cliff that
forms the subject of the accompanying. photograph, then taken, had been completely
submerged and undermined by the abnormal waves, and was broken up into disrupted
fragments that bore a by no means remote resemblance to masses of a Cyclopean

growth of the Organ-pipe coral, Zubipora musica.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

STALACTITE-LIKE KOCK CONCRETIONS, SWEER’S ISLAND, GULF OF CARPENTARIA, NORTH QUBENSLAND.

_ CHAPTER 1X7 4
JNsect ODDITIES .

LHE world of Insect Life in Australasia is as

redundant with oddities and anomalies as any

of the more highly organised animal classes.
The remarkable fabrications of the White Ants, Termites,
have already furnished the material for a separate Chapter.
As much, or more, might be written concerning the true
Ants, or Formicide, which in Australia are conspicuous,
not only for their numbers, but also with regard to their
size. Several species, indeed, such as the colonially familiar

”?

“Bull-dog” and “Inchmen” Ants, equal or even exceed
in dimensions the unit of measurement from which, in the
latter instance, they take their designation.

The ants, however, which above all others appeared
to the writer to present the strongest claims for recognition
and immortalisation are the so-called Green Ants, Formica
viridis, with which it may be safely anticipated every
explorer of the North Queensland “bush” is familiar. In

the Green Ant country, all the low trees and shrubs, which

“ BUTTERFLY BIRTHDAYS,” p. 257. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

ee ee ee ee

INSECT ODDITIES. 253

enter mainly into the composition of the “bush” or “scrub,” appear to be
suffering from a plague of caterpillars. Not that the leaves of the trees are
themselves devoured, but they are all spun together with webbing, after the
manner practised by many Lepidopterous larve, and in bunches which vary in calibre
and dimensions from two or three leaves only to masses five or six inches or
more in diameter. Pushing one’s way through the plantations infested by these ants,
one soon becomes unpleasantly conscious of their presence. They fall down
in showers from their shaken nests and are prone to fix themselves with their
sharp, powerful jaws to whatever exposed area of epidermis may present itself.
Fortunately, they do not, like many of their congeners, sting as well as bite, though,
all the same, two or three that have, after the manner of their kind, insinuated them-
selves beneath your shirt collar, or probably further extended their peregrinations
before selecting an anchorage, can evolve from their human victim a highly
creditable display of gymnastic capacities, together with a by no means unusual
accompaniment of fluent rhetoric. In aspect the Green Ant is undoubtedly one of
the most elegant of its tribe. The green pellucidity of ‘its body rivals that of the
beryl, while the colour and texture of its limbs may be most aptly compared to
amber. Beauty, in the case of the Green Ant, is more than skin-deep. Their
attractive, almost sweetmeat-like translucency possibly invited the first essays at their
consumption by the human species. Mashed up in water, after the manner of lemon
squash, these ants form a pleasant acid drink which is held in high favour by the
natives of North Queensland, and is even appreciated by many European palates.

That these Green Ants should be capable of spinning silk seemed such an
anomaly that the elucidation of their modus operandi attracted the writer’s attention
on more than one of the occasions of his visits to the north. It was, finally, when
examining the nests of these ants and their ways in the bush a little way out of
Cooktown in July, 1890, that the enigma was solved. It was then found that the
ants in their matured state took no distinct part in the weaving, though they were
at the same time instrumental in requisitioning their immature grubs or larve to
fulfil this task.

The way in which these helpless weaklings were impressed for active service
and trained to labour for the public weal may be more clearly understood by a
reference to Figs. 1 and 2 in Chromo-Plate IX. Fig. 1 in this Plate portrays a
relatively small nest of this ant species so far composed of but a few leaves,
which, as sketched, were in process of being united together by a silken tissue. To

254 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

accomplish this undertaking a number of the Green Ants were assembled on the
outside and were engaged in rows in gripping and drawing to their closest proximity
the edges of the adjacent leaves. This strained position, with every muscle at the
fullest tension, was maintained, it might be, for hours together without its being
possible to detect the rationale of the ants’ manceuvres. The weaving and binding of
the leaf edges to one another was probably progressing throughout this interval, but
on the inner side only of the approximated edges.

Presently an ant was seen to emerge from the interior of the nest, carrying
with it a whitish object, which on nearer examination proved to be one of the
matured grubs or larve. This grub was carried to the scene of one of the labouring
parties occupied in holding the leaf edges together. Grasping the grub by the centre
of its body, the ant then held it in such a position that its extended head could just
come in contact with one of the gripped edges, to which the grub sought to
attach itself by exuding a glutinous silk fibre from its mouth. No sooner, however,
had the larva effected a silken attachment to one leaf edge than it was immediately
transported to the opposite one, to -which, in like manner, it endeavoured to
effect a secure anchorage. The silken cord was drawn out and carried across the
intervening space, and, being fastened again to this opposite edge, made the first
complete stitch to unite the respective leaf edges. This simple process was repeated
over and over again until the silk supply of the larva was exhausted, when it
was carried back to the nursery and another grub substituted in its place. The
larve thus selected and utilised as weaving shuttles were in all cases matured
individuals that were on the point of entering upon the pupeform condition and had
consequently their silk glands fully developed. So soon as a sufficient amount of silk
fibre had been woven between and over the opposing leaf edges to overcome their
natural tendency to spring apart, the labouring ants relaxed their grip, and either
commenced operations on other leaf edges or retired into their nest. The rare
occasions on which it was found possible to detect these insects engaged upon their
remarkable weaving operations favour the belief that they are usually accomplished
at night.

The leading data, here recorded, concerning ‘“‘The weaving properties of the
Australian Green Ant” were communicated by the writer in a paper bearing the
foregoing title, contributed to the Queensland Royal Society’s Meeting of May 15th,
1891. Nest-weaving phenomena of a similar character were subsequently observed

by Mr. H. N. Ridley of an allied Malaccan species, Formica smaragdina, and

oe

Chromo Plate 1X

od, ey
lame t2.:
of) se

W. Saville-Kent, del. et pi
aville-Kent, del. et pinx LN SE CY "OD DETUES: Waterlow & Sons, Ltd Chromo

FIGS , 1-4, GREEN ANTS p252 ; FIGS,5-15, REMARKABLE SPIDERS, p257; FIGS 16-24, ECCENTRIC CATERPILLARS, p256

INSECT ODDITIES. 255

are briefly chronicled in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society for the
year 1894.

The strength and tenacity of jaw manifested by the North Queensland Green
Ants in the architecture of their nests is also displayed by them in the capture of
living prey. The writer frequently observed instances in which an unfortunate beetle,
or other insect, had fallen a victim to their hunting expeditions. It was in such case
pinioned fast to the ground by a radiating circle of its merciless captors, every limb
being dragged out to its fullest extension. Secured in this helpless position the poor
insect was then speedily dismembered and transported piece-meal to the Green
Ants’ larder.

A singular little winged insect, apparently of the Hymenopterous order, was
observed hovering over and occasionally lighting upon one of the Green Ants’ nests
under observation. As shown in the enlarged drawing of it, given in fig. 4 of Chromo-
Plate IX.—the natural size being indicated by the cross lines in its vicinity—
the most remarkable features of this fly were the gouty-like enlargement of the
central joints of the hind limbs and the somewhat coincident abnormal dimensions of
the last abdominal segment. While hovering, both these weighted limbs and the
abdomen hung perpendicularly to the otherwise horizontal plane of the little creature’s
body. From the special attention that this fly concentrated upon the Green Ants’
nest, it would appear probable that it was in some way related either as a
commensal or a parasite with the hymenopterous community.

An exceedingly interesting account of the practical utility to which the
gripping powers possessed by certain of the larger species of Ants may be applied
was contained in a paper contributed by Mr. R. Middleton, to the Meeting of the
Linnean Society for February 6th, 1896. According to a communication received by
that gentleman from Mr. Miltiades Issigonis, of Smyrna, extensive use is made by the
Greek Barber Surgeons of the Levant of a large species of ant for the purpose of
holding together the edges of incised wounds. The ant, held with a pair of
forceps, opens its mandibles wide and is then permitted to seize the edges of the cut
which are held together for this purpose. As soon as a firm grip is established the
ant’s head is severed from the body and remains tenaciously holding the cut edges of
the wound in the position most favourable for its speedy healing. Mr. Issigonis had
seen several natives with wounds in course of healing to which seven or eight
such decapitated ants’ heads were attached. There can be no doubt that Australia

from among her larger “ Bull-dog” and “ Inchmen” races could furnish a phenomenally

256 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

redoubtable contingent for the exercise of this most ingeniously improvised application
of the healing art.

The remaining insects proper included in the Plate now under discussion
belong to the order of the Lepidoptera, or Butterfly and Moth tribe, and are
more especially noteworthy with reference to the bizarre aspect of their larve or
caterpillars. In neither case does the perfect insect present features of note.
Figs. 16 to 19, depicting the first of these two forms, represent the transformation
phases of a small moth, referable to the genus Phorodesma. The larva is of the
Semi-looper or Geomiter tribe, and feeds upon a green lichen abundant on the
Eucalyptus trunks in the neighbourhood of Brisbane. As delineated in the enlarged
back view, Fig. 16, it is, while quiescent, quite impossible to distinguish it from a
small lichen frond.

To accomplish this disguise the caterpillar bites off small fragments of the
lichen on which it feeds, and, apparently with the aid of a glutinous secretion from
its mouth, causes them to adhere, not only to the entire body surface, but also to
the long bristles that are symmetrically developed on either side. It is this latter
circumstance more particularly which imparts to the insect such a frond-like aspect.
The profile view given in Fig. 17 represents a caterpillar which has somewhat
outgrown its coat, the head and pro-legs being distinctly visible. A somewhat
analogous method of disguising itself for protective purposes is resorted to by certain
of the Spider Crabs of the British seas, referable to the genus Stenorhynchus,
which are in the habit of decorating their carapaces and limbs with detached frag-
ments of seaweeds to such an extent that they may be readily mistaken for growing
plants. The pupal stage of this lichen-feeding Phorodesma is delineated in Fig. 18.
As will be recognised, the cocoon is mounted on a slender pedicle, and lichen
fragments are extensively incorporated into its substance. The perfect moth, enlarged
to twice its natural size, is delineated in Fig. 19.

The remaining Lepidopterous type that invites brief notice is represented by
Figs. 20 and 24 of Chromo-Plate IX., and has been identified for the writer by
Sir George Hampson, of the British Museum Entomological Department, with Dimona
porrigens. The larva in this instance feeds on various species of the Australian gum
trees or Eucalypti, and has been observed by the writer in both Tasmania and the
Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, South Australia. The notable peculiarity in this
instance is the circumstance that with each skin-casting, or “ ecdysis,” the caterpillar
retains the entire head-skin attached to the short hairs at the back of its new one.

INSECT ODDITIES. . 257

It thus comes about that, on arriving at its adult state, this caterpillar carries with
it an accumulation of five or six of its discarded head-masks; the bizarre appear-
ance thus presented is grotesquely suggestive of the old drawings of the Jew pedlar,
with his stock-in-trade pile of battered hats. The most characteristic illustration
of the singular aspect of this much be-hatted caterpillar is afforded by Fig. 22,
where it is drawn as seen eating its way through a _ leaf. On_ preparing
for the chrysalis stage and the renouncement of the pomps and vanities of its
hitherto earth-bound vegetative existence, the caterpillar weaves an ovate silken
cocoon, on the outer wall of which, as shown in Fig. 23, it jauntily plants its
ultimately discarded hat pile. In the cocoon here figured, the fabricator, being of an
evidently esthetic turn of mind, has gnawed off and interwoven with its substance
fragments of the coloured lining of the box in which it was confined.

The somewhat silhouette-patterned border illustration reproduced on the first
page of this Chapter, while introduced primarily for decorative purposes, claims brief
explanation. It represents the twig-attached pup or chrysalides and newly-emerged
imagos of one of the many butterflies belonging to the Pieride family common to
Australia. The particular species is apparently identical with, or near to, Belenois
Clytie, and notable for its gregarious habits. The three chrysalis-covered sprays
here photographically reproduced from life, represent but a very small fraction of the
mass from which they were originally gathered in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens.

Availing ourselves of the licence sanctioned by the Entomological Society, which
admits Spiders provisionally and by courtesy to the rank of Insects, the introduction
of some notable “oddities” is permitted. Figs: 5 to 15, in Chromo-Plate IX.,
previously quoted, portrays a few of these spider types, remarkable either for their
individual form or colour, or for the singularity of their architectural products.
Some of these can, indeed, claim distinction on both counts. Fig. 5 presents,
in its external contour, but little to distinguish it from the ordinary garden spiders
of the genus Epeira, but, at the same time, may be described as being of a some-
what flattened, obovate shape. Colour, however, here comes in, and plays a part
that, in conjunction with its environments, invests this Arachnid with unique interest.
The ground tint of this spider, as shown in the illustration, is a delicate lilac, with
individually variable shadings. Superimposed on this, near the centre of the body,
are two smooth, slightly elevated, pale yellow, circular, eye-like spots.

Taken in conjunction with the flattened obovate body, the entire organism,

with the relatively small cephalothorax and limbs turned in an opposite direction,
KK

258 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

presents the most singular resemblance to the head of a small snake, or of a lid-less,
goggle-eyed, Gecko Lizard. When seen under its customary natural conditions, at
the end of the cylindrical silken tunnel among the foliage that it weaves for its
habitation, this suggested simile is the more remarkably obvious. The useful purpose
of this mimetic adaptation, if such it be, to this spider as a protective element is
evident. Among the several popularly-quoted anomalies distinctive of the Australian
region, the circumstance that the spider is the victim of the, or, more correctly, of a
certain species of, fly has been already noted. The particular flies that thus turn the
table at the Antipodes upon the spider are solitary members of the Wasp or Hornet
tribe, genus Sphex, and its allies. These Hymenoptera construct clay nests of con-
spicuous size, a sheltered corner of the verandah or dwelling room of one’s bungalow
being a favourite location. Before laying their eggs within the nest, however, provision
has to be made for the emerging grubs. This invariably consists of a holocaust of
spiders, which are stung, not to death, but simply to a state of coma. They are then
carried off and hermetically walled up with the eggs in such a number that they
provide a continual feast of fresh meat for the Hornet larve from the time they are
hatched until they enter upon the pupa stage.

The fat soft-bodied Epeire are special favourites with these Assassin Wasps,
and the species now under notice doubtless owes much of its immunity from wasp
persecution to the circumstance of the superficial resemblance of its body to a reptile’s
head. The apparent pair of baleful phosphorescent eyes gleaming at the extremity
of the dimly-lighted recess occupied by the spider, would, it may be anticipated,
immediately deter its winged enemy from rashly penetrating within the portals of a
darksome chamber, where it would, itself seemingly, run the greater chance of being
devoured.

The cocoon constructed by this Epeira for the enclosure and protection of
its eggs, represented in its natural size in Fig. 6, is a conspicuous object and
is fabricated with considerable ingenuity. Four or five of these egg cocoons are
commonly constructed by an individual spider, and are hung freely under a leafy shelter,
from an irregularly webby basement in the position indicated. They may vary among
one another in being of stouter or more slender relative dimensions, but at the same
time collectively agree in their essentially pyriform shape, and more particularly in
the exceedingly narrow tubular terminal orifice. This contracted contour of the exit
passage is no doubt a special provision against unwelcome intrusion of insect enemies
from without.

. INSECT ODDITIES. 259

The writer availed himself of the opportunity of submitting these and other
spider sketches to Messrs. R. J. Pocock and F. O. Pickard Cambridge, the Arachnid
Authorities at the British Museum. While it was not found possible to establish the
identity of the spider just described and figured, it being probably new to science,
some interesting data were elicited concerning its characteristic cocoons. Examples
of these fabrications had, it appeared, been acquired by the Museum Collection
between fifty and sixty years ago. Up to the present time, however, no data were
available indicating what description of spider or other insect constructed them. In
another form included in the author’s sketch book, the egg cocoons were perfectly
spherical, half an inch in diameter, smooth on their surface, and of a light-brown
tint with darker striations. The contour and size of these egg cocoons so nearly
coincided in contour and dimensions with the seed capsules of the indigenous
convolvulus, Ipomea, that they might be easily mistaken for such a vegetable structure.
The spider, moreover, when at rest with legs doubled close to its body, so closely
resembles the egg cocoons in shape and markings, though of lighter colour, that it
too might be taken for an older, bleached and battered example of the same seed
vessel. Samples of these egg cocoons were also contained in the British Museum
Collection, but without any record as to their relationship. The writer’s included
sketch of the spider sufficed for its identification with Koch’s figure of Célenia
excavata, so that the organism and its products are now satisfactorily correlated
with one another.

The Spider form represented by Figs. 7 and 8 of the Plate now under notice,
is referable to the genus Argyrodes, and is remarkable for the circumstance that it
does not spin and abide in an independent web, but takes up its residence on the
snare woven by some larger and stronger species, preying there on the smaller
midget-sized flies and other insects that are beneath the notice of its accommodating
host. The form here figured was most abundantly observed by the writer com-
mensally associated on the wide-spreading geometrical webs of the relatively
gigantic spider Nephila fuscipes, in Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland, of
which a figure is given in Plate XLV. An identical or very closely allied species
was also abundant on the webs of Argiope regalis, in the neighbourhood of Brisbane.
One of the most remarkable features of this type is its burnished silver-like sheen.
Scattered in some numbers over the surface of the web as they frequently are,
and of all ages and sizes, from almost. invisible pin-points to the adult dimen-

sions of about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, they glisten in the sun like minute

260 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

‘globules of mercury. An alternative simile, and the one which is probably a more
correct interpretation of their adaptive significance, is their conspicuous resemblance
to web-entangled dewdrops. Masquerading under this delusive cloak, they would no
doubt escape the attacks of many enemies such as birds or predatory wasps, to
which they would be otherwise subject in the exposed positions they are wont
to occupy on their adopted webs. The egg cocoon constructed by this little com-
mensal spider is a very elegant structure, shaped like a Greek amphora, and mounted
on a slender pedicle, by which it is either attached to the web or to a convenient
point on the adjacent foliage. The contour of these egg cocoons, as_ illustrated in
Fig. 8 of Chromo-Plate IX., is also remarkably suggestive of that of the stalked
sheaths or loricee of various of the minute Flagellate Animalcules figured in the
third volume of the author's earlier published work “A Manual of the Infusoria.”

Several other species of Argyrodes were observed by the writer, more especially
in North Queensland. All of them possessed the same habit of sharing on friendly
terms the webs of larger spiders, but lacked the silvery lustre of the type above
described. The dimensions of two of these Argyrodes were more considerable than
those of the silver species, and they were both characterised by their more elongate
gibbous contours. Stalked egg cocoons of a somewhat narrower ovate shape than
that of the variety figured were observed attached in a hanging position to the
horizontal guy-suspended snare of a species of Linyphia that one of these types had
selected for its abode in Cape York Peninsula. The genus Argyrodes is widely
distributed, and many of its members are credited with contenting themselves with
anything but a peaceful and subordinate share of the web to which they attach
themselves. One species in particular, which is referred to in Dr. McCook’s
Monograph of American Spiders, and upon which he has conferred the appropriate
title of Argyrodes piraticum, habitually kills and devours the constructor of the web
it elects to occupy and takes sole possession of it on its own account.

The Spider, Arachnura Higgensii, represented by Figs. 9 and 10 of the above-
quoted Plate, is remarkable for the singular elongation of the hinder moiety of
its body, which, to a considerable extent, recalls the structural modification
distinctive of the Scorpions or higher Arachnida. This elongate extremity is not,
however, as in that group, composed of distinctly differentiated articulations, but is
uniform in character with the remainder of the body, and both flexible and also
retractile to about one-half of the length indicated in the illustration. . As shown
in the profile view of the species suspended by its web, portrayed in Fig. 10, the

INSECT ODDITIES. 261

spinnaret occupies a position on the under surface of the body that is precisely
coincident with the creature’s centre of gravity. The long-tailed Spider here figured
was obtained by the writer in the Botanical Gardens of Ballarat, Victoria. A closely-
allied representative of the same genus was also found by him in some abundance,
spinning an irregularly meshed snare among the Ti-tree bushes, Melaleuca, on the
banks of the Prosser’s river, Tasmania, The bright-green, crimson-striped Spider,
apparently a species of Tetragnatha, represented in Fig. 11 of the Insect Plate, is
more notable for its abnormally elongate shape and for its conspicuous resemblance,
when it rests with extended legs, to the many red-veined foliaged plants among which
it takes up its abode. This single example noted was collected by the writer in the
Botanic Gardens at Bowen, Central Queensland.
A remaining spider form included in Chromo-Plate IX. invites brief notice.
It is represented by Figs. 12 to 15. This type is apparently referable to the genus
Theridium, and is remarkable more especially with relation to its habits and the
singular environments of its egg cocoon. It was observed by the writer in the
neighbourhood of Derby, at the head of King’s Sound, Western Australia, taking up
its abode in the fissures of the gnarled trunks of the older Baobab or Bottle-trees,
Adansonia rupestris. The spider, a small brown one, presents no special features of
interest, and neither does the web, which is of the irregularly meshed order.
Suspended in the snare, however, there is generally present a little cupola-shaped
mass, which, on near examination, is found to be composed superficially of the
emptied skins and disjointed limbs of a small species of black ant upon which this
spider habitually feeds. The interior of this ant aggregation is hollow, and is found
to contain in its upper confines the spherical silken egg cocoon of its fabricator,
which it has most effectively and ingeniously concealed from view. It sometimes
happens that two or three of these egg domes are suspended within one web, and
while the bee-hive or cupola shape depicted in Plate IX. represents the most ordinary
form, they are occasionally of a much more slender and elongate contour. An allied
American form, Theridium riparium, is recorded in Dr. McCook’s treatise as forming
-somewhat similar elongate conical nests, the external surface of which is strengthened
and rendered opaque by the addition of a thickly entangled coating of minute pellets
of clay.

A common, but at the same time notable, spider in the Queensland “scrubs,”
which also frequently takes up its abode in the Brisbane suburban gardens, is

portrayed on the following page. It is apparently identical with the Ar7giope

262 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

regals of Ludwig Koch. The photograph here reproduced represents the spider
one-quarter only of its natural size, and it is consequently a tolerably large species.
It is also a handsome one, being of a warm chestnut brown hue with bright yellow
bands across the dorsal surface of the body, which gives to it a somewhat wasp-like
aspect. The example in the illustration having had its ventral surface turned towards
the camera, this detail is not apparent. The feature most distinctly indicated in this
picture is the singular supple-
mental additions to its ordinary
orb-shaped web; these take the
form of four zig-zag, thick, ribbon-
like bands or rays of the web-
substance disposed obliquely and
at nearly right angles, and in
such manner as to form the let-
ter X. Argiope, in fact, as here
shown, stole a march on Professor
Rontgen centuries since in the in-
vention and practical utilisation
of mythical X-rays. As may be
discerned in the accompanying
photograph, the spider, when at
rest in the centre of its web,
has its eight legs disposed in
four pairs, which are precisely
parallel with, and are respec-

tively anchored for support. to,

each of the four radiating rib- Rey cera

eae: Dr Henry McCook, a QUEENSLAND “X-RAY” sk eae ce a ON ES ED WER.
his “American Spiders and their Spinning Work,” includes descriptions of several
United States species of the genus Argiope, with especially copious details of the
largest and commonest form, Aryiope cophinaria. This type is also in the habit of
strengthening its snare with ribbon-like zig-zag cords. The ribbon-webbing in this
form is, however, limited to a single band descending downwards from the web’s
centre or “hub,” or there may bé a second one in the same straight line ascending

vertically above it. The immediate centre of the web is also in this type usually

INSECT ODDITIES. 263

covered in by a densely woven sheet of webbing. In certain other American species,
notably Argiope argyraspis and Uloborus mammeatus, somewhat similar ribbon-like
accessory web-bands are added more abundantly, and in concentric lines around the
centre of the orbicular snare.

Reference has been made on a preceding page to the circumstance that a
small spider form referable to the genus Argyrodes commonly occurs as a commensal
or fellow lodger in the orb webs of both the huge tropical Nephila fuscipes and
the Argiope last described. The Nephila is itself deserving of brief notice. It is
among, if not altogether, the largest of the Australian snare-weaving Arachnids.
The body alone is commonly as much as two inches long, while the spread of the
expanded limbs may measure as much as seven or eight. The colours in this form
are not so varied as in many of the smaller species. The abdomen is light brown,
the cephalothorax and the greater portion of the limbs a dark glossy chestnut brown,
almost black; there are dull orange patches at the joints of the limbs that show
most conspicuously underneath, and the palpi are yellow with black tips. A covering
of fine golden down-like hairs clothes the upper surface of the thorax. The snare
constructed by this fine spider consists of a central circular area which may measure
three or more feet in diameter, while the guy or foundation lines may bridge over
interspaces of many yards betwixt the forest trees and undergrowths that it frequents.
A rough drawing of a fine example of one of these Nephile, occupying its normal
position at the centre or “hub” of its snare, together with other details bearing
upon the life-habits and surroundings of the species, are embodied in the lithograph, Plate
XLV. overleaf. It was originally made by the writer of a specimen that was under his
notice several consecutive days in the tropical scrub adjacent to Mr. Frank Jardine’s
homestead at Somerset, Cape York Peninsula, close to the Albany Pass. The large
orb-weaving spider here represented is, as in all corresponding examples, the female
and the superlatively larger of the sexual individuals. The male is, in fact, a most
insignificant epitome of his colossal spouse, and, like the little Argyrodes before mentioned,
is a mere privileged hanger on to his mistress’s estate.

In the illustration here reproduced, two of the relatively minute male Nephilze
are in attendance, the one who has evidently made a favourable impression being
admitted to such terms of intimacy that he is reposing peacefully on his partner’s
body. A second, would-be, suitor may be seen occupying a position towards the lower,
right-hand corner of the web. Courtship among Spiders is a proverbially hazardous

undertaking, the female, where she is the larger or even where no disparity of size

264 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

subsists, frequently killing and eating her enamoured and too rashly approaching swain.
Among the Nephile and other types in which the male is of such diminutive relative
size, these cannibalistic propensities are apparently held in abeyance. The husband is
too unsubstantial a morsel for even the tickling of his partner’s palate, and his safety
is consequently secured by his very insignificance. On several occasions the writer
observed a male individual approaching the female here delineated without eliciting
from her any signs of hostility, with the exception that on one occasion, when
he slowly walked up to within reach of her terrible fangs, she simply pushed
him away with her palpi. lRepulsed in front, he then made a strategic detour
to the rear, and was soon to be seen gaily disporting himself on the plump
outlines of his tolerant consort. Between the bloated body and chitinous head
or cephalothorax of the female, there was necessarily on the dorsal side a
conspicuous notch or cleft. To the Liliputian male this was a formidable
gulf, and he accordingly wove across it a silken carpet, which allowed him to
run with unimpeded ease from stem to stern of his veritable mountain of delight.

The method by which these huge female Nephile dispose of their captured
prey differs substantially from that pursued by the smaller_members of the
tribe. The Spider class is, as a rule, represented as being of entirely suctorial
habits, feeding simply on the abstracted juices of their winged victims. In the
species now under consideration, large flies and even beetles taken in the web
were, as observed by the writer on several occasions, literally chewed up and
swallowed in their entirety. The irony of fate inseparable from greatness is aptly
illustrated in the specimen here figured. This Spider is itself a victim to a
minute blood-sucking sand-fly, apparently belonging to the genus Simulium. One of
these parasites, with immersed rostrum and distended body, may be observed adherent
to the right-hand margin of the Nephila’s abdomen as presented to the reader.
Several of the little burnished-silver Argyrodes are, as were seen in life, stationed”
at various points of the Nephila’s web here delineated. As previously mentioned,
these diminutive commensal spiders add their slender lines, and devour those
smaller flies taken in their host’s snares which are beneath his, or more correctly
her, august notice. In this manner they also probably fulfil a useful function, and
repay their host’s hospitality by preying upon the minute parasitic sand-flies by
which the larger Arachnids are prone to being persecuted.

Much more might be written concerning the Australian Arachnida. The
foregoing notes will, however, suffice to indicate how wide and interesting a field

W Saville-Kent. del ad nat

QUEENSLAND SPIDER, Nephila fuscipes, Natural

A A TIMINTITIVE MALES.

BB COMMENSAL SPIDERS, Genus Argyrodes,

Waterlow & Sons, Lud

a

size, p 263.

C. PARASITIC SANDFLY,

INSECT ODDITIES. 265

this group alone provides for original investigation. The drier details of the
morphological structure and technical nomenclature and affinities of the more
commonly occurring species have to a considerable extent been already chronicled,
notably through the labours of Dr. Ludwig Koch. There is, however, still a
proponderating number of undescribed species, while of but few of those already
known have any data been placed on record concerning their most interesting
life-habits and idiosyncrasies, their individual peculiarities of snare construction, or
special and often most singularly shaped receptacles woven for the protection or
concealment of their eggs. Following out the lines adopted in Dr. H. C. McCook’s
magnificent three-volume Monograph of the “Orb-weaving Spiders of the United
States,” there is undoubtedly open to the talent and energies of an enthusiastic
Australian arachnologist an opportunity of producing an equivalent if not an even
more voluminous and fascinating treatise.

The spider figured below from life belongs to the non-orb-weaving family of the
Heteropodide ; a timber and house-frequenting species familiarly known to Australian

settlers by the title of “Tarantula” or, to the less illiterate, as a “Triantelope.”

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TARANTULA. Jsopoda sp. NATURAL SIZE.

LL

CHAPTER KX.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES.

Baobab is capable of affording the weary traveller, and his possibly wearier steed, is

well exemplified by the figure of a full-foliaged tree, reproduced in Chapter I., Plate V.
As indicated, indeed, in the accompanying illustration, the up-to-date Phyllis and

Adonis may not disdain to foregather beneath its

ample shelter and to dispense thereunder sweet
ambrosia in its more modern garb, bohea, to them-
selves and to the stranger who may be tarrying in
their midst.

Verily, among Vegetable Vagaries the same

Baobab or Bottle-tree, Adansonia rupestris, is of

W. Saville- Kent, Photo.
“suB TEGMINE BOABI.”

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 267

the most extravagantly droll. The half a dozen or so individual examples repro-
duced in the Plate overleaf, Plate XLVI., represents but a few selections from
upwards of fifty photographs of this tree taken by the writer in the neighbourhoods
of Derby and Wyndham in Western Australia, and every one of these possesses a
most distinctly marked individuality. With many of them the resemblance of their
trunks to smooth, symmetrically-shaped radishes or rough-rinded mangold-wurzels of
Brobdingnagian proportions, is ludicrous. The contour of such an one as is portrayed
by No. 3 in the above-quoted Plate is particularly suggestive of the first-named salad
adjunct, while in No. 5 the two types indicated are growing in close proximity. One
feels sorely tempted at Derby, Western Australia, when Christmastide comes round,
to sally forth with a huge pot of crimson or vermilion paint, and to add that thin
veneer of colour that is alone wanting to transform these bizarre trunks into
“property” vegetables that would be the envy and admiration of the chief pantomime
artist at Drury Lane.

In some instances, as illustrated by No. 1 of the series in Plate XLVLI., the main
trunk is almost spherical in shape, and with its crown of bare radiating branches
bears a by no means inconsiderable resemblance to a colossal octopus. In the back-
ground of this picture other trees of the same description may be noted, and also a
large termite mound of the Kimberley type, closely corresponding in shape and
dimensions with the examples figured in Plate XVI. It often happens that double
or twin trunks are produced by the Baobab tree. Three such instances are yielded
in the Plate illustrative of this type, and a fourth on page 269. In fig. 2 of the Plate
quoted the growth plan has varied to the extent of forming a three-shafted column.
In its extreme youth, the Baobab presents little or nothing to distinguish it from the
ordinary run of trees. A very juvenile sapling is included in the foreground, and a
little to the right of ‘the central figure in No. 3. of Plate XLVI. It in all ways
resembles a small detached branchlet from an adult tree.

"As is clearly indicated by the many specimens here figured, the Baobab is
essentially deciduous in its habits, the majority of the examples portrayed representing
the trees in the dry or winter season, when they are for the most part completely
divested of foliage and show the singularities of their form to the greatest advantage.
There is even, however, in this matter of leaf-shedding, as with the formula of growth,
a marked individuality among the trees, and a reluctance to conform to any hard and
fast rule of periodicity. There are some trees to be found in full foliage at any

season of the year. Fig. 4. in Plate XLVI. represents a by no means unusual example

268 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

that was photographed in full leaf at the time when the great majority of its
companions exhibited only bare poles.

The aspect of the handsome, dark, glossy palmate leaves of the Baobab are
clearly indicated in the photograph of a full-foliaged tree reproduced in Chapter I.,
Plate V. The flowers are also notable in size and appearance. They are of a
creamy white hue, and somewhat thick waxy consistence, five-petalled with a slightly
prolonged tubular calyx, an elongate pistil, and a surrounding sheaf of fine long
stalked stamens and golden anthers, resembling those of the ordinary Myrtacee.
At the time of the writer's visits to the North West, the flowering season for the
Baobab trees had long since passed. By dint, however, of carefully scouring the country
round, one solitary bloom was, with the kindly assistance of Dr. Ernest Black,
ultimately secured. A pencil sketch made of it is reproduced below.

The large ovate fruits or nuts of the Boab tree may be observed scattered among
the branches of many of the examples figured, but are especially conspicuous in the
one that forms the subject of the illustration on the next page. A characteristic
representation of a single nut, illustrating the more normal bluntly ovate contour, is
also afforded by the engraved example included with the carved shell ornaments
reproduced on page 10 of Chapter I. This figure delineates the nut on a scale of
one-fifth of its natural size.
Boab nuts are found, how-
ever, to differ to a remark-
able degree both in shape
and size even on the same
tree. Normally they are
obtusely ovate, five to seven
or eight inches long, and
covered externally with a
thin green felt-like pile.
They may vary, however,
from the foregoing normal
contour in the one direction
to an elongate acuminate

and in the other to an al-

most spheroidal contour,
W. Saville-Kent, del. ‘
FLOWERS OF BAOBAB TREE, Adansonia rupestris, HALF NATURAL SIZE. while the matured nuts may

5 ae a ee Se

_ we Sh. Ae,

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

1S

Collotype, W. ¢ S. Ltd.

Taamans AUSTRALIAN BAOBAB OR BOTTLE-TREES, Adansonia rupestris, p. 267.

270 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

both in appearance and taste, resembles macaroni; upon the bark being soaked in
hot water an agreeable mucilaginous drink was also produced. This and other
earlier references to this tree, conjoined with the fact that the corresponding fruit of
the allied African species, Adansonia digitata, is also highly appreciated by the natives,
and has at times, as in the case of Major Pedley when searching for Mungo Park,
sufficed as the sole nutriment to Europeans for many days, would seem to justify
the anticipation that the Western Australian Baobab is a tree abounding in latent
possibilities, and well worthy the attention of specialists in economic botany.

The dimensions of the Baobab or Bottle-tree, combined with its exceedingly
slow rate of growth, indicate that it must attain to a very considerable antiquity.
King has attested to an individual tree which measured no less than 85 feet in
circumference, and it has been recorded of an example raised under favourable
conditions at Kew that it took eight years to grow to a height of 4} feet. The
celebrated Dragon-tree of Orotava, Teneriffe, belonging to the same family group of
the Sterculariaceze, which was finally destroyed by a hurricane in the year 1867, had
an age of no less than 5,000 or 6,000 years ascribed to it by Humboldt. Up to the
date of its destruction it was pronounced by Sir Jolin Herschel and other authorities
to be probably the ‘oldest tree in the world.

The tenacity of life of the Adansonia rupestris is well evidenced by
examples that were hewn down many years since during the process of road-making
around the township of Derby, Western Australia. The trunks, though literally denuded
by the axe of every root and branch, have been by no means deprived of their vitality,
and are in many instances putting out fresh branches which, time permitting, will constitute
new trees. In the adjacent bush or so-called “pindan” where the tree abounds, it
is, indeed, by no means an uncommon sight to see a trunk prostrated, probably
centuries ago by some abnormal storm, out of which a fresh tree has reared itself
pheenix-like with renewed youth and vigour.

An example of the rejuvenescent properties possessed by this tree is afforded
by the preceding photographic reproduction, wherein three vigorous independent
trees are, as it were, growing up from the erstwhile apparently wrecked and prostrate
trunk. The adage “ As the tree falls so shall it lie” does not at all events apply
to the Western Australian Baobab, or it is at any rate one of the brilliant
exceptions that seemingly exist to prove the rule in most mundane matters. It is
a rare thing to see an actually dead Baobab. The only veritable occasion of such

mortality present to the author’s mind is the example reproduced in the accompanying

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 971

illustration. This, however, is no case of ordinarily inherited decrepitude and
decay, but, as an ancient British jury would have it, it is the outcome of the direct
act of Providence. It is, in fact, what must: have been the towering monarch
of the surrounding forest, shattered in the full plenitude of its might by a lightning
flash. There is no resurrecting, phcenix-wise, as in the previously illustrated instance,
from this cataclasmic overthrow. Destruction is thorough and complete. And yet, as

though even now the whole soul of the living organism had not abandoned it, one

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

LIGHTNING-SHATTERED BAOBAB TREE, NEAR DERBY, KING’S SOUND, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

upstanding angle of the blasted trunk is fashioned into the similitude of a_ weird
monstrous bird that has mounted guard and broods like a disembodied spirit over
the desolation wrought.

Among the most characteristic and bizarre of the Australian indigenous
vegetable products must be included the so-called “ Grass-trees,” referable to the
genera Xanthorrheea and Kingia. The more popular title for these singular plants is
that of “Blackboys,” the aspect of the usually more or less incinerated trunks of the

aborescent species, as seen from a little distance, being to a conside rable extent

272 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

suggestive of the aboriginal representatives of humanity. The group is most
essentially Australian, limited in its distribution to the temperate districts,
and apparently the surviving relic of an age in which they and other colossal
members of the Sedge and Rush tribe, Juncacese, were the paramount forms of
vegetation.

The most familiar and widely spread representative of this tribe is the
arborescent Grass-tree, or Blackboy, Xanthorrhwa arborea, characteristically portrayed
by several growth phases in Plate XLVII. As it more commonly occurs, this
tree rarely exceeds eight or ten feet in height, and there is only a single or but
sparsely divided crown of long narrow grass-like leaves at the summit of the black,
cylindrical stem. In situations specially favourable to its growth, however, it attains
to a much more luxuriant development. An example that is reputed to be the finest
of its species extant in Western Australia is represented in the lower figure of the
Plate above quoted. This remarkably fine example is growing, and haply preserved
from destruction, in the grounds of the hostelry that constitutes the half-way house
between Donybrook and Bridgetown, in the above-named Colony. As indicated by
the lad standing near it, its altitude is little short of twenty feet. The tree has not
produced many of its characteristic flower-spikes within recent years, though one may
be observed emerging from the crowns of foliage towards the right.

Drakesbrook, on the Bunbury line in the South-Western district of Western
Australia, furnished the subject of the photograph reproduced in the upper moiety
of the Plate under notice. It embodies not only fine examples of the same species of
Blackboy, but a luxuriant growth of other vegetation that imparts to the scene
an almost tropical appearance. Most conspicuous among these secondary growths
are the pinnate, palm-like, leaves of Macrozamia Fraseri, one of the Cycadacez.
Space unfortunately forbids the reproduction of the separate photographs taken of
finer isolated examples of this plant, in which the large central pine-apple-like
fruit are clearly depicted. Mingled with these Cycads may be observed an abundant
growth of a fern that is accounted by botanical authorities to present little, if any,
distinction from the familiar English bracken, Pteris aquilina.

The Xanthorrheas figured in this illustration have produced an abundant crop
of flower-spikes. They are for the most part, however, of the previous season’s
growth, and are in consequence dark in hue and much weathered and dilapidated.
A correct idea of the pristine aspect of these flower-spikes, when their contour was

symmetrical, may be formed by a reference to the figure of an allied species,

GRASS-TREES,

f 3 f
1 Mees FR

CYCADS AND FERNS, DRAKESBROOK, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 272.

= FARO Se

Sree

Cari mY hr te IPT

Collotype, W. 4 S. Ltd. V. Saville-Kent, Photo.

ARBORESCENT GRASS-TREE OR “BLACKBOY,” Xanthorrhea arborea, p. 272.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 273

X. hastilis, reproduced on the left-hand side of Plate XLVIII. This photograph was
taken when the flower-spikes were most fully developed. At that season their contour
is perfectly symmetrical and their cylindrical surfaces completely studded with tiny cream-
white starlike florets. The name of the Underground Blackboy, or Grass-tree, has been
popularly applied to this species with reference to the circumstance that it produces
no conspicuous stem or trunk like the other species, the crown of leaves springing direct
from an underground rhizome or root-stock. Very abundant growths of this Blackboy
occur on the borders of the railway track between Perth and Fremantle, Western
Australia. The view here reproduced was taken in this locality.

The most striking representative of the Grass-tree tribe is probably the one
sharing with the species last referred to a portion of Plate XLVIII. This is the
so-called Drumstick Grass-tree or Blackboy, Kingia australis, which is limited in
its distribution to the Southern districts of Western Australia. The popular name
applied to this Grass-tree bears a very obvious relationship to the contour of the
flower-spikes. A number of these are developed from the terminal crown, and in
place of being abnormally elongate and spear-like are short and capitate. With this
species of Grass-tree the trunk is never subdivided as in the case of the arborescent
Xanthorrheas, the finest plants being represented by a single erect cylindrical column
with its crown of wiry grass-like leaves and capitate flower stalks. The average
height to which these Drumstick Grass-trees grow is ten or twelve feet, though they
occasionally exceed twice this altitude. A remarkably fine example of this plant,
presented to the nation by Sir Malcolm Fraser, K.C.M.G., the Agent General for the
Colony of Western Australia, has been transported to and set up in the Botanical
Galleries of the British, Natural History, Museum. It is of no less a height than
thirty feet.

The development of the leafy crown of Kingia is subject to considerable variation.
In the example figured it is rather stunted and short, the selection having been made
with reference more to the height of the tree and to the abundance of the
flower stalks. In some of the specimens to the rear of the chief individual figured
it may be observed that the fibrous leaves occupy a much larger relative mass. The
locality which yielded this picture is in the vicinity of Pinjarrah, Western Australia,
and consists of enclosed, partly cleared, pasture ground that was previously thickly
grown over with this and the ordinary arborescent Grass-tree. Examples of the last-
named species are observable beneath the shadow of the larger trees on both the right

and left-hand sides of the photograph reproduced. The small light-coloured irregularly
MM

274 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

shaped hillocks dotted about throughout the ground area in this view represent,
it may be mentioned, clay tenements of the Termites or White Ants that are feeding
on the decaying Grass-tree roots and stumps. This form of the White Ant nest
has been already referred to in Chapter IV., and well illustrates the relatively small
dimensions of the edifices raised by these insect architects outside the limits of the
‘tropics.

The higher bushy trees, with large distinctly serrated leaves, that overshadow
the Xanthorrhzas on either side in Plate XLVIIL., typify a very characteristic Aus-
tralian group, as exemplified by the genus Banksia of the family of the Proteacee.
The species here depicted, Banksia grandis, is one of the handsomest of its tribe. Its
large dark glossy leaves and bright yellow flower-spikes are often a foot or more in
length, and constitute quite a conspicuous feature in those districts, where it forms
extensive plantations. No less than thirty-four species of Banksia have been described,
the majority of which are indigenous to the southern, temperate regions of the Australian
continent and the adjacent island of Tasmania. Throughout the Australian Colonies -
the more common popular name for these trees is that of “ Honeysuckle.” This title
has been conferred upon them with reference to the large quantity of honey the
abundant blossoms produce, which afford an almost continual feast for a vast
number of exclusively honey-eating birds. The matured flower-spikes of the species
now under notice literally drip with the sweet secretions, and are the object of assiduous
attention, not only from birds, but also from the Western Australian aboriginals,
whose dusky countenances during the honeysuckle season are for the nonce
transfigured beyond recognition by an adherent mixture of Banksia honey and
yellow pollen.

The large seed cones, commonly a foot long and five or six inches thick, of
Banksia grandis are in great favour as an article of firewood in those
localities where the species represents one of the principal forest growths, the
abundance of resin contained in them creating as cheerful a blaze as the cedar
or pine cones esteemed for a like purpose in northern latitudes. Although most
extensively known as “ Honeysuckle,” the commoner name applied to the tree,
and more especially with reference to the cones vended for kindling purposes in the
neighbourhoods of Perth and Fremantle, Western Australia, is the “Banshee.” It
was difficult, at first, to determine how this seemingly incongruous title had
become affixed to it. Apparently, however, it has been evolved as an illiterate
corruption of the generic name of Banksia.

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VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 275

Towards the vagaries of the vegetable world the somewhat heterogeneous group
' of the Mangroves contributes a conspicuous instalment. Although by no means
restricted to Australia, being abundant in innumerable varieties throughout all tropical
coasts and estuaries, the northern sea-board of this Island-Continent is especially
fertile in both specific types and individual developments. Mangroves, as a concrete
group, do not pertain to any special family, or even order, of the vegetable kingdom.
They have been correlated under a common title with reference only to the circumstance
that their habitats and environments have induced their collective assumption of
corresponding or closely parallel structural adaptations. All Mangroves, in the
popularly accepted sense of the term, agree with one another in being inhabitants of
the foreshores of coast-lines and river estuaries under such conditions that they are
subject to being, alternately, partially submerged and completely exposed to atmos-
pheric influences with the rise and fall of the tide. Two of the most abundantly
distributed representatives of the mangrove tribe are represented in the lower figure
of Plate XLIX.

The lighter-barked tree in the centre is the so-called White Mangrove,
Avicennia officinalis, belonging to the botanical order of the Verbenacee, a group that
includes the handsome cultivated Lantanas. Flanking each side of this tree are
characteristic growths of the Red or Orange Mangrove, Rhizophora mucronata,
belonging to the order of the Rhizophoree, which, in this instance, includes several
other genera, ¢.g., Ceriops and Bruguiera, that participate in corresponding Mangrove
habits. The essential features in each of the two species figured is the peculiar
modification of their root elements. In Avicennia, the central form, the radiating
course of the horizontal slightly submerged roots from the central trunk is distinctly
traceable to a considerable distance by the outgrowth therefrom of vertical, thickly
crowded, shoot-like developments, popularly known as ‘“Cobbler’s pegs,” which,
penetrating the superincumbent soil, attain to the height of from about one foot to
eighteen inches above it. To the uninitiated, it would scarcely occur that this mass
of vertical twigs was other than a luxuriant development of the suckers or root shoots
by which so many plants ordinarily propagate and extend their borders.

The interpretation of the true function of these vertical growths would appear to
have been first arrived at by the late Dr. James Bancroft, of Brisbane, Queensland,
who contributed the account of some interesting investigations he made to the 1888
Meeting of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science. One day,

when examining the shore in the vicinity of Avicennia growths at half tide,

276 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

Dr. Bancroft observed a white powder floating on the water and, on nearer
investigation, discovered that it was being thrown off the surface of the vertical
root shoots of the Mangrove. Examined more minutely, it was found that the cortex
of these shoots were thickly riddled with pores which much resembled the so-called
“Jenticels ” of ordinary plants. These pores communicated with an extensive system of
air-passages which permeated the substance of the roots, and in the process of their
enlargement threw off as broken down cellular tissue the powder observed floating
on the surface of the water. These shoots, or aerial roots as they are more
correctly termed, were thus demonstrated to be virtually a system of air-shafts
which, projecting above the surface of the mud, secured for the roots abundant
aeration and ventilation with every fall of the tide. It was owing to this efficient
system of air-passages that the roots were preserved from becoming water-logged
and rotten, as would happen to those of ordinary forest trees if submitted
to similar conditions. A corresponding exaggerated lenticel-like aeration system
was found by Dr. Bancroft to appertain to all of the peculiar root or trunk
modifications possessed by the other species of Mangroves he examined. These
included, in addition to the true aerial roots of Rhizophora next described, the nodular
or knee-shaped woody protuberances developed from the ordinary horizontal roots in
the genus Bruguiera and the greatly elongated vertical offshoots, much resembling
those of Avicennia, possessed by Sonneratia acida, but which, in some instances,
were elevated to a height of no less than six feet above the surface of the soil.

The phenomenon of aerial, ventilating roots is most conspicuously manifested in
the Red.or Orange Mangrove, Rhizophora mucronata, which occupies the greater portion
of the photographic view reproduced in Plate XLIX. Arched, repeatedly bifurcating
offshoots are in this type abundantly produced from the main trunk, while adventitious
shoots that hang down and bifurcate in a similar manner are developed from the
larger branches. Together they form a labyrinth of reticulations that in large
plantations is often many acres or even miles in extent, and of such a height as to
present an almost impenetrable barrier to the explorer. In most instances, moreover,
the muddy ooze in which this species delights to grow, is of such depth and so soft
and treacherous a character as to effectually debar all progress, except by recourse to
the expedient of clambering upon the surface of the roots themselves. In locations,
however, where the ground is firmer and the trees not so thickly planted, the
naturalist may reap an abundant harvest and endless recreation within and without
the precincts of a Mangrove thicket. On the outer, land-side, margin the specific

Collotype, W. & 8. Ltd. W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

B. ORANGE AND WHITE MANGROVES, Rhizophora mucronata, and Avicennia officinalis, BROOME CREEK,
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, p. 275.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 277

varieties of Mangroves are the more numerous. Ceriops, Aigiceras, Excecaria,
Bruguiera and other generic types are mingled with Rhizophora and Avicennia. The
majority of these possess large handsome glossy foliage as ornamental in character as
that of cultivated Laurels, Euonymi, or Rhododendrons. Rhizophora, in fact, when
forming as it does on the outskirts compact symmetrical growths, might be readily
mistaken for a rhododendron bush, and the same might be said of Bruguiera Rheedit.
Many of the Mangrove species, moreover, produce an abundance of flowers which, if
not conspicuous for size and beauty, are highly scented and load the surrounding
atmosphere with sweet perfume. giceras majus is one of these, the white flowers
growing in profuse bunches at the extremities of the branches and emitting a scent
almost as powerful as and somewhat resembling that of the Garden Syringa.:
Rhizophora mucronata, again, produces star-shaped white woolly flowers that are,
though more diminutive, to a considerable extent suggestive of those of the Fringed
Violet, Thysanotis, hereafter described.

The brilliant colours and quaint habits of the singular crabs belonging to the
genus Gelasimus that occur abundantly amoug the Mangroves have been referred to
in a previous Chapter. Birds of many varieties abound in the Mangrove thickets.
They include Honey-eaters attracted-by the flowers, flycatchers, king-fishers, waders, and
on the sea margin, the fish-eating hawks. Not unfrequently the Fruit-eating Bats, or
Flying Foxes of the colonists, belonging to the genus Pteropus, take up their abode
in the denser, rarely invaded, depths of the Mangrove forests. In these secure retreats,
or rookeries as they are somewhat inappropriately termed—-“ battery” would seem to
be the correct word—the animals assemble in hundreds or even thousands and pass
the whole day hanging head downwards asleep, or in a semi-torpid state, from the
Mangrove branches. As soon, however, as the shades of evening fall, they awake to
activity and sally forth in long streams to every point of the compass in quest of food.
The somewhat bean-like fruit of the White Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis, would
appear to yield these bats an abundant repast at some seasons of the year, while the
flowers of the many species of Eucalyptus, of which some kinds are almost always in
bloom, represent a yet more permanent diet. Cultivated fruits such as peaches,
grapes, mangoes or bananas, are, as dwellers in bat countries well know, a terrible
temptation to these night marauders, who will travel incredible distances from their
mangrove or scrub fastnesses to take their toll, often a most heavy one, from the
crop in season. An individual out of a dense crowd that was surprised and captured
in the Mangrove thickets in Roebuck Bay, Western Australia, has furnished the

278 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

subject for the top illustration in Plate XLIX. The species is apparently identical
with the Northern Fruit-eating Bat, Pteropus conspicillatus.

What would at first sight appear to be a floral product closely resembling a
rose or camelia in size, shape, and structure, is depicted in the accompanying
illustration. It is as a matter of fact no flower at all, but a vagary of vegetation
induced through the interference of a gall-insect, the plant thus distinguished being
the ordinary White Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis. Several of the bushes in the
vicinity of the one from which the examples figured were taken, were literally laden
with these rosette-shaped galls, one small spray gathered (which was also
photographed) bearing as many as twenty of these singular products. The colour of
these “gall flowers” approximated to that of the leaves of the tree that bore them.
From an esthetic point of view, they were undoubtedly as worthy of admiration as
the green roses which are assiduously cultivated and held in high repute in the gardens
of rose specialists. Contemplating these Mangrove “roses” in conjunction with the
verdant variety of Rosa hortensis that happens to be flourishing in the writer’s garden
and thus available for comparison while penning these lines, the mind is exercised

with the thought as to whether gall-insects have not had something to do with the

origin of some of our most
highly prized horticultural
triumphs. If, in fact, the
green rose is the archetype
of the exquisite blooms
that through high cultiva-
tion and under another
colour smell so sweet, have
we not in this mangrove
gall created straightaway

the prototype of a floral

gem that simply needs

7 tae nt, Photo, . Orie
Ee “bleaching and the addition

of a drop of scent to produce a buttonhole camelia
that would satisfy the most fastidious.

There is yet another noteworthy point con-

cerning this Mangrove vagary. That “big fleas

have lesser fleas, &c.” is a time-worn truism

ROSETTE GALLS OF WHITE MANGROVE.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 279

that might scarcely be suspected

to be capable of practical demon-
stration in the case of a leaf gall.
A very interesting verification of

the adage, however, is afforded

by our Mangrove

“ Camelia.” On
examining the
single ‘“ button-
hole” example

with three di-

verging normal

- W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
leaves in the

photograph reproduced, three hemispherical ele-
vations may be seen on the edge of one of the
petal-like sub-divisions which show white against
the dark background of the left-hand leaf. <A
fourth is also visible more to the right. It
might be imagined from their smooth spheroidal
contour that they were adherent drops of water.
In place of this they are, however, the product
of a second species of gall-insect which has
inoculated with its ovipositor the leaves already
metamorphosed by its predecessor.

A vegetable freak that will be tolerably
familiar to all who have visited the remote Nor
West is depicted in the accompanying figure. It
portrays a branchlet with attached blossoms of a

member of the pea tribe, Crotu/aria Cunningham,

whose flowers bear a most grotesque resemblance

to little green brown-striped birds. The bush pro- L

ducing them averages a height of from three to four RIRD-PEA, ROBBUCK BAY, W.A.
or five feet, and is particularly abundant on the sand hills close to the sea-shore in the
vicinity of Broome, Roebuck Bay, Western Australia. One such bush is in fact included

in the foreground of the Chapter-heading illustration of Broome Creek reproduced on

280 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

page 195. To the an-
cient writers, by whom
the long-stalked Barn-
acles, Lepas anitifera,
were declared tobe the
direct progenitors of
living Liliputian geese,
this bird-plant of
North-West Australia

would have proved a

veritable windfall.

W. Baville-Kent, Photo, Two very char-
Salicornaria sp.. CYGNET RAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
acteristic plant growths dominant in the neighbourhood of the Western Australian
Mangrove swamps are photographically represented on this page. The upper of these
illustrations depicts a species of the Chzenipodiaceous tribe belonging to the genus
Salicornaria. This, and several allied forms, are notably abundant on the salt flats
near Carnarvon, at the mouth of the Gascoigne river. The particularly symmetrical

growth here selected for illustration was photographed, however, at Cygnet Bay, which

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

”

“ ROLBY-POLEY ” GRASS, Spinifex longifolius, SHARK’S BAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 281

is nearly midway between Broome and King’s Sound, further north. A band
of low-growing Mangroves constitutes, as will be recognised, the background to this
picture.

On the sandy ridges in close proximity to the outskirts of the Mangrove belt
in Roebuck Bay, the very characteristic grass, Spinifexr longifolius, represented by the
lower of the two figures on page 280 will scarcely escape notice. With the colonists
it is popularly known as Roley-Poley grass. This title has been given to it with
reference to the spherical contour of the seed heads, and the unique conditions under
which their distribution is accomplished. On arriving at maturity these globular seed-
heads become detached en masse from their supporting stalk, and roll before the wind,
it may be for miles, along the surface of the sand, before they break up and the
seeds are distributed. The most luxuriant development of this grass is attained in
those districts of the sub-tropical Australian coast-line where huge drifting sand-hills
constitute a leading feature. In such locations, this Spinifex fulfils a very useful
role. Independently of the above-recorded method of dispersing its seed over widely
extended areas, the grass itself throws out vigorous runners of great length which,
penetrating among the sand, to a large measure counteract its natural tendency
to drift. Fresh Water Camp, Shark’s Bay, in Western Australia, already referred to
in conjunction with the Chapter dealing with Pearls and Pearl-oysters, is a locality
where this grass attains to a remarkably luxuriant state of development, and represents
the scene of the photograph reproduced.

From among the wealth of Wild Flowers for which Australia in general, and
Western Australia in particular, is so justly celebrated, the limits of our nearly
exhausted space permit only of brief reference to the accompanying illustration of a single
noteworthy example. The type selected for this marked distinction shares the patronymic
of a modest but most highly-prized British flower, being popularly known throughout
the area of its recurrence as the “ Fringed Violet.” Technically, the plant is in no way
related to the Viola tribe, being more nearly allied to the Iris family or Iridacee. The
precise specific appellation of the form here figured is Thysanotis dichotoma. There are
many known representatives of the same genus, all indigenous to Australia, and exhibiting
among themselves a considerable range of variation with regard to both their contour
and growth habits. All, however, agree with one another in their tri-petallate
structure, the pellucid texture and lilac tints of their fragile blossoms, and in the
exquisitely delicate fringe of filaments which borders each separate petal. To a

talented floral artist the production of a replica of these strikingly characteristic
NN

282 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

a“

flowers should be a comparatively facile task. A sheeny lilac silk cut to the required
contour, and with the edges symmetrically frayed out, would reproduce all the essential
features, to which the addition of the remaining structural elements would involve
but little labour.

The species here figured is one of the finest of its kind. It forms somewhat
irregular loosely growing grass-like tufts, with flower-bearing panicles that attain to
two or three feet in height. In another form, 7. mudtiforus, common in the same

district, the plant to their native haunts, and

forms more com- to portray them in situ or

pact hemispheri- in freshly-gathered groups.
cal masses a foot The examples figured were
or so in height, thus culled from that ver-
with much more itable mine of wild-flower
abundant but wealth, the railway em-
smaller flowers. bankment between Perth

and Fremantle.

The tempting field of

In a third species
again, Thysanotis
Patersoni, the indigenous vegetation has
plant takes the to be abandoned here to
form of a climber,
its exquisite lilac
stars bespangling
all manner of ad-
ventitious vegeta-
tion, while its own
slender wire-like repent stem is
almost invisible. As might be
anticipated, the frail beauty of
these Fringed Violets, like that
of our native Harebells, is
essentially evanescent, depart-
ing within a short interval
of their being plucked. To
successfully photograph them it

is desirable to take the camera

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.
FRINGED VIOLET, Zhysanotis dichotoma.,

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 283

permit of a brief record of Australian potentialities for the entertainment of distinguished
immigrants from other climes. The dry atmosphere, wealth of sunshine, and congenial
temperature predominating in the extra-tropical metropolitan centres has proved to be
singularly adapted to the acclimatisation, among other exotic plants, of many of the most
handsome representatives of the genus Cereus, belonging to the tropical American Cactus
tribe. A few excerpts from a considerable number of photographs taken by the writer,
reproduced in these pages, will suffice to establish the correctness of this assertion.
The Cacti of the genus Cereus are notable for the circumstances that their handsome
blossoms are, in the majority of instances, purely white, varied perhaps by tinges of
delicate pink or sulphur yellow, and, more. especially, that they only condescend
to display their floral charms in the night season, closing their petals and hastening
to decay with the rising sun. To see these plants,-and, above all, to photograph
them in their glory, one must therefore—unless employing magnesium light, which
would be scarcely practical in the case of several of the larger examples here
illustrated—be an early riser. The witching hour to secure a favourable “ sitting ”
is at daybreak, just before the sun appears above the horizon, when with a
prolonged exposure there is sufficient actinic illumination to impress the plate.

The finest collection of Cerei or other Cacti growing upon Australian territory is
undoubtedly that contained in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. The examples
selected for the border illustrations of pages 284 and 285 were derived from this source.
The Mexican species Cereus chalybeus, represented on the side of page 285, formed,
as may be recognised by its comparison with the rail-fence close beside it, a sheaf
of polygonal flower-bearing columns over thirty feet high. A couple of flowers of
the same type, taken from a nearer standpoint, are portrayed on the opposite
side border. The outer petals in ‘this species were slightly tinged with pink. The
two basement border illustrations to the same pages represent another form, Cereus
nitens, that was established close beside the tall columnar species, but differed
in its growth habits to the extent of forming procumbent straggling masses,
whose highest stalks were elevated to no greater heights than from one to two
feet above the surface of the ground. The expanded blossoms in this variety are
of a translucent snowy whiteness about six inches in diameter, and, as seen in clusters
of eight or nine individuals, presented-a most fascinating spectacle.

The most strikingly remarkable example of Cactus blooms here portrayed is
undoubtedly that of Cereus grandiflorus, represented on page 286. The expanded

goblet-shaped flowers of this superb species measure as much as nine inches or, with

THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

CEREUS CHALYRAEUS.

the outer bracts, a foot in diameter.
The inner petals are pure white and
the outer ones have an inclination to
pale lemon yellow, which becomes more
decidedly emphasized in the radiating
bracts. The species is essentially re-
pent in its habits, and has been exten-
sively introduced as an ornamental
creeper on verandahs and trellises
throughout the suburbs of Perth and
The

remarkably fine blossoming example

Fremantle, Western Australia.
represented by the upper of the two
figures here reproduced is one growing
in the grounds of the Perth Govern-
ment Gardens, which, after scaling
a high brick wall on the further side,
hangs in flowering festoons over the
one presented to view. That this grand
spectacular display should be enacted
but one night each year, and then for
the delectation only of the bats and

moths or phenomenally early birds,

W. Saville-Kent, Photo,

CEREUS NITENS.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 285

appears to be a sad, almost sin-
ful, waste of one of Flora’s most
marvellous creations. Doubtless,
however, it is the moths only
that are required in this instance
to assist Dame Nature in the ac-
complishment of the essential pur-
pose of all floral structures. To
these insects the glistening sheen
of the white cactus lamps in the
pale moonlight must prove an
unerring beacon to the honied
banquet that awaits them. As
they flit from cup to cup the
large protruding pistil and stellate
stigma, distinctly shown in the
lower of the two figures, forms
a sort of landing stage or front
door-mat upon which the moths
must first alight. ‘‘ Please wipe
your shoes before entering” is the
mot @ordre, unwritten but obey-
Con-

ed, at every golden portal.

CEREUS CHALYKAUS.

CEREUS

NITENS.

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

286 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

forming to
this behest,
the winged
guests de-
tach from
their downy
feet a more
or less con-
siderable
portion of

the yellow,

powder-
like pollen adventitiously
brought away from the
anthers of the bloom last
visited. And thus the seed
germs are fertilised.
Many and anxious
were the tentative day-
break visits paid to this
splendid Cactus in order
not to miss the coveted
opportunity of immortalis-
ing its snowy charms. For
several days previous the
swelling buds appeared to
be on the very brink of
bursting open, but on as
many occasions disap-
pointed anticipations. At
length, on the very night
preceding the writer’s de-
parture by steamer for the
further North, and England,

the coy beauty, from her

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

CEREUS GRANDIFLORUS.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 287

coign of vantage “over the garden
wall,” relentingly unbent to her
constant wooer, and furnished the
subject of our picture.

The photographic replica
forming the lower of the two floral
subjects included in Plate L. is a
highly interesting instance of feli-
citous acclimatisation somewhat
accidentally brought about. The
location, as in the case of two of
the Cacti previously referred to, is
the Botanical Gardens, Adelaide,
and the aquatic plant figured is a
Brazilian species, Pontideria cras-
sipes, locally termed the ‘“ Water
Hyacinth.” For many years this
Pontideria was tenderly nursed
and coddled in the warm water,
Victoria regia, tanks of the adja-
cent hothouses, but without its
condes-
cending
to pro-
duce a sin-
gle bloom.
The decree
at length
went forth
from the
long - suf-
fering but
patience-
exhausted

Curator to

W. Saville-Kent, Photo.

TREE-FERNS, p. 288.

288 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA.

cast the unprofitable servant into the outer lake, where, lo and behold, the following
year, it clothed its mirrored surface with a sheet of exquisite amethystine blossoms.
Such, as the Poet Moralist has written, are the “sweet uses of adversity.”

Queensland is the scene of the plant figured in the upper sub-division of Plate L.
The species, Beaumontia grandiflora, is one of the many favorite creepers acclimatised
in the Brisbane Gardens. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, as white and as large as
virgin lilies, while the plant forms festoons or a network of rope-like stems and dark
glossy leaves that may cover, as here shown, yards of space or traverse the whole length
of a paddock fence. They and innumerable other garden beauties, many of them photo-
graphically recorded, and including such forms as huge bushes of Frangipani (Plumiera),
Franciscea, Bougainvilleas, Hibiscus, Pomegranate, Bauhinia, Allamandas, Stephanotis,
Antigonon, and a host of other English hothouse types, all growing out of doors in
rampant luxuriance, beside English Roses, Camelias, and all the ordinary garden
plants, are to the writer among the happy memories of the Queensland bungalow and
garden paradise he occupied there a few years since. Such an Eden had necessarily
also its quota of luscious fruits in equally bewildering variety. Pineapples, Mangoes,
Bananas, Persimmons, Passion-fruit, Granidella, Grapes, Peaches, the sweetmeat-like
Monstera deliciosa, and, to crown all, English Strawberries, yielded a dessert menu
scarcely to be despised. Is it to be wondered at that emigrants of, it may be, but a
few years standing only to Australia’s prolific soil and sunny clime, find it difficult to
rehabilitate themselves contentedly amidst the grudgingly responsive fallows, predom-
inating fogs, and murky skies of their native land ?

The concluding border illustration to this Chapter affords a glimpse of the
manner in which tree-ferns are wont to grow in Australia. The upper figure depicts
a sheltered nook in the Brisbane, Queensland, Botanic Gardens, wherein they have been
artificially introduced in company with a mingled variety of tropical vegetation. A
closely identical picture, except for the presence of the banana-like Strelitzia and the
artificial foreground, is presented by a photograph taken by the writer in the natural
scrub in the vicinity of the Barron Falls, North Queensland. Tree-ferns in their
fullest state of development must undoubtedly, however, be sought for in the southern
island-colony of Tasmania, where, more especially on the moisture-laiden flanks of
Mount Wellington, they grow in the greatest luxuriance. A fern-grown area in this
notable locality is portrayed by the lower of the two photographs reproduced. The
typical Tasmanian Tree-fern, Dicsonia antarctica, occupies the greater portion of the field,

growing so thickly that their tree-like trunks are for the most part concealed from

loge

Collotype, W. & 8, Ltd. W., Saville-Kent, Photo,

R WATER HYACINTH, Pontideria Crassipes, ADELAIDE BOTANIC GARDENS, p. 287.

VEGETABLE VAGARIES. 289

view. In the immediate foreground, however, a small space is monopolised by another
indigenous Tasmanian fern, apparently a species of Lomaria, notable for its production
of diverse barren and fertile stalks, and for the characteristic coppery or even crimson
tinge of the young, immature, plants and newly unrolled fronds.

The snap-shot photograph selected as the concluding tail-piece to these
Chapters represents a clash of incoming and resurgent breakers taken by the author

at the “Causeway” on the outer or ocean beach at Bunbury, Western Australia.

‘ - ”
“BREAK — BREAK — IRBAK-

290

APPENDIX A.

At Page 11, Chapter I., the almost unique character of the Australian boomerang as a native weapon was
reservedly referred to. The reservation, which may be here explained, was made with reference to some highly
interesting data concerning this instrument that were communicated to the author by Mr. Henry Balfour, the
Curator of the Ethnographical Department of the Oxford University Museum, though a little too late for
incorporation in the Chapter indicated.

As pointed out by the above-named ethnological authority, the boomerang is of higher antiquity and its
existing use is more widely diffused than is commonly supposed. According to Mr. Balfour, two forms of this
weapon are peculiar to India. One of these, of a simple curved shape and made of wood, is possessed by
the Koli tribe, belonging to the district of Guzerat. A second Indian form belongs to the Marawas of Madura,
and differs in shape from both the above and the Australian type. The contour of this Marawan boomerang is
almost crescentic, perfectly flat, but much broader at the more remote or distal extremity of the instrument as held
in the hand. The narrower proximal or handle end is, moreover, fashioned into the form of a conveniently
prehensible knob, which is usually roughly carved. Although commonly made of wood, it is not unfrequently
constructed of steel or even of ivory. An example recently in the writer’s possession—since contributed by him
to the Oxford Museum—while made of wood, has a terminal metal capping, and, as shown by the worn marking,

had originally three ornamental metal studs on each side. An illustration of this boomerang is herewith given.

Inpian (Marawan) Boomerane.

This description of boomerang has been proved by General Pitt Rivers to belong to that category of
these weapons which will return to the thrower when dexterously manipulated. The ancient Egyptians,
Mr. Balfour informs the writer, undoubtedly used boomerangs which, in some cases, were also returnable, as
proved by the successful trial of carefully reconstructed models. There are a few African tribes that. still
use flat, curved throwing sticks, closely resembling boomerangs, as also do the natives of Arizona and New
Mexico. Mr. Balfour further testifies to having recognised in certain illustrations inscribed on ancient Etruscan
vases what appear to be undoubted representations of boomerangs being thrown at game.

From the multiplicity of evidence here recorded, the boomerang must evidently be regarded as a weapon
that did not originate adventitiously with the Australian Aborigines, or at any rate upon Australian soil, but was
in all probability brought there with the earliest immigrants from the Asiatic continent. The yet wider
distribution of the characteristic Australian ‘‘ Woomera,” or spear-thrower, yields substantial testimony towards

a corresponding conclusion with relation to that instrument.

A
Aboriginals, Australian
Aboriginal women
Abrolhos corals
4 Islands
a 33 avifauna
Bs 53 fish fauna ...
Abrus precatorius
Acanthias
6 vulgaris

. Acclimatisation of English trout and salmon...

Acclimatised cacti
Acrobates pygmeus
Acrocephalus australis...
Acrozoanthus australic
Actinodendron alcyonidium
Actinopyga mauritiana

sy obesa

5 polymorpha
Adansonia digitata

35 rupestris

Adelaide Botanical Gardens saath
fEgiceras majus... =
Albany Pass termite mounds ...
Alcyone pusilla...
Alopecias vulpes
Alpheus avarus.

INDEX.

182
283

26

Bd
224
223
149
149
149

...87, 270
..37, 266

283
277
116

54
154
203

Ameghino, Moretti: on Pitapomipe mar-

supials ;
Amphibolurus barbatus:
Amphiprion bicinctus ...

‘3 Clarkii

4 melanopus

a percula
Anchovy

Anemones, giant varieties
55 harbouring living fish

Angel-fish

Anguilla australis

Antarctic Continent, pre-existing

20
81
220
220
220
220
155
220
220
154
159, 184
2

Ant-hill Point, Albany Pass ...

Ants employed surgically
» green
» weaving habits
Aphanapteryx ...
Apteryx...
Aracana aurita
es ornata...
Arachnura Higgensii ...
Arapaima gigas
Arctogea
Argiope cophinaria
a regalis ...
Argyrodes
Arhamphus
Arius thalassinus
Army crabs
Arripis georgianus
» salar
Artamus

Artificial production of vein,
Ascidian-covered rocks, Roebuck Bay

Astacopsis Franklinii ...
55 serratus
Asterina calcar ...
Atticora...
Aulopus purpurissatus...
Australian aboriginals ...
5 badger
ai bear
es Cyclodus
fish fauna ...
oy flora
4 house swallow
Pe jungle fowl
3 kingfishers ...
" magpie
s monitor
53 song birds ...
i whitings

216

173

292 INDEX.
Pace Pacz
Australian wrens 66 Black-headed Gouldian finch ... 57
Avicennia officinalis ‘ 275 » swan 36
Avifauna, Houtman’s Abrolhos 136 Blister pearls .. 198
Blue crab 150, 238
» fish 170
B »» groper 174
», head parrot ae 174
“ Bahmeen ” vi e ies 169 » shark 154, 193
Bancroft, Dr. James, on Mangrove respiration 275 », -tongued lizard wee 98
Bandicoot 20 Boab or Baobab 37, 266
Balistes ... 189 Bob-tailed lizard 94
Banksia grandis 274 Bombay duck 176
‘ Banshee ” 274 Boobook owl 41
Baobab ... ies beh 37 Boomerang, Australian... 11
» or Bottle-tree ... 2 .. 87, 266 s Indian 290
is rejuvenescent properties 270 “ Boomer” kangaroo 21
“ Barok ” pearls 198 Boongarry ‘ 21
Barracouta 33 tak 170 “ Bottled-nosed ” Siaipue 161
a method of taking... 171 Bottle-tree is ea 37
Barracuda we 2) 5 or Baobab ... ...37, 266
Barramundi 160, 179 Bower birds as 33
Barrier reef béche-de-mer 149 Broome, port of, Heabudk Bay 197
Bastard trumpeter ‘ ; 163 Bruguiera Rheedii 277
“ Batavia” wreck on Howutian’s Rproitia 134 Brush Turkey ... ne 32
Bearded lizard . 81 Buckland Fish Museum 164
Beaumontia geandiiors 288 Bull-dog ants 252
Béche-de-Mer fishery, Western Aitdivelia 196 7 shark .. 193
8 of Houtman’s Abrolhos 148 Bummuloh 176
i Roebuck Bay 217 Burnet River salmon 179
- “black fish ” 149 Butcher-bird 51
3 “red fish” 149 Butter fish 166
i “surf red” 149
4 “teat fish ” 149
Belenois Clytie, its social diate. 257 C
Bell bird 66
Bellows fish ae6 154 Cacti acclimatised in Australia 283
Bennett, Dr. George, on Ghudtnotiynahad 16 Caldwell, W. H., Oviparous habits of Ornitho-
Berycide 167 rhynchus first demonstrated by se 16
Beryx affinis 167 Callorhynchus antarcticus 155, 193
» Mulleri ... F 167 Calotermes flavicollis ae iy .. 110
Bird life on Murray River 36 Campbell, A. J., Avifauna of Houtman’s
», like pea-blossom ... 279 Abrolhos 136
Bird’s-foot sea-star 244 Carangide 169
Birds frequenting Houtman’s Sains 136 Caranx trachurus 169
» of Paradise 34 » gallus ... 169
“ Birth of a coral island” 147 » georgianus 170
Blackboys, or Grass-trees 271 » Yradiatus 169
», edged pear! shell 212 Carassius vulgaris w=: 184
» fish, Tasmanian ... 156 Carcharias glaucus 154, 193

INDEX 293
Pace PacE
Carp, sea 166 Corals, cup varieties .. = 229
Cassowrany 5 » growth rate at Houtman’ 8 Kbrothos .. 146
Casuarius 5 », of Houtman’s Abrolhos 139
Cat-fish eel 176 “ Corroboree” 15
» fishes we 176 Corythophanes Hernandesti 80
Caulospongia verticillata 235 Cossyphus unimaculatus 174
Celenia excavata 259 Cow-fishes 187
Centriscus scolopax 154 Crab, blue 238
Ceratodus Forsteri . 3,179 5» commensal of sea anemone 220
Cereus chalybieus 283 » mangrove 239
» grandiflorus 283 » swimming 238
» nitens 283 Crabs, soldier 240
Ceriops ... 277 Cracticus torquatus 51
Ceriornis Lathami 33 Cradle, aboriginal 14
Cestracion Phillipi 192 Cray-fish, Tasmanian 238
Cherops cyanodon 174 Fe Murray river 238
Chanos salmoneus 175 Crepidogaster 155
Chatham Islands 6 Crotularia Cunninghami 279
Chelone mydas ... F 237 Ctenolates ambiguus 158
Chilodactylus Allporti ... 166 Cuckoo wrass 187
5 bizonarius 166 Cucumber mullet 180
‘5 gibbosus... 166 Culcita grex F 243
macropterus 166 Cultivation of oie sat shell 204
_ nigrescens 166 Cup corals 230
3 nigricans .. 166 * sponge 236
Chimera monstrosa 155, 193 Cuscus $5 26
Chilomycterus jaculiferus 191 Cybium Commersoni 177
Chlamydera maculata ... 34 Cycadaceze 272
Chlamydosaurus Kingi ae 70 Cyclodus 98
Clupea spratitus... 154, 175 Cygnus atratus... 36
» sagax 175 » olor 36
Clupeide 174 Cyprus pine 8
““Cobbler’s pegs ” 275
Cod family 155
Ceenolestes obscurus 3 D
Colochirus anceps 217
Colonial satmon.. : ‘i 178 Dacelo gigas 53
Colour sastarioieetioues of Hobert famnpateie 163 », Leachii.. : - 53
Commensal spiders 259, 263 Dancing birds seca by w. AL Hudson Sve 62
Compass ant-hills 121 5 habits of Gouldian finches ... 59
Compsognathus longipes 76 Dasyures : 20
Condylactis wis 223 Dendrolagus Bennetianus 21
Conger eel 154 ‘5 Lumbholtzi 21
Copidoglanis tandanus.. 176 Dendrophyllia axifuga ... 931
Coral beach, Houtman’s Abra 148 Derwent smelt ...
» boring sponge 219 Diamond sparrow 61
, island, initial growth 147 Dicsonia antarctica 288
» rock oysters 248 Didelphyide re 3
228 Dimona porrigens, its bautied. in 256

Corals, Australian

294 INDEX.

\

Pace

Dingo aio 5 sia wats ste 15
Dinornis.. For hh Be 6
Thacwaran resemblances of frilled licard ie 76
Diodon maculata ile oF bis .. 191
Dipnoi ... sen a8 ye ea . 38,1795
Diprotodon australis ... ah eh ba 28
Discosoma Haddoni_... ae Se aye £219
on Kenti sae soe a ‘ie 219
Dodo... ah bi dich oe as 6
Doris imperialis iu3 ve nae .. 151
Dromaius ae es ‘ein ‘iis o 5
Dromornis inet te ce Pr sit 6
Drumstick Grass-tree ... ee wi we = 278
Duck-billed Platypus ... ve co 18 15
Dwarf oysters ... die “Se vt ... 250

&

Eagle ray oe sa ae ee w= 154
Echidna aculeata a 6a a ... 15, 18
‘5 feeding habits ie us wi 19
Eels ue seit ase fie nae .. 184
», Wictorian ... ae ws ues .. 159
Egernia Cunninghami ... ae “oF = 94
3 depressa My wis wat vee 92

‘3 Kingii ... ee ba eg dua” 998

5 Stokesii ine soe sige ee 92
Elephant-fish : ae 155, 193
Emu... vag ne 3, ‘ies 233 5
» wren tes vas — ve as 67
English perch ... oe bee i vs 184

» salmon, acclimatisation at fie ite

podes nee a és .. 182

» trout ... sidie a ne ... 180
Engraulis encrasicholus th au we 155
5 antarcticus ... aie oh .. =: 155
Epimachus magnus _.... aes aia sis 35
Estralda bella ... ae Siz an ... 61, 64
Eumeus algeriensis... sae oi os 99
Eutermes arboreum ... os es = 114
i tenuis dite es er we LILI
Excecaria a3 sig aor aw wes OTE

F

Fantastic rocks, Roebuck Bay sis ww. -215
Festal dance or “ Corroboree ” we re 15

Fierasfer, fish living as a commensal Alii
mother-of-pearl shells sae it w= 201

2 PAGE
Finch, Firetailed ate i edd a 61
» Gouldian aa Pele — ae 58

» Grass... si ae ae ae 55

», White-headed ... es es re 61
Fire-producing apparatus nes ca oe 13

» tail nafs ae i's ile iat 64
», tailed finch ae wae ioe ... 61, 64
we 4B » playful habits ait ie 65
ae. OK » vocal powers... aie re 65
Fish acclimatisation, Western Australia .. 158
» commensals of sea anemones... ... 220
» fauna of Australia wi ass .. = =—-158
Fishes of Houtman’s Abrolhos wg .. 150
Flathead ie 173
Flower and Tiana, : on Grtihosnencin
kangaroos and phalangers... ee .. 17, 22
Flying foxes... 38 site bs we QUT
>» mouse ... a ve Si fs 26
» Opossum... van sn a ate 22
» phalanger Sas ees see fen 22
» squirrel .. wis ae vs 22
Folsche, Paul, Port Darwin suttalls ee = 128
Forbes, H. O., on former Antarctic Continent 6, 37
Formica smaragdina_... ais ii v. —-:254
» Viridis ... ae os er w= - 252
Fox shark ig se ie de w= «154
Fremantle herring ah ee vise .. 178
Frenella robusta age 2ae we sate 8
Fresh-water cod ae sas — .. 156
i cray-fish ... a a .. 288
5 lobster... was ase .. =—-288
Frilled lizard... sa ee aro sat 70
"5 » bipedal locomotion Sif aka 73
a3 » feeding habits ... Gia is 78
Fringed violet ... eu .. = 281
Froggatt, W. W., Termite dietationis 109
Frost fish ies er eas 154, 170
Fruit-eating bats hs a iis ea 277
G
Gadide ... nee ae 8% is .. 155
Gadopsis marmoratus ... sh a 156, 238
Galaxias... an nee Ae oe - 180
$9 attenuatus... sass aie te 4
Galaxiide is oe aes oe .. = 180
Galeocerdo Rayneri ... es ss ie 193
Galls of mangrove sie ses ‘ti w= 278
Gar-fish ... ae ss ee = a. 179

INDEX 295
Pace Pace
Gastrotokeus biaculeatus 187 Haviland, Dr., Collection of termites 109
Gelasimus coarctata 239 Heloderma horridum 98
5 variatus 241 a suspectum ... 98
Giant anemones 220 Hemirhamphus intermedius 179
», herrings ... 175 Herring tribe 174
» mackerel 176 Heterotis 179
» Kingfishers 53 3 niloticus 4
» perch 160 Hippocampus abdominalis 185
Gigantic crane . 3 7 i antiquorum 185.
Gippsland Takes, resort t of lad swans 36 Hippoglossus vulgaris ... 178
3 perch 160 Hirundo neoxena 66
Glass spear heads 12 Hobart trumpeter se +e 162
Glaucosoma hebraicum... 177 am colour metamorphoses 163
#9 scapulare ... 177 Hodotermes Havilandi... 128
Globe-fish 191 Holothuria mammifera... 149
Gnow 33 Holothuridee 148
Gobiesocidee : dia 155 Holoxenus cutaneus 173
Golden pearls of Wesleen Aneel ay 211 ‘“‘ Honeysuckle,” or Banksia 274
» perch 158 Horned toad — 87
“ Gooanna ” 94 Horse mackerel 154
Gouldian finches oe ea 55 », mackerels sity ek 169
oa _ breeding in England 63 House swallow of Western ron 66
5 6% colour distinctions ... 57 Houtman’s Abrolhos 132
ay re dancing habits 59 3 “3 avifauna 136
3 FP vocal talents 58 “3 4 pbéche-de-mer 148
Grammatophora barbatus 81 i 5 coral beach 148
Grass finches 55 ‘3 a » reefs 139
», trees, Xanthorhues eee 271 is 35 fish fauna 150
Grassi and Sandind-. on European termites 130 os re guano deposits ... 137
Grayling 180 33 P tropical marine fauna... 151
Great Lake trout 181 ‘3 rocks Bhs Sos 135
Green ants 252 Howard River meridian anthills 123
» lizard 98 Hudson W. H., on dancing birds 62
Grey mullets 1738 Hydrosaurus salvator ... 96
Gropers ... “ . 159 Hyracodon fuliginosus... 3
Growth rate of corals ... w=: 146
Grus australasianus . 36, 54
Guano deposits, Houtman’s Mellons, 137 I
Gurnets ... 173 Inchmen ants F : 952
Gymnorhina tibicens 52 Infusorial parasites of termites 127
Initial growth of coral island . 147
Tsinglass, yielded by Polynenie 169
H Isopoda 265
Hagen, on termites 129
Halcyon sanctus 124 J
Haplochiton Seali 5
Harpodon neherens sey 176 Jabiru 7
Hatted caterpillar of Dimona porrigens 256 Jacana ... 7
6,99 Jelly fish, King’ 8 ave 937

Hatteria (Sphenodon) punctatus

296 INDEX.
Pacr PacE
Jersey lizard 98 Leipoa ocellata ... ee sis fo ie 33
Jewish... 9... 154 Lepidogaster_... eae ss ae we = 155
3 —oy« (W.A,) : 177 Lepidopus caudatus 154, 170
5s » (QW&NSW.) 177 Lepidosiren paradoxus... . 4,179
», lizard 81 Leseur’s water lizard... ‘i aa 97
John Dory 154 Lichen-bedecked larva of Pier: .. = 256
Julis 150 Linckia levigata see ; me we 248
Jungle fowl 31 Lingah, mother-of-pearl avai, ts ww. = 212
Lizard, bearded aie id ite oe 81
rf blue-tongued ... aes a a 98
K 4 bob-tailed ek he eae oe 94
Kangaroo 21 » frilled ... 6s was or bs 70
Kea 8 ee ie 6 » green ... wie ars es see 98
Kimberley termite mounds 119 » Jersey ... “ee oa Sa Pe 98
King-fish, Abrolhos 170 go ODEN sss: rn ied se es 81
» 3 Australian varieties 177 » lace... iv ies abe ide 94
»59,-~ Queensland ... 169 » moloch... ie ae ee es 84
» 9» Tasmanian ... 71 » monitor aoe — ba: ate 94
Kingfishers 54 », New Zealand ... seo we ae 99
King Snapper ... 167 » ocellated be ie ee oe 98
Kingia australis 273 »» poisonous species sik re ee 98
Kiwi 5 » Sleepy ... as wie re as 89
Koala 26 » Spine-tailed ... ai er ae 93
Koalemus 28 re spinous... a wt aia ae 83
» stump-tailed ... a acy wie 89
“ Tuatara ae oe wi uk 99
L » water ... Bie exe = 2 97
Labrax lupus 160 Lizards as pets ... as i is sa 98°
Labricthys ceruleus 174 Lotella callarias sy sis ‘ies w= 156
Labrus mixtus ... 187 » marginata had ue ae .. 156
Lace lizard 94 Lung fish 4 179
Lacerta ocellata 98 Lyddeker and Fibwer, on Cemilnchsatdbus
» Viridis ... te 98 kangaroos and phalangers... . 17, 22
Lagoon, Pelsart Island 143 Lyre bird i oat es e way 35
Lamna cornubica 154
Lanioperca 172
Lankester, E. Ray, Piston casts sof es fienedon M
punctatus ae bie ses w=: 165
Lates calcarifer... ee ‘ee ie 160, 169 Mackerel nee dies as ie ine 154
» colonorum 160 Macquaria australasica en wie . 158
Latris bilineata... 166 Macquarie’s perch fer sae sg we «158
» Ciliaris 165 Macropodide ... as a aii wes 21
» hecateia ... 162 Macrozamia Fraseri_... bic ae ww. 272
» imornata... 166 Madrepora corymbosa ... a ee w= 140
» Mortoni. .- 166 i hebes F 140, 145
Laughing ‘dea j .. 51, 53 3 proteiformis site i ww. 142
Laura Valley meridian ant- hills 122 45 pulchra.... Por oh .. 140
Leather jackets... 189 5 reparative powers ... wie we = «144
» mouth.. 166 3 sarmentosa... a oe w= ‘141

297
Pacz PaGe
Madrepora syringoides... 140 Monotremata 15
35 violet-tinted 143 Monster crabs ... 238
Magnetic ant-hills 121 Montipora circinata 146
Magpie ... 52 Mope-hawk 40
» perch .. 166 “ More-pork ” 40
Maigre ... 154, 177 Morwongs 166
Malurus - 66 Mother-of-pearl shell, sakdption of ww. 204
Mangrove blossoms 277 FF » fisheries, W. Australia 197
$5 crab ... 239 a 5 its current value 213
5, galls ... 278 5 », Lingah variety 212
5S oysters ass 249 3 » Queensland 195
Mangroves, respiratory structures 276 1 » Shark’s Bay 209
Maorie jig we «171 Mound-building birds ... 33
Marching termites A 111,115 Mountain devil ... 83
Market prices of mathanctpean) Aan 213 . parrot 6
Mary River salmon 179 Mud oysters 246
Mauritius avifauna aes 6 Mugilide 173
McCook, Dr. H. C., on ‘Anivicen irders 262, 265 Mulloway 177
Megalania prisca 30 Murray cod : 158
Megalops cyprinoides --- 175 », cod, acclimatised in w. Anutealia 158
5 thryssoides ... 175 » River, abundant avifauna 36
Megapodide ca 31 Mycteria australis 7
Megapodium tumulus ... 31 Mycteris longicarpus 241
Meleagrina Cumingii ... 212 5 marching habits 241
5 fimbriata 209 ‘5 platycheles 241
m fucata ae | O12 Myliobatis aquila 154
+ imbricata ... 138, 209 Myrmicobius fasciatus .. 3 20
i irradians 209 “ Myrmidon,” H.M. 8., survey “of erabniege
‘s lacunata .. 209 Gulf .. 168
5 margaritifera 138, 196 M pecuthas ena slnye 66
Menura Alberti... 36
» Superba : 35
Meridian ant-hills, Howard River 123 N
3 33 Port Darwin 123
% 5 Laura Valley 121 Nair fish ni Gg ae ies 160, 169
Merlucius gayi ... 155 Nannegai 167
Mesoprion Johni 150 Native cat Ss 20
Metapteryx bifrons 6 » companion -. 36, 54
Miolania Oweni ; 31, 84 » Pheasant 33
Mirage-elevated breakers 142 ” trout: .. 180
Mos uaz =, 5 Nephila fuscipes 259, 263
Moloch horridus ie 31, 83 Neptune’s cup sponge ... w=: 286
- feeding habits 84 Neptunus pelagicus 7 150, 238
lizard . 84 Nereis, commensal with sea anemone... 227
Monacanthus Ayraudi ... 190 New Zealand lizard 99
- Browni ... 190 Ninox boobook ... 40
re hippocrepis 190 Northern chimera 155
f megalurus 190 ij salmon 168
Monitor lizard ... 94 Notogea ... .

PP

298

INDEX.

Notoryctes typhlops

Pace

28

Nudibranchiate mollusc, remarkable specimen 150

Nycticebus

O

Old Man Snapper
Oligorus gigas ...

55 macquariensis
Orange mangrove nae
Ord River phenomenal fishes ...
Oreaster nodosus
Ornithorhynchus paradoxus
Osprey ... : een

» nesting habits ...
Osteoglossum bicirrhosum

fF formosum
re Jardinei...
3 Leichardti
Ostracion aurita
5 cornutum
PF ornata

Ostrea edulis
» glomerata
» mordax...
» ordensis...
Ostrich ...
Ox-eye herring ...
Oyster-crusher ... vee sie
» grounds, Western Australia
» spat collectors ...
Oysters, artificial cultivation
» coral rock
» Gwarf variety ...
» elongate variety
» coud
rock _
» zonal growth habit

P

Pagrus major

i unicolor
Palmipes membranaceus
Palinurus vulgaris
Pamban salmon
Pandion leucocephalus ...
Paradiside

Parasites or commensals of mother-of-pearl

shells

26

161

159

158

275

168

243

15

67

ac Uf
a & 179
4,179
. 4,179

. 4,179

187

189

187

ve 245
138, 245

247

150, 161
161
244
238
169
...67, 136
34

201

Pace
Parasitic sponge 219
Parra 7
Passiflora 38
Patagonian marsupials... 20
Pear] blisters iti ba 198
» resembling infant’s head 202
» Shell cultivation, Abrolhos Islands 208
3 53 Broome Creek 205
ie “485 i Shark’s Bay ... 206
oer Fe Thursday Island 204
» Shelling station, Shark’s Bay 210
» » Southern Cross” 199
Pearls, artificial production of... 214
» fantastic shapes 199
3 ‘methods of abstraction 212
8 nature of aes 199
Pelecanus conspicillatus 67
Pelicans, young... wt 67
Pelsart Island Lagoon... 143
Pentagonaster australis... 245
Perameles 20
Perca fluviatilis 184
Perch family 158
Percolates colonorum ... 160
Perodicticus 27
Petauroides volans 22
Petaurus breviceps 23
Phalangista fuliginosa ... 22
Phascolarctos cinereus... 26
Phascolomys 21
Phascolonus gigas 21
Pheasant, native 33
Phenomenal trout “sf ey 181
Phorodesma, lichen-bedecked larva of... 256
Photographing night-blooming cacti ... 283
a swimming turtles 237
Phrynosoma cornutum ... 88
Phyllopteryx eques 185
55 foliatus ... 185
Physignathus Leseuri ... 97
Physobrachia Douglasi... we = 222
Pig-fish ... Se 174, 193
Piked dog-fish ... 192
Pilchard... aes we in we = «175
Pinna shells, as fulchra of attachment for
mother-of-pearl shells ie ww. 209
Pinnotheres, crab living asa commensal within
mother-of-pearl shells 203
Pipe-fish... 186

INDEX. 299
Pacer Pace
Piping crow 52 Proechidna Brugnii 15
Plagiodus ferox... 176 Prothylacinus patagonicus 20
Plagusia... 178 Protopterus annectens ... 4,179
Plaster casts of isiadniins fish 164 Prototroctes 4
Platax orbicularis 150 e marena 180
Platycephalus bassensis 173 Prussian carp 184
Platycherops Gouldii ... 174
Platypus : ie 15
$3 inflicting wound 17 Q
Plectognathi 187 Quartz spear heads 12
Plectropoma Richardsoni 159 Quatrefages, on Termites 110
Pleuronectide ... 178 Queensland, garden produce 288
Plotosus.. ¥ ek 176 4) shrike 51
Bol vai,. attitude aliens alarmed 42
i Cuvieri 40
Pr favourite food 47 R
Pe rain-bath manoeuvres 45 Rabbit-fish a c 193
s strigoides 40 Raft of King’s Saint a natives 9
4 vocal notes ... 49 Raquet-tailed kingfisher 54
rr warning note 43 Rat Island, coral growths on jetty 146
Poephila Gouldz 55 Red mangrove ... 275
aij mirabilis 55 Reed warblers ... 54
“« Pogee” 212 Reef corals, Houtman’s ‘Abvrélhios 5 138
Poisonous as 98 Reptile House at Zoological Gardens... 99
Polynemide 168 Reptilian Society 99
Polynemus indicus 177 Rhina squatina... Pee 154
i Sheridani ... 169 “ Rhinoceros Rock,” eosedale Bay 215
5 tetradactylus 168 Rhizophora mucronata... 275
o4 Verekeri 168 Rhombsolea monopus .. 178
Pontideria crassipes 287 Rhea 6
Porbeagle .. = 154 Rifle bird cf 34
Porcupine ant-eater . 15, 18 Rock cods, Australian ... 159
a fish ... a 191 » oysters sit 246
Porites, as reef constructors 229 Roebuck Bay natives ... 15
» astreeoides 229 “ Roley-poley ” grass 280
Port Darwin meridian saclay: 123 Roughy ... 178
,», Jackson shark 192
Poterion patera... 236 Ss
Potto 3 27
Pouched mole ... 28 Salicornaria 980
Psettodes erumei 178 Salmo fario 180
Pseudocarcinus gigas 238 » ferox 181
Pseudochirus 26 » salar 182
Pseudophycis jarititie 155. » trutta 180
Pseudoscarus 150 Salmon, Colonial 178
Pteromys 4 He 22 » English 182
Pteropus iilipiclltabis 278 » trout 180
Ptilonorhynchus holosericeus .. 34 Samson fish ee 170
35 Sand-fly, attacking spider 264

Ptiloris paradiseus

300 INDEX.
PacE Pace
Sarcophilus ursinus 20 Snouted termites ae 130
Satin bower bird 34 Social chrysalides of Belenois Clytie sa 257
Sauromarpus gaudichaudi 54 Solaster papposa 243
Savage, T. J., Termite an Sea .. 118 Soldier crabs 240
Scabbard fish “6 154, 170 Solengognathus spinosissimus ... 186
Scarlet-headed Gouldian finch. oa 57 ~ Hardwickii 186
Sciena antarctica 154, 177 Sonneratia acida 276
» aquila ... 154 Sooty terns a 136
Scroll-coral 146 South Australian cectwanet we 186
Scomber antarcticus 154 Southern chimera 193
» scomber 155 “Southern Cross” pearl 199
Scrub Turkey ... 32 Sparide ... 160
Scylla serrata : 239 Spear heads 12
Sea anemones, stinging variety 223 Sphenodon punctatus ... 6, 99
»» breams 160 Sphyrena langsar 172
», cucumbers ... 148 es obtusata 172
», dragon 185 Sphyreenide 172
» eagle 67 Spider cocoons ... 258
» horse 185 » eccentricities .. 257
»» perch 166 Spiders, commensal species 259, 263
»» pikes 172 », diminutive males 263
», trout 182 Spinifex grass ... 12
Seer fish 177 3 gum 12
“Sergeant Baker ” .. 176 - longifolius 281
Seriola gigas 150, 170 Spine-tailed lizard 93
» grandis ... .. 170 Spinous lizard ... 83
» Lalandii 170, 178 Spiny ant-eater... 15
Sewin 181 » dog-fish ... 154
Sharks ... sit ae a .. 192 », tailed monitor ... 97
» abundance off Houtman’s Abrolhos... 141 Spoggodes, Alcyonarian coral ... 217
Shark’s Bay corals 230, 232 Sponge destructive of corals 219
“ »» taother-of-pearl shell 209 » », Neptune’s cup 236
5 », pearl shelling station 210 Spotted bower bird 34
* » sponge 235 Sprat 154
Shell aprons 10 Spur of Paty 17
», beach, Pelsart Taland 148 Squirrel, flying .. 23
Sillago ... 173 %5 Sugar .. ‘ 23
» Ciliata 150 Stag’s Horn cial: Houtman’s eerie 140
Silver eel 159 Stalactite-like concretions, Sweer’s Island 250
» eels ~ 184 Starfish, decorative ee, 244
» «eyes 54 43 Tasmanian 243
» perch 158 Starfishes, Great Barrier Reef 243
» trumpeter 163 St. Helena, termite depredations 111
Siluride... 176 Steganophora guttata ... 61
Skipjack 154 Stinging sea anemones... 223
Sleepy lizard . a 89 Stipiturus malichurus ... 67
Smeathman, Henry, Termite insvéationtions ice ELE Stirling, Dr. E. C., on Notacyotes 28
Snapper ... 161 Struthio camelus 6
Snook 170 Stump-tailed lizard 89

INDEX. 301

Pace Pace

Sugar-squirrel ... 53 23 Termites, attacked by ordinary ants ... .. 126
‘Surf-red ” béche-de-mer 149 s collection by Dr. Haviland ... .. 109
Sweer’s Island, stalactite-like ee pen 250 “ eroding metal and glass... .. 107
Swimming crabs 238 33 grass-eating species ... rot .. 108
Synapta Beselli... 149 es infusorial parasites ... tes w= «127
Synaptura 178 PA marching variety... — see LDL
Syngnathus 186 ‘i reconstructed mounds 120
‘3 snouted varieties. 130

T is specific characters... ee .. 129

os structural modifications ... cag «= B29

Tailed-spider, Arachnura Higgensii 260 ‘5 swarming habits 104
Tailor-fish 170 » (white ants) ... 102
Talegalla Lathami 32 iy wood-eating propensities .. 106
Tanysiptera sylvia 54 Tetrodon Hamiltoni... ss ent wee LOT
Tarantula 265 Therapon Richardsoni ... 158
Tarpon, American a 175 Theridium oe ses 5 ce w= 261
,, Australian representative 175 Throwing stick.. ae 13

Tasmanian black-fish 238 Thursday idand,. as Gueshdlnad uated pea

carp 166 shelling station... aa a6 .. 197

5 cow-fish 188 Thylacaleo aad dad re ais ae 28

3 devil ss aie : 20 Thylacinus cynocephalus ree wi tag 20

% fish, coloured plaster casts 164 Thynnus thynnus 154
‘i starfishes 2438 Thyrsites atun ... 170.

sy salmon 182 » _solandri ae hes 172, 177

5 tiger 20 Thysanotis dichotoma ... st ee .. = 281

3 tree-ferns 288 ‘5 multiflorus 282

3 trumpeter ... 162 a Patersoni ... 282

5 wolf 20 Tiger shark 193
Tassel fishes .. 168 Tiliqua scincoides 2g a 533 se 98
Temnodon saltator 154, 170 Tinca vulgaris ... ae sais eo .. 184
Tench 184 Toad-fishes oe sie tie oe we 19D
Termes armiger 129 Trachinide wets ing ar ss nan 172
» atrox 114 Trachurus trachurus 154

» bellicosus 112 Trachysaurus rugosus ... ; re ze 89

», flavipes... .. 104 Tree-ferns, Tasmania and Guanalan 288

» lucifugus 102, 110 » Kangaroo ... : sis ibs 21

» mordax... 114 Trepang, Houtman’s rotten: slay .. 148

,, taprobanes .. 108 “ Triantelope ” 265

» Viarum ... ae aes 115, 128 Trichiuride =e 0 oar .. 170
Termite depredations at St. Helena 111 Trichonympha Leidyi ... 3 as .. 127
» investigations, T. J. Savage ... 113 Trigger-fishes 189

- si W. W. Froggatt 109 Triodia irritans.. das as s 12

» mounds, Albany Pass 116 Tropical marine Lah of Houtman’s Apsallios 151

* 4 “ Columnar ” vag 124 Trout, English ... 180

: 5, “ Kimberley ” type ... 119 » native ... Le 180

a “meridian” type 121 Trumpeter aa 162

ee - “ pyramidal ” 117 Tuatara lizard ... dis na neg nee 99

i » utilitarian value 125 Tunny 154
105 Turbinaria bifrons 235

Termites, as food

302 INDEX.
Pace Pace
Turbinaria conspicua ... a sae .. 230 Western Australian golden pearls 211
35 its abundance on the Australian White ants pee re 101
coasts 229 i », individual types ... 102
Turbinaria peltata 230 » «eyes 54
i revoluta... “oe kes we =: 285 5, headed finch 61
Turbinarie collection and transport of massive 5 3 osprey ... 136
specimens ... i 232 5» Mangrove 275
3 early growths 231 “ Wideawake ” gulls 136
45 expanded polyps of 231 Wombat... iy 21
‘5 of abnormal size ... 230 “Wooden cradle... 14
Twelve-wired bird of paradise 35 "Wood hen 6
Woomera ‘as es 13
Worm, commensal with sea anemone ... 227
U Wrass aes 187
Wrens, Australian 66
Underground Grass-tree 273
Xx
V Xanthorrheea arborea ... 272
Varanus acanthurus 97 . hastilis ... 2973
” giganteus ooo 96 “ X-ray ” spider 262
3 salvator ... 30, 96
» -Varius... 94
Velvet-fish as 173 Y
Violet-tinted madrepora 143 Yellow-tail 178
» tails... oes ae oe .. 170
Young turtles, photographed while swimming 237
WwW York devil 83
Wallace, Dr. A. R., Island life .. =182
5 ay on racial affinities of
Australian aboriginals 8 Z
Water hyacinth 287 Zeus faber — ee wee 154
» lizard 97 Zoological Gardens, Reptile House 99
Weaving habits of green ants ... 253 Zosterops dorsalis 55

THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA.

W, Saville-Kent, Photo.

ILLUSTRATION FROM ‘‘ THE GREAT BarriEx REEF OF AUSTRALIA.”

EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS OF THE PRESS

MR. SAVILLE- KENT'S RECENT BOOK
“THE GREAT BARRIER REEF OF AUSTRALIA”

(PusiisHEeD By Messrs. W. H. Auten & Co., Limrrep, Lonpon).

Super-royal Quarto (134 x 10), containing 16 Chromo and 48 Whole-page Plates in Photo-mezzotype.

Net Price £4. 4s.

TIMES.

The sumptuous volume entitled, ‘‘ The Great Barrier Reef of Australia: Its
Products and Potentialities,’’ by W. Saville-Kent, F.L.S8., F.Z.S., &c., will be
interesting primarily to zoologists and naturalists in general, but it is not with-
out attractions for those who concern themselves with the commercial interests
of Australia. It contains an exhaustive ‘‘ account with copious coloured and
photographic illustrations of the corals and coral reefs, pearl and pearl shell,
béche-de-mer, and other fishing industries and the marine fauna of the Australian
Great Barrier region.”’ The illustrations are very skilfully executed and very
interesting in themselves, and the letterpress consists of a series of elaborate
monographs on the natural features and products of this wonderful region. . .
Mr. Saville-Kent’s chapter on the commercial potentialities of the reef is a
veritable romance of the sea, and his whole work is a labour of love and
enthusiasm.

SATURDAY REVIEW.

This is a sumptuous book: a large quarto volume, illustrated by no less
than forty-eight plates in photo-mezzotype and sixteen in chromo-lithography.
Such a complete study of a coral reef has never before been published. It deals
not only with the natural history of the Great Barrier Reef, but also with
the marine industries of that region, which are of no small importance to the
colony of Queensland. . . Mr. Saville-Kent’s photographs and descriptions
givea wonderfully vivid idea of these strange “toilers of the sea”’ in every respect

but colour, and that the chromo-lithographs enableustoimagine. . . Among
these delightful pictures it is difficult to single out any for special praise. . .

The book is so full of curious and interesting matter that it is hard to know
where to stop and when to put it down. Mr. Saville-Kent has brought a coral
reef and its wonders nearer to naturalists who cannot wander far from the shores
of colder regions than anyone hitherto has succeeded in doing,

NATURE.

Coral and coral reefs are likely to become additionally popular from the
publication of a really magnificent book entitled ‘‘ The Great Barrier Reef of
Australia: Its Products and Potentialities.”” This work . . . . presentsus
with what is emphatically an édition de lure. Of large size, its pages teem with
most beautiful coloured illustrations of the life of the reef, and with photographic
reproductions of its scenery. Nothing finer in the way of book-illustration has
come under our notice, and the illustrations will be all the more welcome to
naturalists, in that they reproduce the characteristics of the Great Barrier with
absolute fidelity, to which the word-painting of a Ruskin would be wholly
unequal, . . . Mr. Saville-Kent’s book contains a series of nature-pictures
of the corals such as has never before been submitted to the scientific world,
anda glance at his illustrations does more to familiarise one with the phases
and aspects of the reef and its life than pages of written description.

MORNING POST.

In thus foreshadowing possible sources of wealth, and in presenting this
luxuriously fashioned account of the Great Barrier Reef and its products, Mr.
Saville-Kent has rendered eminent service alike to the province of. Queensland
and the cause of scientific progress and knowledge.

SCOTSMAN.

It is certain that since the appearance of Mr. Darwin’s monograph on Coral
Reefs no contribution of such importance has been made to the literature of this
interesting department of physicalscience. . . . It is certain that by bring-
ing his researches and collections so fully within reach of students as Mr. Saville-
Kent has done by the production of this magnificently appointed volume he has
rendered natural science a service which it would be difficult to over-estimate.
The work will always be a first authority on its subject, and an indispensable
book of reference for all who wish to have views of their own upon coral reefs.

[Continued over Leaf.

EXTRACTS FROM OPINIONS OF THE PRESS (Continued).

CAMBRIDGE REVIEW.

The most striking feature of Mr, Saville-Kent’s magnificent monograph on
“The Great Barrier Reef of Australia ’’ is the wonderful series of photographic
plates which illustrate in a way never before attempted the extraordinary variety
of shape and beauty of form which corals present. It almost takes away our
breath to be suddenly shown one of these plates ; we feel that we are looking at
the thing itself, and we are lost in admiration at the skill of the photographer
and the care of the publisher which have combined to produce these results.

STANDARD.

The old naturalist probably never dreamt of the world having to welcome so
sumptuous a monograph as that which Mr. Saville-Kent has issued. For not
only is it all that its title claims—an exhaustive account of the great coral reef
which stretches along the Queensland coast—but in addition it forms a very
admirable history of the marine resourcesof the Colony with which the author
was so honourably connected as Commissioner of Fisheries. Nothing seems to
be omitted, and everything is illustrated in the most beautiful manner by forty-
eight plates, in which photo-mezzotype appears at its best, and sixteen chromo-
lithographs from the pencil of the accomplished zoologist whose services to
science have been so long and so varied. Altogether, a work more satisfactory,
from an artistic and a scientific point of view has seldom come before us.

WEST AUSTRALIAN.

Mr. Saville-Kent’s book on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia is truly
@ monumental work, and is an important contribution to both science and
art. . . . The book, which is a veritable édition de lure, and inspires
admiration on the part of the most casual individual who may pick it up,
compels the interested attention of the reader. It is as superb a specimen
of the printer’s, photographer’s and publisher’s art as it has been our good
fortune to see, and we can well believe that it succeeded in eliciting the special
commendation of Her Majesty the Queen, who was graciously pleased to
accept a copy from its author.

DAILY NEWS.

It is to this marvellous feature of the ocean on the eastern coast of the
Australian continent that Mr. W. Saville-Kent has devoted the magnificent
quarto volume with its numerous coloured and photographic illustrations. . .
Mr. Saville-Kent is, in the first place, a naturalist, and none who are acquainted
with his great ‘‘ Manual of the Infusoria,’’ will need to be told that he has gone
about his herculean task with inexhaustible industry and zeal, and has produced
a work unique of its kind and little likely to be superseded unless it be by future
editions embodying further researches by the same indefatigable explorer and
student of nature. It would be impossible to convey to a reader who has not
examined this massive volume an adequate notion of the matter of its chapters,
or of the singular beauty and interest of its plates, coloured and otherwise, after
photographs and drawings.

FIELD.

One of the most magnificent that was ever published. Too much praise can
hardly be bestowed upon the illustrations, which are mainly original photo-
graphs of the largest quarto size, displaying the beauties of the corals and other
animals constituting these marvellous structures with w degree of accuracy
which has never been even attempted.

THE AUSTRALASIAN.

A great work on a great subject. . . . Only the perfection to which the
photographic and chromo-lithographic arts have been brought could have ren-
dered possible the production of such a really superb book as Mr. Saville-Kent’s
“Great Barrier Reef of Australia,” the scientific value of which is so largely
enhanced by the number and beauty of its illustrations, . . . The book is
one which whether viewed as a scientific treatise on a fascinating subject, or as
@ contribution to our knowledge of the economic resources of that great
colony, or a8 a work of typographical and illustrative art, is entitled to
unqualified praise.

BOOKSELLER.

One of the most striking publications of the hour, if not the most imposing
of all.

DAILY CHRONICLE.

No praise could be too high for this magnificent work. . . . The text is
extremely interesting, and written throughout in a fresh and lively’ style,
which is too often not the case with works containing a similar amount of
solid information.

LA NATURE.

M. Saville-Kent qui, pendant prés de huit années, a occupé le poste
d’inspecteur des pécheries de la Grande-Barriére, a fait sur celle-ci une série
d’observations qu’il a réunies dans une magnifique publication. Ce livre,
qui paraitra sous peu, est orné de photogravures et de planches coloriées qui
en font un véritable objet d’art; hélas! quand verrons-nous de pareils livres
en France? A/J’étranger, quand il s’agit de science, on trouve toujours les
bourses largement ouvertes. Que les choses sont différentes chez nous!

NOTTS GUARDIAN.

This magnificently illustrated and finely got-up volume, though treating
its subject on scientific lines, is written in so lucid a style that it can be
read with pleasure and appreciation by any ordinarily well-educated reader.
. . . It is impossible to convey in words an adequate idea of the beauty
and delicacy of these photo-mezzotype plates, and of the wide field which
they cover. The subjects range from photographs of coral specimens and coral
growths to views of reefs, islets and islands, from an illustration of a cultivated
oyster bank to hurricane-stranded coral masses and wrecked ships, from groups
of pearls to representations of the various species of béche-de-mer and of the
many and odd kinds of fishes which swarm in the waters of the Great Reef.
Mr. Saville-Kent has, indeed, by the aid of the camera, placed at the disposal
of scientists an invaluable mass of observations, and enabled the stay-at-home
naturalist almost to realise what Mr. Saville-Kent tells his readers was a day-
dream of his own, namely, to see these wonderful coral organisms growing
in their native seas.

PHOTOGRAPHY.

The Great Barrier Coral Reef of Australia is one of the wonders of the
world, and the work under our notice is in every way worthy of such a subject.
The naturalist will find in its pages a wealth of scientific fact gathered by a
master-hand, and the ordinary individual under its guidance may wander in
scenes of beauty and wonder hitherto unknown to him. Such a work, from
the pen of such a scientist as the author, is an important contribution to
British literature.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

A MANUAL OF THE

INFUSORIA,

A. descriptive Monograph of the FLAGELLATE, CILIATE and TENTACULIFEROUS PROTOZOA.

Royal 8v0, Vols. I to ILI, over 900 pages of teat, and 51 Plates containing upwards of 2,000 figures.

Lonpon :

W. H. Auten & Co., Limitep.

Price £4. 4s. net.

Waterlow g¢ Sons Limited, Printers, London Wall, London,

3B, Fleet Street, London, the sol

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