HARVARD UNIVERSITY. LIBRARY MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. I Zulu OOxiuxT L't'TUL 't^ l^(|5._iUWv/^,/S^i). RECORDS AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES SUCCEEDED BY educator. ^' SYDNEY, 1892-96. lV- o^ CONTENTS. No. 1. Published April, 1892. Pages 1-22. Plates i.-iii. PAGI On a Tubiculous Amphipod from Port Jackson. By Chas. Chilton M.A., B.Sc, Port Chalmers, New Zealand 1 Descriptions of Three New Australian Lizards. By J. Douglas Ogilby, F.L.S 6 Supplement to the Descriptive Catalogue of " Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania. By A. J. North, F.L.S. 11 Note on the occurrence of the Sanderling (Calidris arenaria) in New South Wales. By Prof. Alfred Newton, M.A., F.R.S., &c., Magdalene College, Cambridge 22 No. 2. Published August, 1892. Pages 23-32. Plates iv.-vii. On some Undescribed Eeptiles and Fishes from Australia. By J. Douglas Ogilby ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 23 On the Structure and Affinities of Panda atomata. Gray. By C. Hedley, F.L.S ... 2G Note on the Nidification of Manucodia conirii, Sclater (Gomrie's Manucode). By A. J. North, F.L.S 32 No. 3. Published August, 1892. Pages 33-38. Plates viii.-x. Note on some Bismuth Minerals, Molybdenite, and Enhydros. By A. Liversidge, M.A., F.E.S., Prof, of Chemistry, University of Sydney ... ... ... ... ... •.. ••• ••• 33 Additions to the Avifaunas of Tasmania, and Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S 36 No. 4. Published February, 1893. Pages 39-54. Plates xi.-xiii. On Further Traces of Meiolania in N.S. Wales. By E. Etheridge, Junr. ... ... ... ... ... ... ••• ... ••• 39 Notes on Australian Aquatic Hemiptera. (No. 1.) By Frederick A. A. Skuse, F.L.S 42 Eemarks on a New Cyria from New South Wales. By Frederick A. A. Skuse, F.L.S 45 Geological and Ethnological Observations made in the Valley of the Wollondilly Eiver, at its Junction with the Nattai Eiver, Counties Camden and Westmoreland. By E. Etheridge, Junr. 4G No. 5. Published September, 1893. Pages 55-84. Plates csjj.-xvii. PAGE Pholas ohtiiramentum ; an Undescribed Bivalve from Sydney Har- bour. By C. Hedley, F.L S 55 Notes on Australian Typhlopidce. By Edg^ar E. Waite, F.L.S. ... 57 Description of a New Shark from the Tasmanian Coast. By J. Douglas Ogilby 62 Description of a New Pelagic Fish from New Zealand. By J, Douglas Ogilby Gi Review of the genus Schedophilus, Cocco, and its Allies. By J. Douglas Ogilby 65 On the Occurrence of Beekite in connection Avith " Fossil Organic Eemains" in N.S. Wales. By R. Etheridge, Jvinr 7-4 Description of a New Flea, Stephanocircus dasyuri, from New South Wales ; with Notes of some other Insect Parasites known in Australia. By Frederick A. A. Skuse 77 On a Specimen of Crex crex, shot at Randwick, New South Wales. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S 82 Description of a New Species of Parrakeet, of the genus Platyccrcus, from North-west Australia. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S. ... 83 No. 6. Published September, 1895. Pages 85-94. Plates xviii.-xxii. The Skull of Dendrolagus dorianus, Ramsay. By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S 85 Note on a Semi-Albino Specimen of Dacelo gigas. By Alfred J. North,F.L.S 87 Note on a Nest of Petroeca leggii, Sharpe. (The Scarlet-breasted Robin.) By Alfred J. North, F.L.S 89 Bcndrotrochus, Pilsbry, assigned to Trochomorpha. By C. Hedley, F.L.S 90 On a Case of Presumed Protective Imitation. By Frederick A. A. Skuse 91 Some Suggestions regarding the Formation of "Enhydros" or Water-Stones. By T. Cooksey, Ph.D., B.Sc 92 No. 7. Published January, 1896. Pages i.-xii., 95 - 112. Plate xxiii. A Museum Enemy— Dust. By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S 95 On the Seasonal Changes in the Plumage of Zostcrops cce^nilesccns. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S 98 Notes on the Mollusca from the Alpine Zone of Mount Kosciusko. By C. Hedley, F.L.S 101 Description of Pugnus, a New Genus of Ringiculidce, from Sydney Harbour. By C. Hedley, F.L.S 105 Description of a Dapanoptera from Australia. By Frederick A. A. Skuse 106 Stephanocircut, Sk. : A Rejoinder. By Frederick A. A. Skuse ... 110 Mineralogical Notes, Nos. 1 and 2. By T. Cooksey, Ph.D., B.Sc... Ill LIST OF THE CONTRIBUTORS. With References to the Articles contributed by each. Chilton, Chas. page On a Tubicolous Amphipod from Port Jackson 1 COOKSET, T. Some Suggestions regarding the Formation of Enliydros or Water-stones ... ... ... ... ... ••• ••• ^1 Mineralogical Notes, Nos. 1 and 2 Ill Ethebidqe, Junr, E. On Further Traces of Meiolania in New South Wales ... 39 Geological and Ethnological Observations made in the Valley of the Wollondilly River, at its junction with the Nattai River, Counties Camden and Westmoreland ... ... 46 On the Occurrence of Beekite, in connection with " Fossil Organic Remains," in New South Wales 74 Hedlet, C. On the Structure and Affinities of Panda atomata. Gray. Pholas ohtur amentum, an Undescribed Bivalve from Sydney Harbour ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ••• 55 Dendrotrochus, Pilsbry, assigned to Trochomori^ha ... ... 90 Notes on Mollusca from the Alpine Zone of Mount Kosciusko. Description of Pugnus, a new genus of Ringiculidse, from Sydney Harbour 105 LiVERSIDGE, A. Note on Some Bismuth Minerals, Molybdenite and Enhydros 33 Newton, Alfred. Note on the occurrence of the Sanderling fCalidris arenaria) in New South Wales 22 North, Alfred J. Supplement to the Descriptive Catalogue of " Nests and Eggs of Birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania ... 11 Note on the Nidification of Manucodia comrii, Sclater (Comrie's Manucode) ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 Additions to the Avifaunas of Tasmania, and Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands ... ... ... ... ... ... 36 On a Specimen of Cre.v crex, shot at Randwick, New South Wales 82 Description of a New Species of Parrakeet, of the genus Platycercus, from North-west Australia ... ... ... 83 Note on a Semi- Albino Specimen of Dacelo gigas 87 Note on a Nest of Petrceca leggii, Sharpe. (The Scarlet- breasted Robin) ■... ... ... ... ... ... 89 On the Seasonal Changes in the Plumage of Zosterops ccerulescens 98 Ogilbt, J. Douglas. Description of Three New Australian Lizards 6 On Some Undescribed Reptiles and Fishes from Australia ... 23 Description of a New Shark from the Tasmanian Coast ... 62 Description of a New Pelagic Fish from New Zealand ... 64 Review of the Genus Schedophilus, Cocco, and its Allies ... 65 Skuse, Frederick A, A. page Remarks on a New Cyria from New South Wales ... ... 45 Notes on Australian Aquatic Hemiptera (No. 1.) ... ... 42 Description of a New Plea {St ephano circus dasyuri), from New South Wales ; with notes of some other Insect Parasites known in Australia ... ... ... ... ... ... 77 On a Case of Presumed Protective Imitation ... ... ... 91 Description of a I>a25ano2)ie7-a from Australia ... ... ... 106 Stephanocircus, Sk. : A Rejoinder ... ... ... ... ... 110 Waite, Edgar R. Notes on Australian Typhlopidcc ... ... ... ... ... 57 The Skull of Dendrolagus dorianus, Ramsay ... ... ... 85 A Museum Enemy — Dust ... ... ... ... ... ... 95 LIST OF PLATES. PLATE FIG. 1. ^11. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. III. V. VI. -"vii. ' VIII. 'IX. • X. ^XI. XII. XIII. XIV. / XV. "^XVI. 10,11,13. 12. 14. XVII. 'XVIII. XIX. • XX. ^XXI. ''xxii. ■^ XXIII. 1-2. 3. 4. 5-6. 1. 1-3. 1,2,3. 4-5. 1-2. 3-4. 5. 6. 1, 2, 3. 4. 1. 2. 1. 2-3. 1-4. 1. 2. Tubiculous Amphipod {Cerapus flindersi), from Port Jackson. Egg of Ninox connivens, Latham. Winking Owl. „ Calyptorhynchusfunereus, Shaw. Funereal Black Cockatoo. „ Calyi)torhynchussola7idri,Teiiiiaia.Gk. Solander's Black Cockatoo. „ Ceuiropusp/iasianus, Latham. Swamp Pheasant. „ Polytelis alexandrce, Gould. Princess of Wales' Parrakeet. „ Orthonyx spinicaudus, Temminck. Spine-tailed Orthonyx. Nest and Eggs of Ptilotis frenata, Eamsay. Bridled Honey-eater. Reduced outlines of the types of variations in contour of Panda falconeri. Bulimus kershaivi. Brazier. Apex of Shell, Jaw, and Genitalia of Panda atomata. Egg of Pedinogyra cunninghami. Teeth from the radula of P. atomata. Egg of Manucodia conirii, Sclater. Crystals of Molybdenite. Enhydro, or Water-stone. Enhydro, or Water-stone. Limnobates strigosa, Sk. Hydrometra australis, Sk. Cyria imperialis, Don. Cyria tridens, Blackb. " Hands-on-the-Rock," Wollondilly River. Carved trees near grave, at the " Hermitage," Werri- berri Creek, County Camden. Dorsal, lateral, and ventral aspects respe^'tively of Pholas ohtur amentum. Outlines of P. similis to contrast with figs. 1 and 3. Head of Typhlops nigrescens. Gray. Head of Typhlops proximus, Waite. Tail of TijiMops nigrescens. Gray. Tail of Typhlops rllppelli, Jan. Rosettes of Syringopora, Cave Flat. Surface of Hcliolites, Wellington Caves. Stephanocircus dasyuri, Sk., male. Stepihanocircus dasyuri, Sk., female. Skull of Dendrolagus dorianus, Ramsay. Skull of Dendrolagus dorianus, Ramsay. Nest and eggs of Petrmca leggii, Sharpe. Scarlet- breasted Robin. Anatomy of Trochomorplui helicinoides, H. and J. Head of lizard of the genus Varanus on tree trunk. Moth, Leto stacyi, Scott, sitting on tree trunk. New species of shell*. CORRECTIONS. :o: Page 91, line 17, read p. 35 instead of p. 1. Explanation of plate xiii. fig. 2, read fig. 1 instead of fig. 2. „ „ „ 3, read figs. 1 and 2, instead of figs. 2 and 3. I :tTiD E X. Acantliia PAGE u. Calidris PAGE lectularia ... ... 81 arenaria ... 22 Acanthida3 ... 81 Calyptorhynchus Agates ... 92 fuller cus ... 18 Anisops solandri ... 18 australis ... 43 xanthonotus ... 19 Auoglypta Campephaga launcestonensis 29,30 jardinii ... 13 Anthrenus ... 98 Carbonate of Lime ... Ill Aphaniptera ... 80 Caryodes Assiminea dufre.sni 27. 29, 30 hicincta ... 37 Ceblepyris Avellana ... 106 jardinii Centrina ... 13 Barnea brunionsis ... ... 62 similis ... .55 salviani ... 63 Basic Sulphate of Irou 111, 112 Centrolophus Bathilda maoricus ... 64 ruficauda ... ... 14 Centropus Bathy master Batrachomyia ... 66 phasianus ... Cerapinae ... 17 ... 1 nigritarsis ... ... 79 Cerapus quadrilincata ... 79 abditus 6 Beekite ... 74, 75, 76 flindersi 1,2, 6 Belostoma sisniithi ... 2,6 indica 43,44 tubularis ... 1 Bismuth Chalcedony ... 35, 36, 91, 92, 93 carbonate ... ... 34 Chibia native 33,34 bracteata ... ... 14 ochre ... 33 Chloride of Calcium ... 36, 91 sulphide Bithynella sinisoniana ... 33, 34 Chloride of Magnesium 36, 91 ... 37 Chloride of Sodium ... Chlorite 36,91 ... 33 Eulimus Chloritis atoviatus ... 26 brevipila ... 105 Buprestidai ... 45 Cicadse ... 107 Cicadidaj ... 107 Clay 35, 36, 91, 92 Cacomantis Clupea Jlabelliformis ... 17 novw-hollandiw 25,26 insiieratus IG, 17 richmondia... ... 26 'pallidus ... 17 sprattellides 24,25 Calcite 34, 92, 93, 111 vittata ... 26 Calcium Corixa ... ... 43 carbonate ... Ill Corophiidae ... 1 chloi-ide 36,91 Crex sulphate 36,91 crex ... ... 82 PAGE PAGE Crius 82 Geonemertes berthelotii ... 70 australiensis 101 Cylichna 105 Glossopteris 47 Cyria Gold 34 imperialis . . . 45 Gossan ... 33 tridens 46 Graculns Cystopelta s^dcirostris ... 38 petterdi ... 102, 104 Granite Graucalus 34,35 Dacelo tenuirostris . . . 13 gigas 87 hyperleucus... 14 Dapanoptera . . . ... 108, 109 Gymnodactylus 2}leni])ennis ... ... 108 coniutus 7,8 richmondiana ... 108, 109 intei-medius... 10 Dasyurus miliusii 8 macidatus ... 77, 78, 80, 110 platurus ... 7, 8, 9, 10 Dendrolagus sphyrurus 6 bennetHanus 85 spinigerus ... ]1 dorianus 85, 87 strophurus ... 11 lumholtzi 87 Halobates Dendrotrochus ... 90 regalis 44, 45 Dermestes 98 wliiteleggei ... 44,45 Dii^lomorpha ... 29 w tiller storfi 44 Diplonychus Helicarion eques 44 verreauxi . . . 104 rusticus 44 Heliolites Herodias 76 Echidnophaga egretta 37 ambulans 81,110 syrmatophorus 37 Edoliisoma Himantopus tenuirostre... 11,13 leucocephalus 38 Endodonta Hippobosca cemula 103 australis 79 albanensis ... 104 viridipes 79 antialba 103 Hippoboscidse ... 79 funerea 104 Hoplocephalus nivea 102 suboccipitalis 23 paradoxa 105 Hornblende 34 parvissima ... 104 Hydrochloric acid 112 subantialba 108 Hydro metra tamarensis ... 104 australis 42, 44 tastnaniw ... 104 cursitans 44 Enhydros 35, 36, 91, 92, 93 Hydrometridse ... 42,44 Erismatura Hyperlophus 26 australis 37 Hypoderidse 78 Falco melanogenys 12 Icichthys 67 Felspar 34 bertheloti ... 67 Ferrovis sulphate 33 lockingtoni ... ... 66, 67, 69 Flammulina maculatus ... 67 excelsior 103 Icosteus 67,68 cornea 103 enigmatiais... ... 66,68,72 Fenestella 76 Iron oxide 33,35 pyrites 33 Galena 33 sulphate ... ... 111,112 Gastropliilus Ixodes equi ... 79 hydrosauri ... 77 PAGE PAGE Jarosite ... 112 Opal Ornithomyia ... Ill Lamprococcyx australasiw... ... 80 plagosus ... 17 batchiana ... ... 80 basalis ... 17 niqricornis ... ... 80 Leto stipituri ... 80 stacyi ... 91 tasmaniensis ... 80 Libnotes ... 108 Ornithoptera ... 108 Limnobates Orthonyx strigosa ... 43 spinicaudus... ... 15 Limnobatidse ... 43 Oscinidee ... 79 Limnobia ... 108 Liparvis Palin urus angasianus ... 29,30 Huegeli ... 107 haconi 29, 30 Panda brazieri ... 29 atomata ... ... 29, 31, 105 dux ... ... 29 var. azonata ... 29,31 injiatus ... 29 „ elongata ... 29,31 var. bulla ... 29 „ Jcershawi ... 29,31 „ castaneus ... 29,30 larreyi 29, 31 „ melo ... 29 Pandanus ,, phy nodes ... ... 29 aquaticus ... ... 17 ,, rhodostoma ... 29 Papuina ... 90 Icingi ... 29 Partula ... 29 var trilineatus ... 29 Pediculidas ... 81 mastersi 29, 30 Pediculus onslowi ... 29 capitis ... 81 tasmanicus ... 29,30 vestimenti ... Pedinogyra ... 81 Magnesium cunninghami 29,30 chloride 36,91 var. coinpressa... ... 29 sulj^hate 36,91 „ minor ... 29 Magnetite ... 34 „ niilhlfeldtiana ... 29 Malurus Penseus cyaneus ... 16 macleayi ... 25 Manucodia Percis cotnrii ... 32 colias ... 64 Marble ... ... Ill Petrceca Melophagus leggii ... 89 ovinus ... 80 Philopterus Meiolania variabilis ... ... 81 owenii 39, 40, 41 bacillus ... 81 Menura Pholas superba ... 16 antipodum ... ... 56 Mica ... 34 beccarii ... 56 Molybdenite 33, 34, 35 dactylus ... 57 Molybdenum manilensis ... ... 56 ochre ... 35 obturamentum 55,56 parvus 55,56 Naucoris 44,45 similis 55,56 Nepa Phreatoicus tristis ... 43 australis ... 101 Nepida3 ... 43 Phthirius Nycteribidse ... 80 iriguir^alis ... ... 81 Placostylus ... 29 Olfersia Platalea macleayi ... 80 melanorhyncha ... 38 Platycercus PAGE Sodium PAGE occidentalis . . . 83, 84 chloride 36,91 zonarius 84 sulphate 36,91 Plotus Spatula novce-hollandice 21 variegata ... ... 37 Podocerinae 1 rhynchotis ... ... 37 Polytelis Spirifer alexandrw . . . 11, 19 striato-paradoxus ... ... 76 Pseudo-crystals 91 Stenopora ... 48 Pseudomorphs ... 91 Stephanocircus Pteraclis dasyuri 80,110 velifer 65 Sterna Ptilotis media ... 20 frenata 11, 15 Strix chrysops 16 Candida ... 13 Pugnus Strophalosia ... 75 parvus 106 Sulphate of Calcium ... 36,91 Pulicidse 80,110 Sulphate of Iron 111,112 Pulex Sulphate of Magnesium 36,91 canis 80 Sulphate of Sodium ... 36,91 ecliidncB 80 Sulphide of Bismuth ... 33,34 felis 80 irritans 80 Tatea Pyrites ... 112 rufilabris ... 37 Tetragonurus ... ... 64 Quartz ...33,34,35, 36, 91, 92, 93 Tinstone 33, 35 Quartz-pseudomorphs 92 Tipulidae ... 109 Eana Kanatra filiformis ... 108 43 Tornatina Trichodestes equi latus ... ... ... 105 ... 81 ... 81 Rhenea splendula . . . Ehipidura 105 scalaris sphccroccphala subrostratus ... 81 ... 81 ... 81 albiscapa Ehombosolea 16, 17 Trochomorpha helicinoides... ... 90 mono2ms Eingicula Eock-crystal 64 ... 105,106 33, 35 Turnix melanotus ... velox... ... ... 11, 20 ... 20 Eutile 33 pyrrhothorax ... 20 Salt 112 Typhlopida3 ... 57 , 58, 59, 62 Sandstone 35,111 Typhlops Sarcoptida3 78 curtus 23, 57, 58 Schedophilopsis ligatus 58, 61 spinosus 73 rilppelli 59, 60 Schedophilus nigrescens ... 59, 60, 61 bertheloti ... 70 preissi ... 60 botteri 70 proxinnus 60, 61, 62 enigmaticus... 72 regince ... 61 lockingtoni ... 66,69 Varanus ... 92 maculatus ... 65, 68 Water-stones 35,91 marmoratus 68 Wolfram ... 33 medusophagus ... 68, 71, 72 Silica 36,91,92,93 Zosterops Silicic Acid ... see silica coirulesccns ... 98, 99, 100 Sittella ramsayi ... 100 chryso2>tera... 14 tcphroplcura ... 100 Sivella 90 westerncnsis 98, 99, 100 ^ 3j^/ records AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II., No. 1. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES Curator. "^ SYDNEY, APRIL, 1892. F. W. WHITE, PKINTEB, MARKET STREET WEST PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. APEIL, 1892. I.— CATALOGUES. 1. Catalogue of the Specimens of Natural History and Miscellaneous Curiosities IN the Australian Museum, by Gr. Bennett. 1837. 8vo. pp. 71. (Out of print.) 2. Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. . 1864. 12mo. pp. 133. (Ovit of print.) 3. Catalogue of the Minerals and Eocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1873. 8vo. pp. xvii.-115. (Out of print.) 4. Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Eamsay. Part I. Accipitres. 1876. 8vo. pp. Tiii.-64. Boards, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. Part II. Striges. 1890. 8vo. pp. 35. Wrapper, Is. 6d. Part III. Psittaci. 1891. 8vo. pp. viii.-llO. Wrapper, 5s. 5. Catalogue of the Australian Stalk and Sessile-eyed Crustacea, by W. A. Haswell. ' 1882. 8vo. pp. xxiv.-324, with 4 plates. (Scarce) Wrapper, 21s. C. Catalogue of the Library of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. 178. Wrapper, Is. 6d., with two supplements. (Out of print.) 7. Catalogue of a Collection of Fossils in the Australian Museum, with Introduc- tory Notes, by F. Eatte. 1883. 8vo. pp. xxviii.-160. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 8. Catalogue op the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes, by W. M. Bale. 1884. 8vo pp. 198, with 19 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. 9. Descriptive Catalogue of the General Collection of Minerals in the Australian Museum, by F. Eatte. 1885. 8vo. pp. 221, with a plate. Boards, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 10. Catalogue of Echinodermata in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Eamsay. Part I. Echini. 1885. 8vo. pp. iii. ii.-54, with 5 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 2nd Edit., 1890. 11. Descriptive Catalogue of the Medusa of the Australian Seas. Part I. Scypho- medusa3. Part II. Hydromedusse, by E. von Lendenfeld. 1887. 8vo. pp. 32 and 49. (Withdrawn from sale.) 12. Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, by A. J. North. 1889. 8vo. pp. iv. V.-407, with 21 plates. Wrapper, 12s. 6d. Coloured plates, ^62 5s. 13. Descriptive Catalogue of the Sponges in the Australian Museum, by E. von Lendenfeld, 1888. 8vo. pp. xiv.-260, with 12 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, 10s. 6cl. 14. Catalogue of the Fishes in the Australian Museum. Part I. Palseichthyan Fishes, by J. Douglas Ogilby. 1888. 8vo. pp. 34. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. ; boards, 3s. 6d. 15. Catalogue of the Marine Shells of Australia and Tasmania, by J. Brazier. Part I. Cephalopoda, 1892. 8vo. pp. 18. Paper, 2s. 6d. Part II. Pteropoda, 1892. 8vo. pp. . Paper, 2s. 6d. : II.— MONOGRAPHS. 1. Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations, by the late A. W. Scott, wijth Illustrations by his daughters, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Forde. Edited and revised by A. S. Olliff and Mrs. Forde. Vol. II., Parts 1 & 2. Wrappers, 15s. each. III.— MEMOIRS. 1. History and Description of the Skeleton op a new Sperm Whale in tab Australian Museum, by W. S. Wall. 1851. 8vo. pp. 66, with plates. Eeprint 1887. Wrappers, 2s. 6d. 2. Lord Howe Island, its Zoology, Geology, and Physical Charactbes. 1889. Svo. pp. Tiii.-132 with 10 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, 10s. 6d lUN lo 1892 TUBICOLOUS AMPHIPOD — CHILTON. On a TUBICOLOUS AMPHIPOD from PORT JACKSON. By Chas. Chilton, M.A., B.Sc. [With Plate I.] Among some Australian Crustacea sent me as exchanges by the Trustees of the Australian Museum was a tube-dwelling Amphipod collected in Port Jackson. There was a plentiful supply both of specimens and of the tubes formed by them and after a full examination and comparison of them with Mr. Stebbing's des- cription and figures I have no doubt that they belong to Cerapus Jiindersi, Stebbing,* a species described from a single female specimen taken in Flinder's Passage during the voyage of the "Challenger." Mr. Stebbing says nothing of the tube in his descrip- tion, and I presume therefore, that he has not seen it. I am now able to supplement his description in this respect and also to describe the male of the species, and to give the points in which it differs from the female, and also some interesting facts on the changes in form that occur during the growth of the male. The genus Cerapus was originally established in 1817 by Say, and the species Cerapus hihularis was afterwards fully redescribed in 1880 by S. I. Smith who established for it a new sub-family CerajnncB in the family Corophiidce.j He thus describes the new sub-family : — " The single known genus differs from the Podocerince and allied groups in the following characters. There are only three pairs of branchial lamellfe, which are borne on the third, fourth and fifth segments of the perseon, and only three pairs of ovigerous lamellae, which are borne on the second, third, and fourth segments. The second and third pleopods are much smaller than the first, and their inner lamellfe are rudimentary or very small. The second and third uropods are uniramous and nearly alike, the distal extremity in each being short and terminating in a hooked joint. " The only known species inhabits unattached, portable tubes, and, as in many allied genera, has large cement glands in the bases of the first and second perjeopods." The above quotation has been taken from Stebbing's " Report on the " Challenger " Amphipoda," as I am unable to consult Professor Smith's original paper. I am therefore unable, also, to compare the present species in detail with Cerapus iubularis, Say. The " cement glands " in the first and second pereiopods have been * Report on the "Challenger " Amphipoda, p. 1163, plate cxxv. t See Stebbing's Eeport of the " Challenger " Amphipoda, p. 522. 2 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. very fully investigated by Nebeski,* but for this reference again I am indebted to Stebbing's report. In addition to our present species Stebbing has described another new species Ce7-apus sismithi, taken during the Challenger Expe- dition at Kerguelen Island, f In the following detailed description of the various parts of the animal I have omitted all those parts where I had nothing to add to Mr. Stebbing's description. Head and body. — The head is produced anteriorly into a sub- acute rostrum between the bases of the antennte, much in the same way as is shown in Mr. Stebbing's figure of Cerajius sismithi, but in none of my specimens have I noticed the rostrum to be " carinate " as it is drawn and described by Mr. Stebbing in C. Jlindersi. (See figures A and B.) The relative lengths of the various segments of the pereion of the female agree well with Stebbing's description, but in the male they are quite different. In this (see fig. B.) the first segment is about as long as the head, the second is slightly longer, anteriorly it is slightly narrower than the first segment, but about the middle it suddenly widens to twice this width thus giving attachment to the large and powerful second gnathopoda ; the third segment is considerably shorter than the second and is also narrower anter- iorly but it widens posteriorly ; the fourth is shorter again than the third, as wide anteriorly, but narrowing posteriorly ; the fifth segment which is so long in the female, is only a little longer than the fourth and not so long as the third ; the sixth is subequal to the fifth in length and breadth; the seventh is as broad but shorter. Upper Antennm — These agree on the whole with Stebbing's description, but the first joint of the peduncle is not " much longer than the second joint "; it is usually about the same length and in large specimens may even be somewhat shorter. The flagellum may contain as many as seven joints, usually there are more than four, the number given in Stebbing's description. (See fig. a. s.) Lower Ante7ince. — These also differ in a few details. The fourth joint is not " dilated at the base," nor " abruptly broader than the preceding joint " in any of the specimens that I have examined, indeed the fourth joint is usually narrowed a little at the base and it articulates with only a portion of the end of the third joint so that the articulation is not very strong and the fourth joint is very freely movable upon the third. (See fig. a. i.) * " Beitriii^e zur Kentniss der Amphipoden der Adria " — Arb. Zool. Inst. Wieri. Bd. III. (See Stebbing's Keport on the "Challenger" Amphipoda, p. 518.) t Eeport on the "Challenger" Amphipoda, p. 1158, PI. cxxiv. TUBICOLOUS AMPHIPOD — CHILTON. 6 In large sized males the lower antennse are stouter and more pediform than in younger specimens, and the long setse are by no means so conspicuous. The mouth parts appear to correspond closely with Stebbing's description, but I have not examined them in great detail. The first gnathopoda are the same in both sexes and agree with Stebbing's description as closely as can be expected when allowance is made for individual variation. The second gnathopoda differ very much in the two sexes. In the female they do not differ very greatly from the first gnathopoda and agree very closely with the description already given by Mr. Stebbing. I give a drawing for the sake of comparison with the second gnathopoda of the male, (see fig. gn. 2 ? ). In the male the second gnathopoda differ considerably from those of the female and also differ very much at difterent stages in the development of the same individual. The form most commonly met with is that shown in fig. gn. 2 ^ B, which represents the second gnathopod of a moderate sized male; it will be convenient to describe this first. The first free joint, the hasos, is narrow at the base where it articulates with the moderate sized side-plate but rapidly widens until at the widest part it is more than half as broad as long ; the anterior edge is straight except near the base and is fringed with about ten spinules, the posterior margin is strongly convex and bears two or three setas at the apex ; the ischios and the meros are of the usual shape and not unlike those of the female ; the meros has the distal extremity produced, rounded and tipped with a few setpe ; the carpus is very large and broad, its anterior mar- gin very convex especially towards the base, a small group of sette* at its distal extremity, the posterior margin is indistinctly serrate and bears five groups of long setse in the serrations, other shorter setfe are situated between the serrations and a few on the surface of the joint ; the postero-distal corner is pi'oduced acutely and reaches about half way along the inner mar-gin of the propodos, and between this corner and the inner articulation of the propodos is a short rounded lobe reaching only about half as far. The propodos is considerably shorter than the carpus, rather more than twice as long as broad, the anterior margin curved and bearing about six spinules, that at the apex the longest ; the posterior margin with the basal half smooth, but the distal half minutely serrate or more strictly speaking crenate, the whole margin fringed with abundant long setse, a few others being situated along the surface of the joint ; the dactylos is like that of the female and has the inner margin denticulate towards the distal end, but the inner margin of the terminal tooth again is smooth. * These serrations are not shown very distinctly in the plate. 4 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALLA.N MTTSEUM. In one large and evidently old male, about J inch in length, the second gnathopod was much elongated and at first sight ap- peared very different. A close comparison shows however that it is simply a more developed form of the gnathopod just described, and that the two are not dimorphic forms. The whole limb is much elongated and the set?e are fewer and much smaller in pro- portion ; this loss of setpe was also noticeable in the antennte and I have noticed examples in several other species which seem to show that it is a change that very generally accompanies age and increase of growth. The side-plates (epimera), (see fig. got. 2 ^ A) are small and are produced anteriorly into a moderately acute process which bears two or three seta? ; the basos is of the same general shape as that found in the younger male but is much narrower, the ischios and meros are also similar but more elongated and the setse at the end of the meros are very few and small ; the carpus is immensely elongated and consequently much narrower in propor- tion, it is narrow towards the base and widens again distally, the anterior margin is quite free from setaj except one or two very small ones at the apex, the posterior margin is straight with five distinct serrations, in each of which are two or three short setaj ; the extremity is produced into two long processes about half as long as the propodos, the process formed of the postero-distal corner having the sides parallel and the end truncate, the other, corres- ponding to the small rounded lobe in the younger male, with the outer margin straight, inner margin slightly concave, extremity rounded, quite free from set;e ; the propodos is very long and narrow, the breadth not more than one-fifth the total length, the whole joint is much curved inwards, the inner margin being very concave and fringed with a row of scattered setaj ; the finger is stouter and blunter than in the younger male and has the inner margin smooth. The propodos is not movable quite in the same plane as that of the carpus, but bends back on one side of it so as to lie obliquely along its surface. I have seen only one very large male with the second gnathopoda like that shown in fig. gn. 2 ^ A. Most of them were more like the one represented in fig. gn. 2 ^ B, but in some the two pro- cesses at the end of the carpus were a little more developed, in others a little less developed than those shown in this figure. Forms younger still than that represented in fig. gn. 2 ^ B would no doubt approximate more closely to the female in the form of second gnathopoda. Tlie first pereiopoda agree closely with the description given by Stebbing, but I have not observed the " long transverse slit " across the surface of the basos that he mentions. The second pereiopoda also closely resemble Stebbing's descrip- tion. In both this and the preceding pair the side plates are TUBICOLUS AMPHIPOD — CHILTON. 5 produced antei'iorly into a small rounded lobe tipped with setae, that of the first pair being considerably larger than that of the second. The third pereiopoda have the side plates very large, delicate and membranaceous. Those of the female are very much larger than those of the male, a fact which tends to confirm Mr. Stebbing's supposition that they fulfil the function of marsupial plates. The side plates extend along the whole segment forming a small lobe in the rear and are of about uniform depth, the two lower corners being broadly rounded, the lower margin being usually slightly concave in the middle. The margin is somewhat uneven, entire or irregularly crenate, and is irregularly fringed with setaj. The rest of the limb is attached to the side plate at the rear and usually projects directly backwards. The relative sizes of the side plates as compared with the rest of the limb in the two sexes can be seen by comparing figures prp. S ^ and p7-p. 3 ? . The other joints of the limb are practically identical in the two sexes and agree closely with Stebbing's description. The fourth ^jereiopoda have the branchial vesicles very small, narrow and bent at the base. The whole limb is much as described by Stebbing, but is usually provided with fewer seta? ; the lower margin of the side plates is thickly fringed with cilia in the male, but these are very delicate and I have failed to find them in some other specimens. The fifth pereiopoda and the pleopoda agree with Stebbing's description and do not call for special remark. The uropoda which are represented in the figure as seen from above, agree with Stebbing's description, the third pair however being very much broader in proportion to the length than the second pair. (See fig, ur. 1 &c.) The telson when seen from above proves to be bi-lobed as in Cerapus sismithi, the dividing cleft extending about half way towards the base, each lobe rounded and bearing on the surface two rows of sharp upturned teeth. Locality. — Port Jackson, New South Wales. Remarks. — The whole integument of the hinder portion of the body with the appendages is very thin and delicate, membranace- ous. The animal rests in the tube with the head and first segment of the pereion and usually the ends of the second gnathopoda pro- jecting out at the end (see fig. A) and the pleon is bent back upon the body as shown in figure B. Doubtless the sharp teeth, setae, and serrations on the uropoda and the telson enable the animal to fix this portion of the body to the inner surface of the tube, 6 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. and by extending the body and again bringing up the pleon to its reflexed position to push its way along the tube.* The tube (see fig. A) is cylindrical, of the same diameter throughout except at each end where it is somewhat widened ; the two ends are quite similar and appear to be equally and indiffer- ently used by the animal. The tube is quite free and unattached and is no doubt carried about by the animal when it moves. The material of which it is made is fairly tough, the surface is smooth and the whole appears to l)e formed from the secretion produced by the glands in the first and second pereiopoda, no sand grains being used as in Cerajnis sisniithi. The tubes that I have seen are all of the same shape, but they very much in size, the largest being about -46 inches long and -03 inches in diameter, others being of only half these dimensions. Many of the tubes and especially of the smaller ones were empty and I presume that when the animal has grown too large for its tube it leaves it and secretes another and larger one. From the description which has now been given of the male of this species it appears that C . jiindersi is not very different from C. sismithi described by Stebbing from Kerguelen Island ; it diff'ers from that species however in the antennae, to some extent in the second gnathopoda and also in the armature of the uropoda. DESCRIPTIONS OF THREE NEW AUSTRALIAN LIZARDS. By J. Douglas Ogilby. L Gymnodactylus sphyrurus, sp. nov. Head rather large ; a strong transverse ridge crosses the occiput immediately behind the eyes, ending on either side in a blunt point placed at the postero-superior angle of the orbit ; from this runs forward an inwardly curved, elevated, supraciliary ridge which is continued on the snout by a conversely curved angular canthus rostralis ; these ridges form the margin on the forehead of an oval, and between the orbits of a subtriangular, depression; loreal region concave ; the length of the snout is one and two-fifths * Some very interesting remarks on Cerapus abditus were given many years ago by Templeton, see Stebbing's " Report on the ' Challenger ' Amphipoda," p. 168. THREE NEW AUSTRALIAN LIZARDS — OGILBY. 7 of the diameter of the eye, and the distance between the eye and the ear-opening is equal to that between the eye and a point midway between the nostril and the tip of the snout. Interorbital space broad, broader in comparison than in G. pla- turus or G. cornutus. Ear-opening a narrow vertical slit, about one third of the diameter of the eye. Body short and rather compressed, barely two and a third times the length of the head. Limbs long ; digits rather short and thick, subcylindrical at the base, and but little compressed on the distal phalanges. Head covered with small granules intermixed with rounded tubercles, which are largest near the end of the snout ; outer margin of the upper eyelid with two strong ridges upon which small tubercles predominate ; two slight longitudinal folds on the sides of the neck and a vertical fold in front of the forelimb, all of which are more thickly studded with tubercles than are the surrounding parts ; rostral hexagonal twice as broad as high, without any indication of median groove above ; nostril directed posteriorly, bordered in front by a large nasal, wliich is larger than the first upper labial, and separated from the latter by a series of small granules ; labials small, thirteen or fourteen upper and eleven lower ; mental trapezoidal, bordered posteriorly by five small granules ; body above covered by minute granules, intermixed with rounded and conical tubercles ; limbs similarly protected, but with the granules larger and the tubercles smaller ; below with flat subimbricate granules ; no latei'al fold. Tail short, broad, and thick, depressed, malleiform, not contracted at the base, from which the enlarged portion expands at right angles ; the expanded portion is formed of six broad transverse ridges, and is quadrilateral ; its length is three-fourths of its breadth, which is one-sixth more than that of the body at its broadest part ; it ends almost as abruptly as it commences, and terminates in an attenu- ated point, which rises from the postero-inferior margin of the swollen portion, and is barely four-sevenths of its length ; the tail is covered above by minute granules anteriorly and much larger flattened subimbricate granules posteriorly ; on the former portion there are four regular transverse series of strong conical tubercles, on the latter a single series on each side near the margin; sides with an upper series of very strong conical tubercles, and a lower series of weaker ones ; below with subimbricate granules ; attenuated portion covered with small rounded granules. Colors. — Head and neck above brown with darker and lighter marbling and most of the tubercles yellow; the sides pale yellowish- brown with irregular blackish bands, which are vertical on the former and horizontal on the latter ; back brown with narrow yellowish transverse bands, mainly caused by the prevalence of that color on the tubercles ; sides and limbs light brown streaked and marbled with darker brown ; under surface dirty yellowish- 89 millim, 18 13 42 24 30 29 8 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. brown ; tail above dark brown, the expanded portion with two broad light colored cross-bands ; the anterior near its commence- ment, the posterior marking its termination ; below dark brown densely spotted with yellow ; the attenuated portion with two annular yellow rings. Dimensions. Total length Length of head ... Width of head ... Length of body ... Length of fore limb Length of hind limb Length of tail Habitat. — Interior of New South Wales (Tumut?). Tyye. — In the Australian Museum, Sydney. The unique example described above forms one of a small col- lection lately forwarded to the Museum. The bottle which con- tained it is labelled " Tumut," but as the remaining bottles are unlabelled, and no information as to the sender is procurable, some doubt as to the true locality necessarily remains. This species differs greatly from the other broad-tailed forms of Gymnodactylus, but is more closely allied to G. miliusii, than to platui'us or cornntus. 2. Gymnodactylus cornutus, sp. nov. Head large, the snout depressed, the occiput raised above the level of the eye and forming with the snout a moderately convex surface the apical point of which is on a line with the posterior margin of the orbit ; the length of the snout is one and three- fourths of the diameter of the eye ; the distance between the eye and the nostril is greater than that between the eye and the ear- opening. Forehead and loreal region slightly concave ; supra- ciliary region so much enlarged and elevated as to leave only a deep narrow fossa between the orbits. Ear-opening elongate- pyriform, vertical, five-eighths of the diameter of the eye. Body moderately elongate and attenuated, more than three and a half times the length of the head. Limbs long ; digits strong, sub- cylindrical at the base, the distal portion strongly compressed and elevated ; claws very strong. Head covered with small granules intermixed with conical or rounded tubercles ; granules of the upper eyelid rather larger than those of the head, the tubercles numerous and rounded ; a strong spinate knob, surmounted by a conical tubercle behind the eye ; ear-opening protected in front and above by a tuberculated ridge ; rostral subquadrangular, three times as broad as high, almost completely divided by a shallow median groove ; nostril directed posteriorly, in contact THREE NEW AUSTRALIAN LIZARDS — OGILBY. 9 with the rostral and first labial ; labials small, fifteen upper and thirteen lower ; mental trapezoidal, bordered posteriorly by five enlarged granules. An arcuate row of six strong conical tubercles, each of which is encircled by smaller tubercles, on the nuchal region ; body and limbs above covered with small granules, inter- mixed with rounded, conical, and spinose tubercles; below with flat granules; the two separated by a very distinct flap, the outer margin of which is ornamented with a series of triangular dermal appendages, each of which is provided with a similar smaller appendage in front and behind. Tail of moderate length, depressed, broad, leaf-like, strongly contracted at the base, and attenuated at the tip, covered above by minute granular scales, intermixed, except on a vertebral patch of the leaf-like expansion, with soft triangular appendages. Colors.' — Chestnut- or blackish-brown above, with five large angular whitish spots, undulated or marbled with brown, the first and smallest on the nuchal region, the fifth between the hind limbs ; a whitish band from behind the eye to the ear-opening, and another along the side of the neck immediately in front of the fore limb ; labials white, marbled with dark brown ; limbs above with indications of lighter cross-bars ; tail with three broad whitish transverse bands above ; below white, uniform or minutely spotted with brown. Dimensions. Total length 210 millim Length of head ... 37 Width of head 31 Length of body ... 90 Length of fore limb 66 Length of hind limb 72 Length of tail 83 Habitat. — Bellenden-Ker Ranges, North-eastern Queensland. Type, — In the Australian Museum, Sydney. The first examples of this fine Gecko which came under niy notice formed part of a collection obtained by Messrs. Cairn and Grant during the autumn of 1889 in the locality indicated above; these were determined, on a cursory examination, as " Gymno- dactylus platti7'us, northern form " (vide Rec. Austr. Mus. i. p. 30). A fine example since forwarded, with other material, to the Museum by Mr. Day, coupled with the fact that at the time of its arrival I was engaged on a revision of the Australian Geckos, induced me to pay more attention to this form, with the result that I find it to be very distinct from G. platurus, its nearest ally, with which it has evidently been confounded, and which also ranges at least as far northwards as the Bellenden-Ker one of the 10 RECORDS OP THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. specimens collected by Messrs. Cairn and Grant being specifically inseparable from the southern Leaf -tailed Gecko. Five out of the six specimens available for examination had reproduced tails, that of the remaining example being as described above; whether this lepidosis is normal or abnormal is, under the circumstances, rather a difficult question to decide, but the fact that I have before me an example of Gymnodactylus platurus which though fully adult and with a longer and more attenuated tail than prevails in the ordinary run of specimens, has this ver- tebral patch as fully developed as in the specimen described ; it seems, therefore, probable that this locally unarmed patch may or may not be present in individuals of the same species, since other undoubted specimens of G. platurus show little or no sign of it. 3. DiPLODACTYLUS INTEEMEDIUS, Sp. nOV. Head oviform, convex ; snout rounded, much longer than the distance between the eye and the ear-opening, from once and three- fourths to twice the diameter of the orbit; eye large ; ear-opening of moderate size, round Body and limbs rather strong. Digits depressed, with large transverse lamellae inferiorly, seven or eight under the fourth toe, the two or three anterior subcordiform, the middle two transversely oblong, and the basal ones divided into two subcircular plates ; the plates under the apex of the digits large, together cordiform. Upper surfaces coverd with moderate- sized, juxtaposed, round or oval granules, distinctly smaller on the nuchal region intermixed on the back with large conical tubercles, forming two regular longitudinal series, which extend a short distance along the tail. Rostral subquadrangular, com- pletely divided mesially ; nostril pierced between the rosti'al, first labial, and three nasals, the anterior of which is much the larger, and is separated from its fellow by a transverse oval granule, which is rarely split in two ; eleven to thirteen upper and ten to twelve lower labials ; mental small, triangular or trapezoidal, not or but little larger than the adjacent labials ; no regular chin-shislds. Lower surfaces covered with small juxtaposed granules largest on the chin, smallest on the throat. Males with a curved series of preanal pores, five or six on each side, interrupted in the middle, and with from two to four large granules on each side of the base of the tail. Tail short, sub- cylindrical, covered with small granules ; seventeen more or less regular transverse bands of strong tubercles, the anterior band connecting the terminal points of the dorsal and basi-caudal longitudinal series. Colors. — -Upper surfaces bluish-gray, with irregular lines and patches of black scales ; all the tubercles yellow ; lower surfaces gray, closely dotted with black or brown, each dot representing a cranule. ENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTR. BIEDS— - NORTH Dimensions. Total len,i?th . 100 milliui. Length of head ... 16 Width of head ... 11-5 Body 47 Fofe limb... 22-5 Hind limb 27 Tail 37 11 Habitat. — Interior of New South Wales. The species here described belongs to the tuberculated section of the genus, but differs in several constant characters from each of the three described forms belonging to that section ; from ciliaris it is manifestly different in the absence of spinous tubercles on the supraciliary region, wXiiXq ivoxn. strophiirus \t is equally well distinguished by the presence of tubercles on the tail ; its nearest ally, therefore, is spinigerus, whose place it would appear to take in the interior of this Colony ; from that specie.s, however, it differs in tlie following, among other, characters : — ^The snout is very much longer; the dorsal tubercles form two regular longitudinal series ; there are eleven to thirteen upper and ten to twelve lower labials only ; and the tail is armed with transverse rows of strong tubercles ; while in spinigerus the snout is only a little longer than the diameter of the orbit, the tubercles are irregularly scat- tered over the dorsal surface, there are thirteen to fifteen upper, and as many lower labials, and the caudal tubercles are arranged in a single longitudinal series on each side of the tail and are black. SUPPLEMENT to the DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE of "NESTS AND EGGS op BIRDS FOUND BREEDING m AUSTRALIA and TASMANIA." [Part IL, April 1892.] By A. J. North, F.L.S. Since the issue of Part I. the following new nests and eggs have been obtained and are herein described •.—Edoliisoma temiirostre, Turnix inelanotus, Ptilutis frenata, and Pohjtelis alexandroi. Descriptions of nests and eggs also appear that are not given in the Catalogue, as well as additional information on the nidifica- tion of other species. I here express my indebtedness to the col- 12 KECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. lectors or correspondents from whom the specimens were obtained and whose names will be found prefixed to each description. Falco melanogenys, Gould. Black-cheeked Falcon. Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 8, p. 26. Regarding the additional information on the breeding habits of Falco melanogenys, the most courageous of all our Raptorial birds, I am indebted to Dr. L. Holden, of Circular Head, and Mr. E. D. Atkinson, of Table Cape, North-west Tasmania. From the former gentleman's notes kindly sent me I have extracted the following : — "On the 10th of September, 1887, Mr. E. D. Atkinson, took two fresh eggs of this species on a ledge of cliffs between Sister's Hill and Boat Harbour." "On the 4th of October, 1888, I found a nesting place of the Black-cheeked Falcon on the cliffs that bound Sister's Beach on the South-east, it was the same place that Mr. Atkinson obtained his nest on the 10th of September, 1887. The eggs were three in number and hard set, but could be blown, and laid on the rock without any nest, the ledge being but some ten or twelve feet from the base of the cliff, and was quite easily reached by a zigzag approach scarcely to be called a climb, the projecting rocks forming an easy stairway." Dr. Holden visited the same place on the 26th of September, 1889, but there were no eggs. On the 30th of September, 1891, he writes as follows : — " I took a clutch of Falcon's eggs last Saturday, the 26th inst., from the same spot to an inch which I robbed in 1888. It is not bare rock where the eggs were found, there is a covering of grit and detritus. In more frequented spots these birds take care to breed in as inaccessible places as possible, and although in Tasmania the Black-cheeked Falcons are numerous, their eggs are usually unattainable." The above set of eggs are typical eggs of this species, they are in form rounded ovals, the isabelline ground colour of which is almost obscured by minute freckles, dots, spots, and irregular shaped blotches of deep reddish-brown ; in one instance these markings are evenly dispersed over the surface of the shell, in the others they become confluent, forming a cap on the larger end in one specimen, and on the smaller end in another. Length (A) 2-12 X 1-65 inch ; (B) 247 x 1-65 inch ; (C) 2-18 x 1-67 inch. This bird usually breeds on the rocky cliffs of the coast in the vicinity of which it is more frequently found, but the late Mr. Kenric Harold Bennett obtained the eggs of this Falcon for several seasons on Mt. Manara, an isolated rocky prominence rising out of a plain in the Western District of New South Wales. In favourable situations, with the exception of the Northern and North-eastern portions of the Continent, this species is found all over Australia. SirPPIiEMENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTR. BIRDS NORTH. 13 Steix CANDIDA, Tickell. Grass Owl. Gould, Suppl. Bds. Austr., fol. edit., pi. i. Mr. J. A. Boyd, of the Herbert River, Queensland, has kindly sent the following notes relative to the nidification of this species : " This Owl nests on the ground, choosing a high thick tussock of grass, forming a bower in it, and laying its eggs on the few grass blades that have been trampled down. On the 1st of June, 1884, I found two nests of this bird, each of which contained three young ones and one egg. It is a curious fact that thougli this bird always lays four eggs, I never found more than three young ones, one egg being always addled. A friend of mine here has also had the same experience. It seems strange that the bird should lay an egg more than she is able to hatch. When first I came here these birds were comparatively common, but latterly have almost disappeared from this immediate neighbourhood, owing I think to the largely increased quantity of cattle running over the plain." The two eggs referred to by Mr. Boyd are more elongated than is the rule with most Owl's eggs, and may be described as thick ovals in form, white, the shell with the exception of a few calcareous excrescences at the larger end being perfectly smooth and lustreless. Length (A) 1-G9 x 1-27 inch ; (B) 1-73 x 1-26 inch. The range of this species extends over India, China, the Phillipine Islands, and the Northern and Eastern portions of Australia. Edoliisoma tenuirostre, Jardhie. Jardine's Campephaga. Graucalus te^iuirostris, Jard., Edinb. Journ. Nat. Sci. iv. p. 211. Cehlejjyris jardhiii, Riippell, Mus. Senckenb. iii. p. .30. Campephaga jardinii, Gould, Bds. Austr. fol. Yol. ii. pi. 60. Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 109, p. 200. *During the latter end of September, 1882, Mr. C. C. L. Talbot observed a pair of these birds building their nest in the angle of a thin forked horizontal Ijranch of an Ironbark {Eucalyptus sp.), about forty feet from the ground, on Collaroy Station, Bi-oad Sound, 556 miles N.W. of Brisbane. A week after, seeing the female sitting on the nest for some length of time, he climbed up to it and found it contained a perfectly fresh egg, which he took (not waiting for the full complement, which is probably two), as the tree was a difficult one to climb, at the same time securing the nest. It was a small and shallow structure composed of wiry grasses securely fastened together with cobwebs, and closely resembled the branch on which it was placed. The egg is ovoid in form, of a very pale bluish-grey ground colour, uniformly * North, Eec. Austr. Mus., Vol. i.. No. 8, July, 1891. 14 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. spotted and dotted with irregulai' shaped markings of different shades of umber and slaty-brown, underlying blotches of slaty- grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length 1"2 X 0"82 inch. In the colour and disposition of its markings, it resembles some varieties of the eggs of Sittella clirysoj)tera, and in shape and size that of the egg of Graucalus hyi^erleucus, but is entirely free from the asparagus-green ground colour which predominates in the eggs of the latter genus. This is the only occasion I have known of the nest and egg of this species having been taken. The Northern and Eastern portions of the Australian Continent constitutes the habitat of this species. Chibia bracteata, Gould. Spangled Drongo-Shrike. Gould, Handhh. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 132, p. 235. This migratory species is rather freely dispersed over the greater portions of Northern and Eastern Australia, it arrives at Cape York about the middle of April, and the Herbert River in May. Mr. C. C. L. Talbot found it breeding on Collaroy Station, near Broad Sound, Queensland, on the 10th of October, 1882. The nests in every instance were open and slightly cup-shaped structures, composed entirely of long stems of a climbing plant and fibrous roots, and were attached to the fine leafy twigs at the extremities of the branches of a dwarf white gum, at an altitude of twenty feet from the ground. The nests were placed in trees about fifty yards apart, and in the twelve nests examined each of them contained three eggs for a sitting ; in some the eggs were perfectly fresh, in others partly incubated, but none were found containing young ones. The eggs are oval in form, somewhat pointed at one end, and are of a very pale purplish- grey ground colour, with numerous scratches and irregular shaped markings of light reddish-purple, scattered over the entire surface of the shell, many of which are nearly obsolete. All the markings have a faded and washed out appearance, and the shell is dull and lustreless. A set measures, length (A) 1-2 x 0-83 inch ; (B) M8 X 0-83 inch ; (0) 1-23 x 0-85 inch. Batiiilda ruficauda, Gould. Red-tailed Finch. Goidd, Ilandbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 254, p. 412. This pretty little Finch, although by no means common, has a most extensive range of habitat, being found throughout Northern, Noitli-eastern and North-western Australia, it is also very sparingly dispersed over the Northern and Interior portions of New South Wales, but in the latter districts it is considered a rare species, being very seldom obtained ; a small flock was seen near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains last winter, one of which, an SUPPLEMENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OF A.USTR. BIRDS — NORTH. 15 adult male specimen, was procured. This species evinces a prefei'ence for the country lying between Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria, and Townsville on the North-eastern coast of Queensland, on the grassy plains of which they are occasionally captured and sent to the southern markets. Like all the members of the Ploceidce family it constructs a large dome shaped nest of dried grasses, which is usually placed in a low bush or tuft of long grass. The eggs are five in number for a sitting, true ovals in form and pure white ; two specimens received from Dr. Henry Sinclair last season measure (A) 0*6 x 0-47 inch ; (E) 0"6 x 0*45 inch. Ptilotis frenata, Ramsay. Bridled Honey-eater.' Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1874, p. 603. This species, oneof the latest additions to the known Melipliagicuf, is found in the thickly timbered coastal ranges lying between Cairns and Cardwell in North-eastern Queensland. A nest of this bird obtained by Mr. W. S. Day at Cairns on the 28th of November, 1891, and from which the parents were procured, was placed in a mass of creepers growing over a small shrub, at a height of about three feet from the ground ; it contained two eggs partially incubated. The nest in question is built of stronger materials than is generally used by members of this genus, and was likewise unattached by the rim ; the eggs too are unlike those of typical specimens of the Ptilotes, approaching nearer in colour and disposition of their markings those of some members of the Artamido'. The nest is cup-shaped, and outwardly composed of long pliant stems of a climbing plant and portions of the soft reddish-brown stems of a small fern ; inside it is neatly lined with a white wiry looking vegetable fibre, forming a strong contrast to the reddish-brown hue of the exterior ; it measures 4-25 inches in diameter by 2-6 inches in height, internal diameter 2"5 inches x 1-6 inch in height. The eggs are oval in form, tapering gently to the smaller end, and are white with minute dots and rounded markings of purplish-black and purplish-grey, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell, as usual the markings predoujinate on the thicker end where in places they become confiuent and form an irregular zone ; with the exception of these zones, the markings on one of the specimens are larger and more sparingly dispersed, in the other they are uniformly distributed over the greater portion of the surface of the shell. Length (A) 0-93 x 0-65 inch ; (B) 095 x 0-65 inch. Orthonyx spinicaudus, Temminck. Spine-tailed Orthonyx. Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 372, p. 607. The nest of the Spine-tailed Orthonyx is dome-shaped and large for the size of the bird, and resembles somewhat that of the Lyre- 16 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. bird, 2f. superba, but is much smaller and is usually placed between the buttresses of trees, or amongst the thick undergrowth in which this bird loves to dwell. A nest of this species now before me in the Group Collection of the Australian Museum, taken from the scrubs of the Richmond River in June 1890, (together with the parent birds and the eggs,) is domed in form, the base and sides of which are constructed of thick twigs about six inches in length, and the nest proper which has a lateral entrance, entirely of mosses, the whole structure with the exception of the opening being covered and well concealed with dead leaves ; it measures exteriorly from back to front of the base fourteen inches and a-half, width nine inches and a-half, height at the centre of the nest, seven inches, from front of the base to entrance of the nest proper, seven inches ; the interior of the nest which is rounded in form measures four inches in diameter. The eggs of this species are two in number for a sitting and are pure white and vary from an elongate oval to a compressed ellipse in form, the texture of the shell being fine and slightly glossy. Two sets measure as follows :— Length (A) M3 x 0-83 inch ; (B) M2 x 0-8 inch ; (0) 1-12 X 0-87 inch; (D) M6 x 0-86 inch. The coastal scrubs of New South Wales constitutes the principal habitat of tliis species. Cacomantis inspeeatus, Gould. Square-tailed Brush-Cuckoo. Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 380, p. 619. Dr. George Hurst of Sydney, has taken at Newington on the Parramatta River, during many years past, eggs of a Cuckoo referable to this species, and which were usually obtained from the nests of Rhipidura albiscapa; and I have also seen similar eggs from the collections of Mr. John Waterhouse and Mr. Leslie Oakes taken in the same locality. A few years ago Dr. Hurst found one of the same Cuckoo's eggs at Newington in the nest of Malurits cyaneus, and to which he drew attention in the Proceed- ings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, Vol. iii., 2nd Series, p. 421, 1888 ; attributing it to this species. Early in December 1891, Mr. S. Moore was successful in obtaining from a tree on the banks of the Cook's River a similar Cuckoo's egg from the nest of Ftilotis chrysojys, and on the 26th of the same month in company with Dr. Hurst, two more Cuckoo's eggs were obtained at Eastwood, both from the nests of Rhipidura albiscapa, and which also contained the usual complement of eggs laid by this bird for a sitting. All these Cuckoo's eggs were obtained within a radius of ten miles of Sydney, and it is a matter of regret, that the opportunity was not taken of placing tliem in nests convenient for observation and hatching the young birds out, as was done by Dr. Ramsay and his brothers at Dobroyde, with the eggs of C. SUPPLEMENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTR. BIRDS NORTH. 17 pallidus, C. Jlahelliformis, L. plagosus, and L. basalis, so as to conclusively determine to which species they belong ; but there can be no doubt Dr. Hurst was right in ascribing the eggs obtained by him and his friends to Cuculus insj^eratus, as it is the only other species of Cuckoo found near Sydney, the eggs of which we were until then unacquainted with. The eggs of this Cuckoo are not unlike large specimens of those of Bhijyidtora albiscajm, but the bluish-grey sub-surface markings predominate more than in those of the White-shafted Fantail ; they are a thick ovoid in form, of a creamy white ground colour, thickly spotted and blotched with yellowish-brown markings, intermingled with others of a dull bluish-grey, becoming larger on the thicker end of the egg, where they are confluent and form a well defined zone. Length (A) 0-72 X 0-5.3 inch ; (B) 0-7 x 0-58 inch ; (C) 0-7.3 x 0-58 inch ; (D) 0-73 X 0-56 inch ; (E) 0-7 x 0-53 inch. With the exception of Northern Australia, this species is very sparingly dispersed over the remainder of the Continent in favour- able situations. Centropus phasianus, Latham. Swamp Pheasant. Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 388, p. 634. Mr. Charles Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo, Dawson River, Queensland, has kindly sent the following notes : — " On the 15th of February, 1891, T found a nest and three eggs of Centropus phasianus. The nest was built about fifteen inches above the ground in some high broad-bladed grass, the tops of which were drawn down and loosely interwoven into the shape of a ball of about eight inches internal diameter, with a round hole in one side for entrance and another at the opposite side as a means of exit. The bottom of the nest was thickly padded with " Blood-wood*" leaves, which extended through the entrance and on to the bent down grass outside the nest in the shape of a platform. The nest was built against the stem of a small tree, I think for protection, as the grass all round appeared equally suit- able for nesting in." Mr. J. A. Boyd of the Herbert River, Queensland, informs me that a nest of this species was obtained on his plantation on the 16th of December, 1891, containing five eggs, and another on the 30th instant, with five young ones in it. In both instances these nests were constructed in the lower leaves of the Screw Palm, (Pandanus aqtiaticus). Three of the above set of eggs are rounded in form, white, and nest-stained, the shell having a thin calcareous covering making the surface perfectly smooth, which is dull and lustreless ; in some places are scratches which appear to have been done by the parent bird while sitting, revealing the true character of the shell under- * Eucalyptus corymbosa. 18 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. neath, they measure as follows: — length (A) 1-53 x 1*23 inch ; (B) 1-39 X 1-17 inch ; (C) 1-48 x 1-2 inch. Specimens of this bird similar to those of the Eastern coast have been procured by Mr. E. H. Saunders at Roeburne, and the late T. H. Boyer-Bower at Derby in North-western Australia, it is also found at intervals throughout the coastal districts of Northern and Eastern Australia, and although common in the Northern portions of New South Wales, its range does not extend so far south as the southern boundary of the colony. Calyptorhynchus punereus, Shatv. Funeral Black Cockatoo. Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. ii., sp. 401, p. 20. Unlike most members of the order Psittaci inhabiting Australia which breed at the latter end of Spring and all through the Sum- mer, the genus Calyptorhynclnis does not commence to breed until late in the Autumn or the beginning of Winter. In the previous Supplement* it will be seen from Mr. E. H. Lane's notes, that during a period of twelve years he had always obtained the eggs of C. solandri during the months of March, April, and May, and from the following notes sent at various times by Mr. George Barnard of the Dawson River, Queensland it may be gathered that G. funereus is an early Winter breeder. " On the 2nd of June, 1884, my sons found a nest of C. funereus containing two eggs. The nesting place was in the hollow bough of a tall Eucalyptus." "June 9th, 1890 — Yesterday my sons found a nest of C. funereus, unfortunately the eggs were just hatching, one was out, the other egg chipped ; though we knew they bred in June, we did not think they would be so early." On the 13th June 1891, "my sons found two nests of C. funereus and two of C. solandri, about ten miles from the home- stead. Each nest contained but a single egg, all of which were perfectly fresh, but as the holes in the trees had all been enlarged by chopping and they were so far from home the eggs were taken. All the nests were within a mile of each other and were in the hollow boughs of lofty Eucalypts; C. funereus was from thirty to forty feet from the ground, and deep down in the hollow trunk of the tree, C. solandri were from seventy to ninety feet from the ground, and the eggs could almost be reached from the hole." " A fortnight after finding the nests of the Black Cockatoos my sons went out again in the hopes that some of the birds would have relaid. Only one nest was found to be occupied, that of C. funereus, containing two eggs; which are rounder than those taken previously. The eggs of C . funereus va,ry somewhat in size and are rounded in form, pure white, except where stained with the decaying wood * Rec. Austr. Aus., Vol. i„ No. 6, March 1891. SUPPLEMENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OP AUSTK. BIEDS NORTH. 1 9 on which they were laid, the shell being dull and lustreless, and having minute shallow pittings all over them ; they measure (A) 1-82 X 1-49 inch; (B) 1-9 x 1-6 inch. The range of this species extends over Eastern and Southern Australia and Tasmania, although in the latter colony Gould separated the species from C. funerens, under the name of C. xaiUhonotus, but the specific characters are not constant, speci- mens having been received from Tasmania that could not be distinguished from the continental form, and Dr. Ramsay who has examined one of Gould's types, states they ai'e identical. PoLYTELis ALEXANDRA, Gould. The Princess of Wales Parrakeet. Gould, Handhk. Bds. Atistr., Vol. ii., 1865, sp. 407, p. 32. Much attention has recently been drawn to this the rarest of all the Australian Psittaci. It was first discovered by Mr. F. G. Waterliouse at Howell's Ponds, in Lat. about 17° S. and Long. 133° E. who accompanied Stuart, the well known Central Austra- lian explorer in 1862. Gould described it in the following year in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, dedicating it to the Princess of Wales, and subsequently figuring it in his Supplement to the Birds of Australia, in 1869. After a la^se of twenty-eight years since discovering this species, Mr. M. Symonds Clark, of Adelaide, South Australia, brought under the notice of the public, through the columns of the South Australian Register of the 28th of August, 1890, the existence of two living specimens of Polytelis alexaiidrce, which had been taken from a nest in the hollow branch of a tree by Mr. T. G. Magarey at " Crown Point," about fifty miles north of "Charlotte Waters," in Lat. 25° 30' and Long. 133°, about six hundred miles south from where the type specimens were obtained. Later on Dr. E. C. Stirling, the Director of the Adelaide Museum, who accompanied the Earl of Kintore, Governor of South Aus- tralia, on his trip across the Continent from north to south in 1891, succeeded in obtaining two specimens a few miles north of " Newcastle Waters," and towards the latter end of the same year Mr. A. H. C. Zietz, the Assistant Director of the Adelaide Museum, acquired the eggs of this species, one of which together with a male sjDecimen of P. alexandrce, has recently been received by the Trustees of the Australian Museum. The egg of P. alexandrcH is an ellipse in form, pure white, the texture of the shell being very fine, and the surface slightly glossy. Length 1'23 inch x 0*94 inch in breadth. The interior of Northern Central Australia constitutes the habitat of this species. 20 BECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. TuRNix MELANOTUS, Goulcl. Small Black -spotted Tvirnix. Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. ii., sp. 481, p. 182. *0£ the three small species of Turnix found in Australia, two of them, T. velox and T. fyrrhotliorax, give decided preference to the open grassy plains of the inland districts, while Turnix melanotus is essentially an inhabitant of the low marshy ground and damp scrubs contiguous to the eastern coast of Australia. Near Sydney the latter species is not uncommon in the neigh- bourhood of Randwick, Botany, and La Pei'ouse, localities also frequented by the Least Swamp Quail, Excalfatoria cuistralis, and both species, shot at Botany on the same day, have been recently presented to the Museum. The nidification of Turnix melanotus, similar to that of other members of the genus, is a scantily grass-lined hollow in the ground, sheltered by a convenient tuft of grass or low bush. The eggs are four in number for a sitting ; specimens obtained on Mr. Boyd's plantation on the Herbert River, Queensland, on the 13th of December, 1890, are oval in form, tapering somewhat sharply to the smaller end, the ground colour is of a greyish-white, and is almost obscured with minute freckles of pale umber-brown, while sparingly distributed over the surface of the shell are conspicuous spots and blotches of dark slaty-grey, which in some places approach an inky-black hue. Length (A) 0-97 x 0-73 inch, (B) 0-98 X 0-73 inch. These eggs can easily be distinguished from those of T. velox, by being much darker and the surface of the shell bright and glossy. During the same month, eggs of Excalfatoria australis were procured in the same locality. The latter species, Mr. J. A. Boyd informs me, is very common on the Herbert River. Sterna media, Horsfield. Crested Tern. Sterna media, Horsfield, Trans. Linn. Soc, 1820, xiii., p. 198. Sterna hengalensis, Lesson, Traite d'Orn., p. 621 (1831); Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. ii., p. 327, sp. 603 (1865). Thalasseus torresii, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, (1842), p. 142 ; id. Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. vii. pi. 25. This species of Tern has a most extensive range of habitat. It is found frequenting the Northern and Eastern coast of Africa, the Red Sea, and the southern shores of Asia, the Indo-Malayan and Austro-Malayan Archipelago, and the Northern and Eastern coasts of Australia. Mr. H. Grensill Barnard, who has lately returned from a collecting tour in the islands contiguous to the coast of North- eastern Queensland, has kindly sent the following interesting * North, Kec. Austr. Mus., Vol. i.. No. 9, October, 1891. SUPPLEMENT TO NESTS AND EGGS OF A.USTR. BIRDS — NORTH. 21 notes respecting the nidification of this Tern, also several of its eggs for description, and a skin of one of the parent birds for identitication. " In conversation with the keeper of a fishing station on a small island, about six miles south of North Barnard Island, I learnt that a species of Tern was breeding in great numbers, on a small sand-bank thirty miles due east of the latter island and close to the Great Barrier Reef. One of the fishing boats coming in on Saturday night, I took my gun and went on board ; sail was set soon after, but I did not reach the scene of operations till Monday morning, the 23rd of November, 1891. The bank was a very small one not more than twenty yards across, and about three or four feet above high water in the centre. On approaching it we could see the Terns sitting on the sand in hundreds, also several of a very much larger species of sea- bird*, which I ascertained afterwards on landing were engaged in eating the eggs of the Terns, as I found a great number of the eggs with a large hole pecked in the side. The eggs of the Terns were placed on the bare sand, one to each bird for a sitting, and so close together as only to give the birds room to sit ; there could have been no less than five or six hundred eggs on that portion of the bank occupied. Though the birds had been breeding more than a month, there were no young ones, the fishermen informing me that the larger species we saw on the bank devoured the young ones directly they were hatched. I shot two of the parent-birds, and the men collected about two buckets full of eggs to cook." The eggs are oval in form, some of which are sharply pointed at the smaller end and vary in ground colour from a delicate reddish-white to stone and lustreless white, some specimens are boldly blotched and spotted with penumbral markings of purplish and reddish-brown, and underlying blotches and spots of bluish and pearl-grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell ; others are uniformly dotted and spotted with smaller markings of the same colours, but in all the specimens now before me the markings on the outer surface of the shell are mostly penumbral. Average specimens measure, length (A) 2-02 x 1-47 inch; (B) 2-1 X 1-4 inch ; (C) 2-05 x 1 -43 inch ; (D) 2-08 x 1-42 inch. Plotus nov^-hollandi^, Gould. The New Holland Snake-bird or Darter. Gould, Handhk. Bds. Ausir., Vol. ii., sp. 657, p. 496. fThe Trustees of the Australian Museum have lately received the eggs of Plotus novct-hollandice, taken by Mr. J. L. Ayres at * Probaply a Skua. t North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. i.. No. 7, June, 1891. 22 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. Lake Buloke, in the Wimraera District of Victoaia, on 1st April, 1891. The nest was built at a height of about fifteen feet, on the branch of a Eucalyptus standing in the water, it was outwardly composed of sticks lined inside with twigs, and contained five eggs, one of which was unfortunately broken in descending the tree. The eggs are elongated ovals in form tapering gradually towards the smaller end, where they are somewhat sharply pointed; the shell has a thick, white, calcareous covering, only a few scratches here and there revealing the true colour underneath, which is of a pale blue. Length (A) 2-41 x 1-4.5 inches; (B) 2-32 x 1-42 inches; (C) 2-34 x 1*45 inch ; (D) 2-43 x 1-47 inch. Although very late in the season, Mr. Ayres found another Darter's nest on the same day, containing five newly hatched young ones. This species is found all over Australia, but is more sparingly distributed in the extreme Southern and Western portions of the Continent. NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE of the SANDERLING (CALIDRIS ARENARIA) m NEW SOUTH WALES. By Prof. Alfred Newton, M.A., F.R.S. Having lately occasion to investigate the range of the Sanderling (Galidris arenaria), I came across a memorandum made in the year 1860 of my having then seen in the Derby Museum at Liver- pool, two specimens of the larger race of this species, one in Winter dress and the other in incipient Spring plumage, both being marked as females and as having been obtained at Sandy Cove in New South Wales, 20th April, 1844, by the late John Macgillivray. As this wandering species does not seem to have been hitherto recorded from Australia, this fact may be of some interest to the Ornithologists of that country. I may add that I find little verification of Temminck's assertion in 1840 (Man. d' Ornithologie iv. p. 349) often repeated in one form or another that the Sanderling occurs in the Sunda Islands and New Guinea; or even, as by a recent writer who states in general terms, that it is a winter visitor to the islands of the Malay Archipelago ("Geographical Distribution of the Charadriida^ j 259 3> 9 11 24 RECORDS OF THE AtTSTRAIilAN MUSEUM. which are half that of the frontal ; the latter shield hexagonal, obtusely angular anteriorly, acutely so posteriorly, the lateral margins slightly converging, one-half longer than broad ; length of the parietals equal to that of the frontals and prefrontals together ; the nasal forms a short suture with the preocular ; two subequal postoculars ; six upper labials, the third and fourth entering the eye, the first small, the others gradually increasing in size to the last ; two pairs of temporals, the lower one of the anterior pair much the largest, and partially wedged in between the two last labials. There are 17 scales round the middle of the body ; abdominal shields 163; two anal plates, with some- times a third smaller plate in front ; subcaudal shields in a single series, 43 in number. Colors. — Head above olive-brown, with a broad black band including the greater portion of the parietals and two series of scales behind them, and bending angularly forwards upon the posterior third of the frontal, and extending down the sides of the head to behind the last upper labial ; dorsal and lateral scales bright olive-brown, the latter tipped with black ; abdominal and subcaudal scales pale yellow ; the former with a roseate spot on the median series and a dusky spot on the postero-external angles ; the latter with faint indications of dark median spots. Dimensions. Total length ... ... ... 370 mm. Head ... ... ... ... 12 „ Width of head... ... ... 7 „ Body 300 „ Tail 58 „ Habitat. — Moree. Type. — In the Australian Museum, presented by E. J. Ross McMaster, Esq. Reg. No. R. 1127. Clupea speattellides, sjj. nov. D. 15. A. 19. V. 8. P. 16. C. 19. L.lat. 49-51. L. tr. 12-13. Vert. 48. Length of head 5-00 - 5-15, of caudal fin 5-75 - 6*00, height of body 4"75 - 5 "00 in the total length. Eye moderate, with rudi- mentary adipose lid, its diameter 3-00 - 3-20 in the length of the head ; snout short and obtuse, 1*10— 1-25 in the diameter of the eye; interorbital space slightly convex, 1*40 — 1 '55 in the same. Nostrils small and approximate, situated midway between the tip of the snout and the orbit, the posterior the larger, subcii cular. Upper surface of the head flat, with a strong central ridge from the snout to the occiput, which is depressed : lower jaw projecting : cleft of mouth small and very oblique, the maxilla reaching to trNDESCRIBED REPTILES AND FISHES. — OGILBY. 25 beneath the anterior third of the orbit. Opercles smooth ; sub- opercle moderately broad, acutely rounded behind. Toothless. The distance between the origin of the dorsal and the tip of the snout is equal to or a trifle longer than that between the same point and the base of the caudal ; the third ray is the longest, from 1-50 - IGG in the length of the head, and equal to the basal length of the fin ; the outer margin is concave : anal low, the longest rays a little more than the diameter of the eye : ventrals inserted entirely in front of the dorsal, with the outer margin acutely rounded, their length from 2-00 -2-15 in that of the head; pectorals rounded, their length 1-50- 1-60 in the same ; the upper basal angle vertically beneath the posterior margin of the opercle : caudal forked, the least height of the pedicle 2-2.5 - 2-40 in the height of the body. Scales moderate, feebly carinated, and firmly adherent ; a patch of small scales on each side of the occipital depression ; no triangular scale above the origin of the ventrals : a series of scutes similar to those on the abdominal profile between the occiput and the dorsal ; behind that fin the profile of the back is smooth and rounded : abdominal scutes well developed, twenty in front and twelve to fourteen behind the origin of the ventrals. Gill-rakers moderately stout and closely set, their length about one-third of the diameter of the eye. Colors. — Pale straw with a broad silvery median band ; each scale above the lateral band with a crescentic series of black dots near the posterior margin ; snout similiarly dotted. Fins hyaline. Tyi^e. — In the Australian Museum. Reg. No. I. .3034. The species above described inhabits the rivers flowing into Port Jackson and Botany Bay ; it has been known to the writer for some time, but as has probably been the case with previous investigators of our Fish-fauna, it was set aside without examina- tion, under the belief that it was merely the young of the widely distributed C. novce-hollandioi : having, however, had occasion of late to examine more closely our New South Wales Clupeids, the present species attracted a more careful investigation with the gratifying result given above. C. sprattellides is occasionally brought to market in considerable numbers among the prawns (Penceus macleayi) from the Parra- matta, George's, and Cook's Rivers. The type specimens described above measure from two and two-thirds to three and a half inches, the latter being apparently the full size to which the species attains. No signs of spawning could be observed in the example dissected. The position of the ventral fins in C. sprattellides being apparently anomalous in the genus Glupea, and the fact that this character is associated with a well developed dorsal scutation 26 RECORDS OF THE ATTSTRALIAN MUSEUM. forces upon us the consideration whether these characters, taken separately or in conjunction, should not entitle this and similar forms to generic rank. The latter character, however, that is the acute spiniferous ridge between the occiput and the dorsal fin, is common to all the fresh- water and estuary non-migratory Herrings of the cismontane rivers of the Colony, between the limits of the Richmond River and Botany Bay, which the author has had an opportunity of examining : the former character, that of the position of the ventral fin, has been extensively used by systematists as one on which to base a separate genus. This is not the place to discuss the importance or otherwise of this character, but it is worthy of notice that in our common fresh- water herring [Clupea novce-hollandice, Cuv. & Val. = C. rich- mondia, Macl. = (?) C. vittata, Casteln.) the ventral fins are inserted immediately below the origin of the dorsal. With regard to the dorsal serrature, we appeal to our fellow- workers in other countries to examine more carefully the anadro- mous herrings of their rivers and estuaries, for should it prove to be the case that all the fresh-water herrings have this character- istic, they are clearly separable from the typical Clupea. All species, therefore, in which the occipito-dorsal serrature is present, might be separated therefrom under the name of Hyjierlophus, and distinguished from Cluj^ea by this character. On the structure and AFFINITIES op PANDA ATOM AT A, Gratj* By C. Hedley, F.L.S. [Plates IV. V. VI.] Some uncertainty appears to prevail regarding the position which Bulimus atomatus, Gray, should occupy. The latest volume of the "Monographia HeliceorumViventium" includes it in a section embracing another Australian and a dozen South American species, an arrangement which must surely violate natural *Since this essay was written I learn that, by an odd coincidence, both Mr. Pilsbry and myself independently arrived at the conclusion that atomnta should correctly be referred to Panda, and published our opinions simultaneously in America and Australia, in "The Nautilus," Vol. VI., No. 1, p. 9, May, 1892; and in the "Abstract" of the Proceedings of the Linn. See, N.S.W., April, 1892, respectively. STEUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF PANDA ATOMATA. — HEDLEY. 27 affinities. Albers' classification, " Die Heliceen," p. 229, though more correct, is not in accordance with the views of the writer, who has recently enjoyed an opportunity of studying this interesting creature alive in the recesses of its native forests. The following is the first record of the soft parts of this snail. The animal so resembles the figure of Caryodes diifresni appearing in the P.L.S., N.S.W. (2) vi. PL iii. f. 1. that this sketch would almost as well represent the former as the latter species. Colour ; a pale ochreous yellow becoming redder on the head and tentacles ; a dark brownish-black dorsal stripe extends from between the tentacles to the mantle, a similar but fainter stripe extends on either side along the facial groove from the lips to the mantle ; sole of foot ashy-blue ; mantle ashy-blue shot with ochreous yellow. Some snails are paler and some darker than the one described. Total length 70 mm., muzzle projecting 25 mm. in front, tail projecting 7 mm. behind the shell when crawling ; tentacles 15 mm. long, bases 5 mm. apart ; measured just in advance of the shell, the body is 15 mm. wide and 12 mm. high. Tentacles gradually tapeinng to one-third of the diameter of their bases, clad with fine longitudinal granulations ; ocular bulbs asymmetrical, more swollen on the lower distal side, eye superior central in position. Two ill-defined grooves start from the mantle and enclose a series of rugfe which compose the dark median dorsal colour-band mentioned above ; anteriorly these grooves are lost in the reticulations around the bases of the tentacles. From the median line, reticulating grooves extending outwards and downwards, intersect a series of prominent long narrow tubercles, from six to ten of which intervene between the dorsal band and the facial groove. The tail is rather flat and sharply pointed ; the sides and tail are covered by flat, irregular polygonal tubercles which become smaller on approaching the tail. On emerging from its shell, atomata has a habit of spreading the margin of the foot into a wide, flat flange. I note that the left side of the mantle developes no rudimentary mantle lobes as in lladra. When extended, the shell is carried slightly obliquely, the apex being a little to the right of the tail ; when retracted, the animal does not usually shrink further back than the aperture, to which no epiphragm was observed. The living snails were collected by Dr. Cox and the writer in tolerable abundance in a "cedar-brush" adjoining Mr. Ashford's estate on Sparke's Creek, near Scone, N.S.W. Their habit was to nestle beneath decaying logs or in drifts of fallen leaves, where they would occur singly or by twos and threes ; one was taken in the act of ascending a tree a few feet from the ground. Specimens were obtained (April 1892) in all stages of growth. Dr. Cox informs me that on other occasions he has found this species to lay large, white, hard-shelled eggs. 28 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. The reproductive system of this form seems to me to be especially worthy of attention. Branching from the vagina, opposite to the entrance of the duct of the spermatheca, is a gland of unknown function, marked X in the accompanying illustration (PI. v. fig. 13) ; this exactly corresponds to the gland marked x in Semper's illustrations of the genitalia of falconeri and ditfresni, and also to the gland marked v. p. in the figure of the genitalia of cunninghami published by the author. It will be observed that Semper's drawings show a short, wide, recurved duct, and mine a narrow, subcylindrical one. On referring to a sketch of the organs of dufres7ii, which I took some time ago, I notice that the gland in question appears of the form observed in cunninghami and atomata ; possibly each form may be proper to different periods of gestation. No other Australian helices are known to possess such an appendage, and its value as a means of classification cannot be denied. The musculature, which is shared by the species with which I would associate atomata, is also peculiar. The retractor muscle of the penis is not attached to the floor of the pulmonary cavity as in some helices, but is a broad band arising from the main retractor muscle of the columella. The narrow subcylindrical portion of the penis sheath extending from the insertion of the retractor muscle to the origin of the vas deferens, is also strictly analogous to the similar portions of cunninghami, falconeri and dufresni. The ovo-testis is a compact, yellow, bi-lobed body, not ramifying through the lobes of the liver. The jaw (PL v, fig. 11) is 44 mm. long, smooth, boomerang- shaped, ends tapering to a blunt point, cutting margin with a slight median projection. The radula (PI. vi. figs. 14, 15) measures 10 x 3 mm., is strap- shaped, formula, 185 rows of 45 : 22 : 1 : 22 : 45. ; the rachidian is single, narrow, about the length of its base, sagittate at the root, slender in the stem, lanceolate at the apex, basal plate expanded posteriorly ; laterals more bulky than the rachidian, unicuspidate, broadly ovate, apex acute, projecting past the basal margin, alate angle slightly expanded ; the remoter laterals pass gradually into the marginals, which are characterised by single, entire, oval, much inclined cusps. The classification of this species hithei'to accepted seeming to the writer in disaccord with its real relationships, he would prefer to intercalate it among other Australian snails as follows : — Family HELiciDiE. Foot flat, pointed, without mucous gland or pedal line ; mantle without appendages ; tentacles long and tapering. STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF PANDA ATOMATA. HEDLEY. 29 Group Macroon. Egg large, hard-shelled ; apex of shell consisting of 2-2^ whorls of embryonic shell, sharply marked off and differently sculptured from the adult. A. — Genital system furnished with an additional gland. Jaw oxygnathous. Panda falconeri. Reeve. ,, ,, var. maconelli, Reeve. ,, ,, ,, azonata, Hedley. „ „ „ tigris, Hedley. ,, atomata, Gray. ,, ,, var. kershawi, Brazier. ,, ,, ,, elongata, Hedley. ,, „ ,, azonata, Hedley. ,, larreyi. Brazier. Pedinogyra cunninghami, Gray. ,, ,, var. miihlfeldtiana, Pfeiffer. ,, ,, „ compressa, Mousson. ,, ,, ,, minor, Mousson. Caryodes dufresni. Leach. B. — Without the additional gland. Ba. — Jaw oxygnathous ; lateral teeth of radula simple. Anoglypta launcestonensis. Reeve. *B6. — Jaw goniognathous ; lateral teeth of radula with accessory cusp. Liparus infiatus, Lamarck. ,, ,, var. melo, Quoy & G. ,, ,, ,, physodes, Menke. ,, ,, ,, castaneus, Pfeiffer. ,, ,, „ bulla, Menke. ,, „ „ rhodostoma, Gray. ,, baconi, Benson. ,, tasmanicus, Pfeiffer. ,, mastersi. Cox. „ kingi, Gray. „ ,, var. trilineatus, Quoy &; G. ,, angasianus, Pfeiffer. ,, brazieri, Angas. „ onslowi, Cox. ,, dux, Pfeiffer. The anatomical information on which the above synopsis is based chiefly consists of these illustrations and their accompany ing letterpress : — Reis. im. Phil. III., PI. xii. fig. 20, genitalia of *PolyTie8ian representatives of Lipanis woiild appear to be Placostylus, and its derivatives Diplomorplia and Partula. so RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. falconeri ; figs. 23, 24, 25, ditto dufresni ; PL xv. fig. 14, ditto melo ; PI. xvi. fig. 7, radula of dufresni; fig. 10, ditto falconeri ; PI. xvii. fig. 13, ditto melo ; Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland, VI., PI. iii. jaw, radula and genitalia of cunyiinghami ; PI. xiv. jaw and radula of raastersi ; P.L.S., N.S.W. (1) III. PI. vii. fig.' la, egg of dufresni; op. cit. (2) VI. PI. ii. fig. 1, jaw of dufresni; figs. 2, 3 and 4, jaw, radula and genitalia of tasmanicus ; figs. 5, 6 and 7, jaw, radula and genitalia of launcestonensis. Should a lens be applied to the summit of a fresh specimen of any of the species enumerated above, the apex (PI. v. fig. 10) will be seen to resemble a well worn thimble ; the first two whorls are usually dome-shaped, and are always marked off from the adult shell by an oblique furrow. Anorflypta may perhaps be regarded as most retaining the ancestral sculpture. A wide band or bands round the base or periphery is a colour-pattern that is apt to occur throughout the gi'oup. The bands so conspicuous in dufresni recur in infiatus var. castaneris, in baconi, and in angasianus ; they are represented on the base of Anoglypta, can be traced in the wide bands around the base of falconeri, and the pattern is distinctly repeated in some colour varieties of cunningliami. Another feature in common is the bluish-gleaming sub-nacreous lining of the interior of the shell. Allusion is made above to the egg of atomata. Tenison-Woods figured the egg of C. dufresni, and it was re-described by the writer, P.L.S., N.S.W. (2) VI. p. 20. A. launcestoneoisis is reported (op. cit. p. 22) to lay a similar egg. A broken egg of cunninghami, collected by Mr. S. Stutchbury, is now in the Australian Museum, and is figured PI. v. fig 12. It may be described as globose, 9 mm. in diameter, hard, calcareous, brittle, white, coarsely granular without, smooth within. The subordination, in the foregoing synopsis, of maconelli to falconeri as a variety, is an innovation that demands an explanation which Plate iv. is intended to convey. In the latest notice of the genus, Pilsbry succinctly sums up the difierence by stating (Man. Conch., 2nd Ser., Vol VI. p. 76) that maconelli is " Just like //. falconeri in color and sculpture, but narrower and and imperforate." It is here contended that a large series admits of a perfect graduation, traceable from the tightly coiled, narrow, elevated and imperforate macotielli, to the looser coiled, wide, depj'essed and umbilicate falconeri ; while extreme forms exist more elevated and more depressed than either of Reeve's illustrations. Reduced outlines of Reeve's types of maconelli and falconeri are represented by figs. 1 and 6 respectively ; figs. 2 and 8 are the extremes of each form as figured in the Monograph of Australian Land Shells ; figs. 3, 4 and 5 are original sketches, from examples selected and lent for the purpose by Dr. Cox, to show the transition from maconelli to falconeri ; while fig. 7 is STEUCTUEE AND AFFINITIES OF PANDA ATOMATA. — HEDLEY. 31 another original sketch, from a shell in the Australian Museum, intermediate between Cox's and Reeve's conception of fnlconeri. Did space suffice, and necessity demand, a further series of intermediate forms might be furnished more closely linking the one to the other of the preceding instances ; but enough are afforded, it is supposed, to prove "quod erat demonstrandum." Panda thus gives a curious and instructive illustration of the value placed by the elder systematists upon " Bulimus " and " Helix," since Reeve assigned maconelli to the former and falconeri to the latter, an arrangement in which Pfeitfer quite acquiesced. Two colour varieties of this species might with advantage be distinguished. var, AZONATA, var. nov. Bandless, entire shell straw-yellow coloured. var. TIGRIS, var. nov. The original dark spiral bands have here become disintegrated into separate blotches, and these latter have further become confluent with those above and beneath, so that the band pattern is changed from regularly spiral to irregularly longitudinal and zigzag, in which state it approaches the pattern of ntomata and larreyi. In this genus, neither contour nor colouration can be relied upon to furnish specific characters, and I cannot admit kershawi, Brazier (P.Z.S., 1871, p 641) as a valid species. No habitat has been recorded for this form between the valleys of the Hunter and of the Snowy River. Yet, despite their geographical isolation, southern specimens can be precisely matched, as Dr. Cox has kindly demonstrated to me, by northern shells. Fossil specimens of this species have been identified by Dr. Cox from Victoria, but none have come under the writer's observation, nor is he aware of any mention of the fact in the literature of the subject. I add a sketch of the as yet unfigured kershaioi, from the author's type, now in the collection of the Australian Museum. Other variations of this species are — var. ELONGATA, var. nov. More elevated than the type, and represented by Mon. Austr. L. Shells, PI. xviii., fig. 15. var. AZONATA, var. nov. Bandless, entire shell straw-yellow coloured. 32 records of the australian museum. Note on the NIDIFICATION of MANUGODIA CO MRU, Sdater. Comrie's Manucode. By a. J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology. [Plate VII.] Manucodia comrii, Sclat., Proc. Zool. Soc, 1876, p. 459. The Trustees of the Australian Museum have lately received from the Rev, R. H. Rickard the egg of Manucodia comrii, taken by him on Fergusson Island, off the South-East coast of New Guinea, in July, 1891. The Rev. Mr. Rickard informs me that from the 20th of June to the 20th of July he had been at various times engaged in company with his black boy shooting Manucodes on this island, but rarely saw a female. Early in July he found a nest of this species in the lower branches of a bread-fruit tree at a height of twenty -five feet from the ground. The female was on the nest, which was an open loosely made structure of vinelets and twigs placed at the extremity of the branch ; having procured her, he found that she was in very indifferent plumage as though she had been sitting for a long time, and the eggs, two in number, were chipped, and just upon the point of hatching. The egg is an elongate ovoid in form, and is of a warm isabelline ground colour with purplish dots, blotches and bold longitudinal streaks, uniformally dispersed over the surface of the shell, intermingled with similar superimposed markings of purplish-grey. Length 1'65 x 1*13 inch. The range ' of this species is confined to the islands of the D'Entrecasteaux Group. Publications of the Australian Museum — Continued. IV.— GUIDES. 1 Guide to the Australian Fossil Eemains in the Australian Museum. 1870. 8vo. (Out of print.) 2. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. iv.-56 Wrapper, 3d. (Out of print.) 3. Guide to the Contents op the Australian Museum. 1890. 8vo. pp. 156. Wrapper. v.— MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. 1. List of Old Documents and Relics in the Australian Museum. 1884. Reprinted with additions, 1890. 8vo. pp. 4. 2. Descriptive List of Aboriginal Weapons Implements &c., from the Darling and Lachlan Rivers, by K. H. Bennett, F.L.S. 1887. 8vo. pp. 8. (Out of print.) 3. Notes for Collectors. 1887. 8vo. Is. 4. Hints for the Collectors of Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, by F. Ratte, pp. 26, with a plate. 6d. 5. Hints for the Preservation of Specimens of Natural History, by E. P. Ramsay, 1891. 4th Edition, pp. 32. Is. VI.— RECORDS. Vol. I., March, 1890 to Deer. 1891. 8vo. pp. 202. 30 plates. Boards. Price 25s. Vol. II., No. 1. April, 1892. 8vo. pp. 22. 3 plates. Wrappers. Price, 2s. 6d. „ No. 2. August, „ „ pp. 10. 4 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. IN PREPARATION. Catalogue of the Libeakt. Revised and corrected. Catalogue of Shells. Hargraves and General Collections, by J. Brazier. Catalogues of Reptiles, Lizards, Batrachia, Fishes, &c., by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Australian Mammals, by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Birds. Part IV. Picarise, by E. P. Ramsay. Catalogue of Tunicata, by Prof. Herdman, Liverpool, Eng. Records, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus & Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney ; Mr. W. Dymock, George Street, Sydney j Messrs. Turner & Hendei^son, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Messrs. E. A. Petherick & Co.' George Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ; Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner &■ Co., Ludgate Hill, London. [Exchanges of Serials, Works, Reports, and other publications are earnestly solicited on behalf of the Museum Library.] CONTENTS. On some Urxlescribed Reptiles and Pishes from Australia. By J. Douglas Ogilby ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 23 On the Structure and Affinities of Panda atomata, Gray. By C. Hedley, F.L.S 26 Note on the Nidification of Manucodia comrii, Sclater (Comrie's Manucode). By A. J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology 32 RECORDS 11,351- AUSTKALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II., No. 3. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES E. IP. i?.^:m:s-a.y. XjIj-id. Curator. "* SYDNEY, AUGUST, 1892- F. W. WHITE, PRIKTEK, MARKET STREET WEST PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. AUGUST, 1892. I.— CATALOGUES. 1. Catalogue of the Specimens of Natueal History and Miscellaneous Curiosities IN THE Australian Museum, by G. Bennett. 1837. 8vo. pp. 71. (Out of print.) 2. Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. KrefEt. 1864. 12mo. pp. 133. (Out of print.) 3. Catalogue of the Minerals and Eocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1873. 8vo. pp. xvii.-115. (Out of print.) 4. Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Accipitres. 1876. 8vo. pp. viii.-64. Boards, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. Part II. Striges. 1890. 8vo. pp. 35. Wrapper, Is. 6d. Part III. Psittaci. 1891. 8vo. pp. viii.-llO. Wrapper, 5s. 5. Catalogue of the Australian Stalk and Sessile-eted Crustacea, by W. A. Haswell. 1882. 8vo. pp. xxiv.-324, with 4 plates. (Scarce) Wrapper, 21s. 6. Catalogue of the Library of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. 178. Wrapper, Is. 6d., with two supplements. (Out of print.) 7. Catalogue of a Collection of Fossils in the Australian Museum, with Introduc- tory Notes, by F. Eatte. 1883. 8vo. pp. xxviii.-160. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 8. Catalogue of the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes, by W. M. Bale. 1884. 8vo pp. 198, with 19 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. 9. Descriptive Catalogue of the General Collection of Minerals in the Australian Museum, by F. Eatte. 1885. 8vo. pp. 221, with a plate. Boards, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 10. Catalogue of Echinodermata in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Eamsay. Part I. Echini. 1885. 8vo. pp. iii. ii.-54, with 5 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. j cloth, 3s. 6d. 2nd Edit., 1890. 11. Descriptive Catalogue of the Medusae of the Australian Seas. Part I. Scyphor medusae. Part II. Hydromedusse, by E. von Lendenfeld. 1887. 8vo. pp. 32 and 49. (Withdrawn from sale.) 12. Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, by A. J. Norti. 1889. 8vo. pp. iv. V.-407, with 21 plates. Wrapper, 12s. 6d. Coloured plates, £2 5s. 13. Descriptive Catalogue of the Sponges in the Australian Museum, by E. von Lendenfeld, 1888. 8vo. pp. xiv.-260, with 12 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, 10s. 6d. 14. Catalogue or the Fishes in the Australian Museum. Part I. Palaeichthyan Fishes, by J. Douglas Ogilby. 1888. 8vo. pp. 34. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. ; boards, 3s. 6d. 15. Catalogue of the Marine Shells of Australia and Tasmania, by J. Brazier. Part I. Cephalopoda, 1892. 8vo. pp. 20. Paper, 2s. 6d. ; Part II. Pteropoda, 1892. 8vo. pp. 22. Paper, 2s. 6d. II.— MONOGRAPHS. 1. Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations, by the late A. W. Scott, with Illustrations by his daughters, Mrs. Morgan and Mis. Forde. Edited and revised by A. S. Olliff and Mrs. Forde. Vol. II., Parts ], 2 & 3. Wrappers, 15s. each. III.— MEMOIRS. 1. History and Description of the Skeleton of a new Sperm Whale in thh Australian Museum, by W. S. W^all. 1851. 8vo. pp. 60, with plates. Eeprint 1887. Wrappers, 2s. 6d. 2> Lord Howe Island, its Zoology, Geology, and Physical Characters. 1889. 8vo. pp. viii.-132 with 10 plates. Boards. 7a. 6d. ; cloth, lOs. 6d BISMUTH MINERALS, MOLYBDENITE & ENHYDROS — LIVERSIDGE. 33 NOTE ON SOME BISMUTH MINERALS, MOLYBDENITE, AND ENHYDROS. By a. Liversidge, M.A., F.R.S., Prof, of Chemistry, University of Sydney. [Plates VIII. IX. X.] The minerals mentioned in the following short note form part of a collection recently purchased by the Trustees of the Australian Museum ; some of them are of unusual interest, hence it was considered desirable to draw attention to them in the pages of the " Museum Records." The numerals simply indicate the different specimens examined and described, those which are of the ordinary character and from well known localities are not mentioned in this paper. Native Bismuth. 1. Some of the bismuth is in the massive condition, and is similar to specimens already described in the "Journal of the Royal Society of New South Wales," 1891, other specimens show it in the form of acicular crystals running through rock crystal. The massive bismuth is associated with quartz, both crystallised and massive, sulphide of bismuth, bismuth ochre, galena, the latter argentiferous, iron pyrites passing into ferrous sulphate, wolfram, molybdenite and tin stone. From Kingsgate, Glen Innes, N.S.W. 2. The acicular crystals in one case are two to three inches long and of about the thickness of a horse hair, these completely penetrate the rock crystal in much the same way as we often see acicular fibres of rutile ; the characteristic colour, metallic lustre and cleavage of the metal being, however, well shown. This appears to be an unusual mode of occurrence for bismuth. Kingsgate. 3. Accompanying the fibres of the metal are small scattered crystals or specks of the metal, together with small columnar crystals. Kingsgate. 4. Native bismuth in quartz from Tingha, N.S.W. 5. Native bismuth, from Kangaroo Hills, Queensland. Asso- ciated with chlorite, quartz, and red oxide of iron or gossan. 34 EECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSETTM. 6. Native bismuth, from Biggenden, Queensland. In calcite, where it occurs mainly between the cleavage planes of the calcite, which is strongly striated like some of the Scandinavian specimens of that mineral. 7. Native bismuth, in hornblende and quartz ; Mt. Ramsay, Tasmania. Bismuth sulphide. 1. In plates or films with a finely fibrous structure, embedded in rock crystal. The sulphide also occurs in granite made up of a brownish felspar, quartz and decomposed mica. From Kingsgate, Glen Innes, N.S.W. 2. Massive bismuth sulphide also possessing a fibrous structure, with the native m.etal, from the same place. .3. With bismuth carbonate and magnetite, Biggenden, Queens- land. Bismuth carbonate. 1. This is of an ochrey form, associated with bismuth sulphide, quartz, etc. From Kingsgate, Glen Innes, N.S.W. 2. This specimen is massive, and possesses a platy or laminated structure. .3. Gold with bismuth carbonate, Yarrow Creek, N.S.W. 4. In a fourth specimen, from Biggenden, Queensland, the carbonate occurs with native bismuth in quartz, and is of a greyish colour, instead of the yellowish tint exhibited by the Kingsgate carbonate. 5. This specimen, from Mt. Shamrock, Queensland, is said to be auriferous. 6. From Halifax Bay, Queensland. Molybdenite (MoS,). [Plate viii.] Found associated with native bismuth and other minerals, as already mentioned, in quartz. Some of the crystals have been found of very large size, as much as 3^ x o^ inches, and built up to a thickness of 2 or 3 inches (Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S.W. , p. 237, 1892) ; the outlines of such, however, are very imperfect, but amongst those in the present collection are some very well developed crystals (see plate viii. which shows the natural size), but of smaller size. The group (fig. 5) is a very interesting one. showing well marked hexagonal forms, with a nearly vertical BISMUTH MINERALS, MOLYBDENITE & ENHYDROS — LIVERSIDGE. 35 crystal rising fr^m, and crossing the horiaontal ones. In other cases the plates of molybdenite penetrate the crystals of quartz, and pass between the adjacent faces of the rock crystal. Some of the quartz crystals are cavernous, and have the vugs lined with small crystals of quartz, showing the usual combination of the prism and pyramid. In one specimen the molybdenite is seated on tinstone. From Kingsgate, Glen Innes, N.S.W. Molybdenum ochre. In the form of yellow patches consisting of felted acicular crystals. From Kingsgate, Glen Innes, N.S.W. Enhydros, or Water Stones. (Plates ix. x.) No locality is given for these, but they so closely resemble those formerly found at Spring Creek, Beechworth, Victoria, that they in all probability come from that place. The specimens figured on plates ix. and x. are remarkable for their large size, the plates show them of their natural dimensions, except that plate x. is much foresliortened from a to h, being 7^- inches in length instead of about 2| as shown. Plate ix. shows the hollow nature of these enhydros, where the ends having been broken off, the interior is thickly coated or lined with small pyramids of quartz crystals, the thicker one (plate x.) is also hollow, and each of the plates of which it is made up is likewise hollow or shows a tendency to form a cavity at the thicker parts ; in some this is merely indicated by a crystalline structure. One of the enhydros, not figured, is attached to a lump of ordinary quartz. The outer surfaces of all of them are of very hard, smooth chalcedony, having a horny appearance and brownish colour, stained with iron oxide. The sp. gr. is 2*6G, i.e. the usual sp. gr. of quartz. Hardness = 7*5. None of these three retained any liquid. Mr. E. J. Dunn described the mode in which the enhydros occur at Spring Creek, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Victoria (Trans. R.S. of Vic, 1870, p. 32) ; they are found in a dyke in granite, the dyke is composed of fragments of granite and occasional pieces of sandstone cemented by crystallised quartz, together with large masses of coarse chalcedony and straight veins of chalcedony scales and clay. Mr. Dunn mentions that the enhydros vary in size from that of a split pea to five inches across, and that many of them contain a fluid ; after a few days exposure they usually show an air bubble, in many the fluid disappears altogether in a few days ; the walls of some are as thin as a sheet of paper and very fragile, while others have walls \ inch thick. On p. 71 of the same 36 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. volume is a paper upon them by Mr. G. Foorcl, describing the enhyclros more in detail, and giving an account of the contained fluid, which he describes as a dilute solution in water of chlorides and sulphates of sodium, magnesium and calcium, together with silicic acid. Some smaller specimens in my possession have a much more regular geometrical form than the three under examination and belonging to the Museum. At first sight they might be mistaken for crystals, so smooth and regular are their faces, but a very little examination shows that this is not the case, practically none of the faces are parallel, and their forms do not correspond to any crystallographic system. I am inclined to think that they have been deposited within cracks and cavities formed in the clay (in which they are found), these cavities are probably due to the movements of the clay, parts having slid upon one another in the process of settlement, and a breccia-like structure set up with intermediate gaps and cavities. Mr. Foord's explana- tion that the chalcedony and quartz crystals have been deposited upon the walls of the cavities until the entrances to the hollow spaces were filled up (a poi^tion of the liquid being thereby imprisoned) appears to satisfy the requirements of the case. ADDITIONS TO THE AVIFAUNAS of TASMANIA, and NORFOLK AND LORD HOWE ISLANDS. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology. During the last twelve months an unusually large number of rare or additional grallatorial and natatorial species have been obtained in these insular areas. It is my intention here to briefly note the latter. Why one season should be better than another for aquatic nomads or visitors to make their appearance almost simultaneously in places so widely separated as Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and Santo in the New Hebrides is prob- ably due to exceptionally fine weather and favourable climatic adventitious aids conducive to long and extended flight, and not, as frequently occurs with arboreal species driven to seek a place of refuge, through tempestuous weather. ADDITION TO AVIFAUNAS NORTH. 37 To begin with Tasmania, Dr. L. Holden of Circular Head, informs me that at the latter end of April of this year, he shot in that locality a line adult male Blue-billed Duck, Erismatura australis, Gould, which is now in the Collection of the newly formed Launceston Museum. This is the first time the bird has been recorded from Tasmania, its range being previously limited to New South Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia, over which it is rather sparingly dispersed. Through the liberality of the same gentleman, the Trustees of the Australian Museum have just received the skin of a male New Zealatid Shoveller, Spatula variegata, Gould, that was obtained amongst others of the same species by Mr. Thomas Carr, on the 20th of June, 1892, at One Tree Point, on the river Tamar near Launceston ; numerous individuals of which were seen in the neighbourhood during the past winter. This species may be distinguished from the Spatula rhynchotis of Australia and Tas- mania, to which it is closely allied, by being less robust and slightly smaller in its admeasurements ; the feathers of the lower portion of the neck and mantle are white instead of fulvous brown, the short scapulars also have a larger amount of white on them, and the elongated scapulars are plume-like and more conspicuously marked with a broader lanceolate satiny-white stripe. The single male bird received from Mr. Walter Man tell in 1856 upon which Gould founded the species is evidently an exceptional one, if his figure of it in the "Supplement to the Birds of Australia," pi. Ixxx. be correct ; it shows a far larger amount of white upon the lower portion of the neck, mantle, scapulars, and breast than specimens since obtained in New Zealand or the one at present under con- sideration ; the latter being similar in size and slightly brighter in colour to a mounted specimen in the Museum, obtained from the North Island of New Zealand, and approaching nearer to the figure given by Sir Walter Lawry Buller in his Birds of New Zealand, 2nd edition. Vol. ii. pi. xliii. p. 269, which he stated has been taken from a "fine male ... in the best condition of plumage." With the specimen sent from Tasmania, a box containing a number of small fresh- water shells was forwarded, marked " taken from the gullet of Spatula variegata" and which I have handed to my colleague Mr. John Brazier for examination, who has determined them to belong to the following species : — Tatea rufilahris, A. Adam, found in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland ; Bithynella simsoniana, Brazier, and Assimiuea hichicta, Petterd, both peculiar to Tasmania. Dr. P. Herbert Metcalfe, the Resident Medical Officer at Norfolk Island has also forwarded to me for identification, the skins of three birds which he obtained on that island during April and May of this year, one a fully adult specimen of the White Heron Herodis egretta, Gmelin (H. syrmatophorus, Gould), which has an 38 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. extensive geographical distribution, having been recorded over the greater portion of the Old World, the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand ; the little Black Cormorant Graculus sulcirostris, Brandt, inhabiting the Australian and Austro-Malayan Region, and the White-headed Stilt, Ilimantopiis leucocephalus, Gould, occurring likewise in Australia, the Austro-Malayan Region, and New Zealand ; the latter is not in fully adult plumage, and shows an admixture of smoky black feathers intermingled with the white on the crown of the head and occiput, a not uncommon variety in this species in its first season's plumage, a similar one having been obtained last year on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum by Mr. T. R. Icely, the Visiting Magistrate at Lord Howe Island ; also a specimen of the Black-billed Spoonbill, Platalea melanorhyncha, Reichenbach, found also in Northern, North-eastern, and North- western Australia, both of which have not previously been recorded from that island. In the early part of this month another specimen of Nimantopus leucocephalus was presented to the Trustees by the Rev. Joseph Annand, M.A., of Tangoa, Santo in the New Hebrides, with a label attached— " Obtained at Tangoa, Santo, May 4th, 1892, not common here," showing that this interesting nomad has during a very short period been found in three hitherto unrecorded and widely separated localities. Publications of the Australian Museum — Continued. IV.— GUIDES. 1 Guide to the Australian Fossil Eemains in the Australian Museum. 1870. 8vo. (Out of print.) 2. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. iv.-56 Wrapper, 3d. (Out of print.) 3. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1890. 8vo. pp. 156. Wrapper. v.— MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. 1. List op Old Documents and Relics in the Australian Museum. 1884. Reprinted with additions, 1890. 8vo. pp. 4. 2. Descriptive List of Aboriginal Weapons Implements &c., from the Darling and Lachlan Rivers, by K. H. Bennett, F.L.S. 1887. 8vo. pp. 8. (Out of print.) 3. Notes for Collectors. 1887. 8vo. Is. 4. Hints for the Collectors of Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, by F. Ratte, pp. 26, with a plate. 6d. 5. Hints for the Preservation of Specimens of Natural History, by E. P. Ramsay, 1891. 4tli Edition, pp. 32. Is. VI.— RECORDS. Vol. I., March, 1890 to Deer. 1891. 8vo. pp. 202. 30 plates. Boards. Price 25s. Vol. II., No. 1. April, 1892. 8vo. pp. 22. 3 plates. Wrappers. Price, 2s. 6d. No. 2. August, „ „ pp. 10. 4 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. „ No. 3. August, „ „ pp. 6. 3 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. IN PREPARATION. Catalogue of the Library. Revised and corrected. Catalogue of Shells. Hargraves and General Collections, by J. Brazier. Catalogues of Reptiles, Lizards, Batrachia, Fishes, &c., by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Australian Mammals, by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Birds. Part IV. Picarice, by E. P. Ramsay. Catalogue of Tunicata, by Prof. Herdman, Liverpool, Eng. Records, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus &, Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney; Mr. W. Dymock, George Street, Sydney; Messrs. Turner & Henderson, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Messrs. E. A. Petherick & Co., George Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ; Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London. [Exchanges of Serials, Works, Reports, and other publications are earnestly solicited on ehalf of the Museum Library.] CONTENTS. Note on some Bismuth Minerals, Molybdenite, and Enhydros. By A. Liversidge, M.A., F.R.S., Prof, of Chemistry, University of Sydney 33 Additions to the Avifaunas of Tasmania, and Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. By Arthur J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology 36 RECORDS ■' IRQ; OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II., No. 4. FEINTED BY OEDER OF THE TRUSTEES. E. P. EAMSAY, F.E.S. E., Curator. ^ ^- SYDNEY, FEBRUARY, 1893- F. W. WHITE, PRINTER, MARKET STREET WEST. ..'<>'' PI'BLICATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. FEBRUARY, 1893. I.— CATALOGUES. 1. Catalo&tje of the Specimens of Natural History and MisoELLANEOtrs Curiosities IN the Australian Museum, by G. Bennett. 1837. 8vo. pp. 71. (Out of print.) 2. Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1864. 12mo. pp. 133. (Out of print.) 5. Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefet. 1873. 8vo. pp. xvii.-115. (Out of print.) 4. Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Accipitres. 1876. 8vo. pp. viii.-64. Boards, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. Part II. Striges. 1890. Svo. pp. 35. Wrapper, Is. 6d. Part III. Psittaci. 1891. 8vo. pp. viii.-llO. Wrapper, 5s. 5. Catalogue of the Australian Stalk and Sessile-eted Crustacea, by W. A. Haswell. 1882. Svo. pp. xxiv.-324, with 4 plates. (Scarce) Wrapper, 21s. 6. Catalogue of THE Library OP THE Australian Museum. 1883. Svo. pp. 178. Wrapper, Is. 6d., with two supplements. (Out of print.) 7. Catalogue of a Collection of Fossils in the Australian Museum, with Introduc- tory Notes, by F. Ratte. 1883. Svo. pp. xxviii.-160. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 8. Catalogue of the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes, by W. M. Bale. 1884. Svo pp. 198, with 19 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. 9. Descriptive Catalogue of the General Collection of Minerals in the Australian Museum, by F. Ratte. 1885. Svo. pp. 221, with a plate. Boards, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 10. Catalogue of Echinodermata in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Echini. 1885. Svo. pp. iii. ii.-54, with 5 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 2nd Edit., 1890. 11. Descriptive Catalogue of the Medusae of ihe Australian Seas. Part I. Scypho- medusse. Part II. Hydroniedusse, by R. von Lendenfeld. 1887. Svo. pp. 32 and 49. (Withdrawn from sale.) 12. Descriptive Catalogue op the Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, by A. J. North. 1889. Svo. pp. iv. V.-407, with 21 plates. Wrapper, 12s. 6d. Coloured plates, £2 5s. 13. Descriptive Catalogue of the Sponges in the Australian Museum, by R. von Lendenfeld, 1888. Svo. pp. xiv.-260, with 12 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, 10s. 6d. 14. Catalogue of the Fishes in the Australian Museum. Part I. Palseichthyan Fishes, by J. Douglas Ogilby. 1888. Svo. pp. 34. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. ; boards, 3s. 6d. 15. Catalogue of the Marine Shells of Australia and Tasmania, by J. Brazier. Part I. Cephalopoda, 1892. Svo. pp. 20. Paper, 2s. 6d. Part II. Pteropoda, 1892. Svo. pp. 22. Paper, 2s. 6d. 16. Catalogue of Australian Mammals, with Introductory Notes on General Mammalogy, by J. D. Ogilby, 1892. Svo. pp. xvi.-144. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. II.— MONOGRAPHS. 1. Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations, by the late A. W. Scott, with Illustrations by his daughters, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Forde. Edited and revised by A. S. Olliff and Mrs. Forde. Vol. II., Parts 1,2 & 3. Wrappers, 15s. each. III.— MEMOIRS. 1. History and Description of the Skeleton of a new Sperm Whale in thb Australian Museum, by W. S. Wall. 1851. Svo. pp. 66, with plates. Reprint 1887. Wrappers, 2s. 6d. 2. Lord Howe Island, its Zoology, Geology, and Physical Characters. 1889. Svo. pp. viii.-132 with 10 plates. Boards. 7a. 6d. ; cloth, lOs. 6d FURTHER TRACES OF MEIOLANIA IN N. S. "WALES — ETHERIDGB. 39 On further TRACES of MEIOLANIA in N. S. WALES. By R. Etiieridge, Junr., Palaeontologist. In 1889 I described* the tirst, and so far the only remains of this remarkable genus discovered in N. S. Wales, from the Canadian Lead, Gulgong, The fossils consisted of a small horn-core, greater part of a caudal vertebra, and two annular segments of the tail- sheath. Irrespective of the interest attached to the extended geographical distribution, lies the fact of the much more important geological range, perhaps even indicating a distinct species of the animal. Evidence is now to hand, in the form of two horn-cores, of the existence oi Meiolania in the superficial deposits near Coolah. The specimens form part of a small collection, consisting of bones of Diproiodoti, Phascoloiius, Procoptodon, &,c., lately presented by Mr. J. McMaster, of Coolah. The conical processes almost rival in size those of the original Meiolania Oivenii, Smith-Woodw. Mr. McMaster states that the fossils were found in the new channel of the Oaky Creek, branch of the main Weetalabah Creek, and in another branch known as Binnia Craek. The Weetalabah flows into the Castlereagh River, in the Bligh District, County Napier, about twenty-two miles north-west of Coolah. The conical processes, in their present state of preservation, when placed on their broad bases, are more or less oblique — one more so than the other — thick bosses, graduating to moderately sharp apices, with an indefinitely quadrate rather than a strictly trihedral section. The peripheral or basal outline is imperfect. In the smaller of the two horn cores, or conical processes, the longest basal diameter, i.e., in the direction of the obliquity, is four inches ; the greatest transverse breadth at ri^ht angles to the former is three inches ; the height, taken veo'tically from the base to the apex, is full,y three inches ; whilst the le*igth of the longest, or anterio-apical ridge (for it seems that in the tail-sheath of Meiolafoia Oivenii, figured by Owen,t the longest ridge of the conical processes is always anterior), is tliree and a half incheg. * Eecords Geol. Survey N.S. Wales, 1889, I., pt. 3, p. 149. t Bliil- Trans., clixii., t. 65. Feb. 189S] 40 KECOEDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. Assuming this to be correct, one of the faces of the trihedral process, the dorsal, is flattened, or in the slightest degree convex ; the under, or ventrolateral, being faintly concave, and the posterior flattened and to some extent truncate. The apex is sharp, acuter than any of the processes flgured by Sir R. Owen.* but less generally cornute than the supra-temporal cores b of the head.f The second specimen only differs materially from the first in the antero-apical line losing much of its ridge-like character, and becoming obtusely rounded. Owing to the more extensive preservation of this part of the process, and the disintegration of the posterior lower portion, this horii-corB presents the appearance of a greater obli(}uity than the other. The length of the antero- apical obtuse ridges is four inches; the aiitero-posterior diameter is four and a half inches ; the transve I'^e diameter three inches ; and the height two and three-(iuarter inches. The lateral and posterior faces are flattened. The surface of both cores is pitted and veined by ueuro-vascular markings. If, in the first place, it be admitted that these are osseous cores for the support of dermal appendages, their interpretation does not seem surrounded with much difficulty. We are not acquainted with any Australian extinct animal, other than Meiolania, possess- ing such exoskeletal outgrowths: and as we know only the skull, part of the tail-sheath, and a few individual bones of this genus, it is but logical to compare these bony processes with those of either one or other of the former. The horn-cores of the skull in Meiolania are either depressed mammillary (the supra-parietal and other smaller pairs), or acutely conical and cornute (the supra-temporal pair). Those of the tail- sheath, on the other hand, arranged in four parallel rows, two dorsal and two lateral, are " massive conical processes, like the horn-cores of the skull, but of larger size, being broader and thicker in proportion to their length, and rather more robust at the apex;"| the upper or dorsal pair being the largest and longest. The appearance of our fossils would indicate that they are from the rings of a tail-sheath, although on comparison with a good plaster reproduction of M. Owenii, they are seen to be more strictly trihedral, and their apices naore regularly conical and sharper than in the former. The difference in shape may perhaps be more apparent than real, and arise in a great measure from their detached condition and imperfect peripheries ; although at present their bases are wider in proportion to the height than in * Phil. Trans., clxxi., t. 37 ; Ibid, clxxii, t. 65. fPhil. Trans., clxxi., t. 37, f. 1, 6' X Phil. Trans., clxxii., p. 547. FURTHER TRACES OF MEIOLANIA IN N. S. WALES — ETHERIDGE. 41 M. Owenii, and the angle of inclination they would probably form, with the median line of the tail, is ditlerent. So far the conviction of the Writer is that they are horn-cores of a Meiolania, probably detached from a tail-sheath and possibly from a species differing from those described. The late Sir R. Owen united in his description of the tail-sheath of Meiolania Owenii, the two rings and cap* with a detached ring.f He remarked! "The anterior ring .... may have come from a more advanced part of the tail, but the peripheral border of the hinder aperture .... tits that of tlie front aperture of the fore- most of the coalesced group." Before me are excellent plaster reproductions of these fossils, and with the highest possible respect for the weighty opinion of the late celebrated Author, it appears to me that this opinion has been too hastily formed. Judging from the casts in question, made I believe, at the Natural History Museum, London, portions between the two parts must be missing, for the union is anything but a happy one. The conical processes on the detached I'ing are much smaller than the anterior pair on the coalesced portion of the tail-sheath, the curvature of the processes is unlike, and to some extent the angle they form with the median line of the tail is difi'erent. Now the assumption naturally would be that the more anterior in position, the larger the processes ; and for the reasons cited I am of opinion that the two portions appertain to separate individuals. One other point may be mentioned in support of this. In the tail-sheath of coalesced processes the lateral pair almost pass insensibly below into the ventral surface, but in the detached ring there is a considerable interval of almost vertical walls between the preserved lateral process and the ventral surface. We look forward to the day when, between the various National Collections, it will be possible to put together a tolerably perfect skeleton of this curious animal. Phil. Traas., clxxii., t. 65, f. 1-3 (-pars.) t Phil. Trans., clxxii., t. 65, f. 4. X Phil. Trans., clxxii., p. 547. 42 EBCORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN AQUATIC HEMIPTERA. (No. 1.) By Frederick A. A. Skuse, F.L.S., Entomologist. [Plate XI.] The following are descriptions of two species of fresh-water Hemiptera, found commonly in the vicinity of Sydney, and which appear to be novelties. As opportunity occurs, the author hopes to supplement them with diagnoses of further species inhabiting the fresh-water creeks and ponds of New- South Wales, and, if possible, of those of the neighbouring colonies : — Family HYDROMETRIDiE. Genus Hydrometra, Fab. HyDROMETRA AUSTRALIS, SJJ. IIOV. (Plate xi. fig. 3.) Above black or olive-black, shining ; beneath yellowish-grey with a silvery bloom. Head with two longitudinal orange-yellow lines connected on the hind margin, and an orange spot or short line before the eyes. Antennae black ; first joint about one-third the length of the whole taken together. Pronotum parallel, coniform posteriorly, bordered with an orange-yellow line, and with a longitudinal line traversing about one-sixth of its length, and two very short (sometimes indistinct) longitudinal lines anteriorly ; obtusely tuberculated anteriorly. Pleurae and coxae striped or spotted with orange-yellow. Elytra wanting. Abdo- minal segments with a more or less distinct interrupted median orange-yellow line. Length. — 8 mm. ^a6.— Sydney, N.S.W. NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN AQUATIC HEMIPTERA — SKUSE. 43 Family LiMNOBATiDiE. Gemis Limnobates, Burm. LiMNOBATES STRIGOSA, sp. nOV. (Plate xi. figs. 1, 2.) Long narrow, brown or yellowish-brown ; head about the length of the thorax, subcylinclrical, widened in front ; eyes hemispherical, set in the sides of the head considerably behind the middle. First joint of the antennae half the length and twice the thickness of the second. Abdomen at its widest part scarcely wider than the thorax. Tarsi black. Length. — 11 mm. Hab. — Sydney, and Botany Swamps, N.S.W. Appended are brief notes of species known to occur in this country : — Family NoTONECTlDiE. Genus Corixa, Geoff. Three species of Corixa common in the ponds about Sydney. Genus Sigara, Fabr. Two species, rather abundant. Genus Anisops, Spin. Anisops australis, Stal. Ofr. K. V. Ak. Forh. xii. 190; Stal. Bug. Resa, 267. Several other species abundant. Family Nepid^. Genus Nepa, Linn. Nepa tristis, Stal. Ofr. K. V. Ak. Forh. xi. 241 ; Eug. Resa. 266. Hab. — Waterloo Swamps, N.S.W. Genus Ranatra, Fabr. Ranatra filiformis , Fabr. Skrivt. Nat. Selskal. i. 228 ; Ent. Syst. iv. 64; Syst. Rhyn. 108; Schneid. Neu. Mag. i. 31 ; H. Sch. Wanz. Ins. ix. 31, pi. 290, fig. H; Stal. Hem. Fabr. 2, 135. Generally distributed. 44 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. Genus Belostoma, Lair. Belostoma indicn, Stoll. Pun. 34, pi. 7, fig. 4; St. Farq. et Serv. Enc. X. 272 ; Serv. Hist. Hem. 429 ; Mayr, Verh. z. b. G. Wien. xxi. 426. Generally distributed. Genus Diplonychus, DeLap. DipJ.onycJms eques, L. - Duf. A. S. E. F. 4me Ser. ii. 394 ; Mayr. Verh. z. b. G. Wien, xxi. 437. Hah. Australia. Diplonychus rusticus, Stoll. Pun. 36, pi. 7, fig. 6 ; Sulz. Alg. Gesch. Tns. 92, pi. 10, fig. 2 ; Fabr. Syst. Rhyn. 106 ; L. Duf. A. S. E. F. 399 ; Mayr. Verh. z. b. G. Wien, xxi. 438. Generally distributed. Genus Naucoris, Geoffr. Occurs commonly ; several species known, but none described. Family Hydrometrid.e. Genus Hydrometra, Fabr. Hydrometra cursitans, Fabr. Syst. Ent. 729 ; Sp. Ins. ii. 377 ; Mant. Ins. ii. 308 ; Sysfe. llhyn. 259 ; Stal. Hem. Fabr. i. 131. Hah. Australia. Hydrometra australis, sp. n. Hah. Sydney, N.S.W. Two or tJiree undescribed species are known. Genus Halobates, Esch. Halohaf.es vjiillerstorffl, Frauenf. Vehr. z. b. G. Wien, xvii. 458, pi. 12, figs. 1, 2" 6, 8, 10 ; Glial. Rep. Hah. Coast of Australia ; Port Jackson ; Western Australia. Haluhates whiteleygei, Sk. Records Aust. Museum, Vol. i. No. 8, p. 175, pi. xxvii. Hi6 of which, known as the Lapstone Hill fault, assisted in the formation of the abrupt eastern margin of the Blue Mountains 1 With regard to more recent deposits, many of the gullies running up through the Upper Marine beds, and the Coal-measures, exhibit small waterfalls, around which are deposited considerable masses of calcareous tufa. The Aborigines of the WoUondilly and Nattai Valleys, must, from local accounts, have existed in considerable numbers, and are now only represented by interments, carved trees, wizards' hands, and charcoal drawings in rock shelters along the precipitous escarpments. The first objects investigated under this head were the "Hands- on-the-Rock," which had been reported by Mr. Cuneo. The "rock" consists of a huge mass of Hawkesbury Sandstone (Plate XII) about seventeen feet in breadth and length, hollowed out on the side overlooking the river to the extent of six feet. It is perched on the side of a gentle rise from the WoUondilly, having rolled from the higher ground above, and alongside the tj-ack from the Nattai Junction to Cox's River, in the immediate south-west corner of the Parish Werriberri. The cavernous front of the rock is fifteen feet broad, and twelve feet high. On the back wall are depicted a number of red hands, both right and left. The principal ones, arranged roughly in a sigmoidal curve, are reproduced in Plate XII, with the extended fingers invariably pointing upwards. The other hands are irregularly scattered to the right and below those just referred to, and altogether there may be as many as seventeen. Under the principal hands are four white curved bands, resembling boomerangs or ribs, the whole of the hands being relieved, as is usually the case with these representations, by white splash-work. The hand-marks in this shelter differ, however, from any I have seen before by an unquestionably previous preparation of the rock surface for their reception by incising the surface to the shape of each hand, thus leaving a slightly raised margin around each. I have recently givenf an epitome of our knowledge of these hand imprints, their method of preparation, and supposed significance sufiiciently full to render any further reference unnecessary at * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 18G6, xxii., p. 445. fC. S. Wilkinson, Notes on the Geol. N.S. Wales, 2ad Edit., 1887, p. 70. t Records Geol. Survey N.S. Wales, 1892, iii., Pt. i., p. 34. 50 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. present. The colour red, amongst black races, was the symbol of evil.* Mr. Maurice Hayes, of Queahgong, informed me that he has known the rock for the past fifty years, and that the imprints have not altered in the least. He found it difficult to obtain reliable information from the Aborigines regarding them ; they expressed ignorance, but ultimately gave him to understand that the " hands were the imprints of those of their Deity, when on earth." The large alluvial flats in this neighbourhood, along the Wollon- dilly, were, I was informed, great gathering grounds for the various tribes from many miles round, even those of Goulburn and Shoalhaven participating. On a spur overlooking one of these green expanses, known as Gorman's Flat, immediately at the junction of the WoUondilly and Nattai Rivers, in Portion B. 171/587, Parish of Wingecarrabee, County Westmoreland, we investigated an interment, thirty years old, indicated by a single carved tree, but the device has, T regret to say, been wantonly destroyed. This grave is known to be that of "Jimmy Aremoy," or " Blackman's Billy," of the local tribe, and called in the Aboriginal dialect Ah-re-moy, and was covered by a small mound at the foot of a small tree, forty-seven feet north of the carved tree, and had been surrounded by a sapling fence. After removing! the mound and superincumbent soil, we found the grave had been filled with boulders and large pieces of rock, to the depth of four feet six, whilst under this was a layer of split timber and bark. On removing this, we found the skeleton well wrapt in what had once been an old coat, a blanket, and an opossum rug. The skeleton was doubled up in the usual manner, the arms drawn up to the breast, and the legs against the abdomen, placed on the right side, and facing the south-east. On endeavouring to remove the remains, the whole collapsed, and it was found possible to secure only the skull and limb bones. The whole of the bones were blackened and much decayed, from the presence of a good deal of soakage water. Mr, Maurice Hayes told me that the local Aborigines generally buried in a sitting posture, the corpse being in a small drive from the bottom of the grave proper — the Tlieddora Trilje, at Omeo, buried in a similar mannerj — and with a stake driven through the skull from above ; but in this case the deceased had certainly * Fraser, Journ. E. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1882 [1883], xvi., p. 213. fThe grave was opened with the permission and assistance of Mr. Maurice Gorman, the owner of the ground. JHowitt, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1884, xiii., p. 190. GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS — ETHERIDGE. 51 been laid in the prone positon. Not the least interesting fact was the variety of articles placed with the deceased, according to aboriginal custom. Loose in the superincumbent earth we found an ingenious conversion of a piece of forked iron into a probable spear-head, a pointed stick, and some loose pieces of timber. Underneath the skeleton in various positions there occurred an old comb in two pieces, a thimble, a large iron spoon, the blade of another spoon, a small bullet mould, handle and portion of the tin plate-work of an old " quart-pot " or "billy- can," fragment of a clay tobacco pipe-stem, top of an old metal powder or shot-case, containing shot and a few shirt buttons, and last, but by no means the least curious, a castor oil bottle, still containing what seems to be a portion of the oil, — this was placed directly under the head. Mr. Maurice Gorman subsequently conducted us across the Wollondilly to a slight rise above "Larry Gorman's Fat," Parish of Nattai, on the Nattai side of the Wollondilly, County of Camden, and a little below the junction of the rivers. Here we viewed the burial place of a "Chief" of the late local tribe, the interment having taken place about fifteen years ago. It lies contiguous to one of three marked trees placed in a triangle, the longest side or base of the latter being half a chain in length, and bearing north-west and south-east. The trees are still erect, although the carvings are more or less obliterated by bush fires, but they seem to have been chiefly in zig-zag lines, and of course cut with an iron tomahawk. The heavy rain prevailing at the time deterred us from investigating this burial. It is situated on either Portions C. 98/70 or C. 98/105, Parish of Nattai. This concluded our investigations in Burragorang proper, but on returning to Thirlmere, we diverted our course near Yander- ville, across the Werriberri Creek to " The Hermitage," the estate of Mr. W. G. Hayes, Parish of Burragorang, County of Camden. Through the kindness of Mr. Hayes we were allowed to examine a much more extensive burial-ground than either of the preceding. Here, on a small plateau above and to the east of the Waterfall Creek, a branch of the Werriberri, and behind, or to the south of the homestead, are four graves of various sizes distinguished by four carved trees, more or less in a state of dilapidation. There does not appear to have been any geometrical form of arrangement assumed in the placing of these graves, unless it be a roughly rhomboidal one. We expected, from current report, to find five graves here, but four only rewarded our efibrts. Three of the graves and three carved trees are more or less in a north-west and south-east line. Starting at the north-west corner, the figures on a She-oak (Casuarina) have been partially obliterated, ten feet from this is the first grave, and fourteen feet from the latter is another carved She-oak (Plate 52 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. XIII., Fig. 1), now lying on the ground and much decayed. Fifty- one feet still further on occurs the largest grave, and at another fifty-one feet the third ornamented tree, a dead gum still standing but much burnt by bush fires, and bearing an extraordinary figure (Plate XIII., Fig. 2). Between the last grave and tliis tree, and deviating somewhat from the straight line in the third interment, at right angles to the original starting point ; and fifty-four feet from it, at right angles, is the fourth carved tree, also a dead gum, bearing the figures shown in Plate XIII., Fig. 3. At right angles to this again, and distant sixty-four feet, is the fourth grave, apparently without any indicating tree near it. We did not investigate the contents of these graves owing to want of time. The carving on the first tree (Plate III., Fig. 1) is four feet four inches long, and one foot seven inches wide ; that on the second tree (Plate XIII., Fig. 2) is five feet six inches long, and one foot ten inches wide; and that on the third (Plate XIII., Fig. 3) is the smallest, three feet three inches long by nine inches wide, as now preserved. In the Waterfall Creek previously referred to, are numerous grooved surfaces on the rock-bed and sides, caused by the process of tomahawk grinding. I am not acquainted with any systematic account of Australian carved trees; in fact little seems to have been collectively written about them, and very few representations figured. Probably some of the earliest illustrations are those by Oxley, Sturt, and " W.R.G.," presumed to be from the context of his writings, Mr. Surveyor W. R. Govett, of Govett's Leap fame. Oxley discovered a grave on the Lachlan, consisting of a semi-circular mound, with two trees overlooking it, barked and carved in a simple manner.* These carvings consisted of herring-bone on the one tree, and well marked curved although simple lines on the other. The explorer Sturt noticed an oblong grave beyond Taylor's Rivulet, Macquarie River, around which the trees were "fancifully carved on the inner side," one with a figure of a heart, f The anonymous author (W.R.G.) describes an occurrence of this kind at Mount Wayo, County Argyle, in the following words, " The trees all round the tomb were marked in various peculiar ways, some with zig-zags and stripes, and pieces of bark otherwise cut."| A Mr. Macdonald states that the Aborigines of the Page and Isis, tributaries of the Hunter River, carve serpentine lines on two trees to the north- west of each grave. § * Journ. Two Expeds. Interior N.S. Wales, 1820, p. 139, plate. tTwo Expeds. Interior S. Austr., 1834, I., p. 1-i. t Saturday Mag., 183U, IX., No. 279, p. 18 i. § Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1878, VII., p. 25G. GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS — ETHBRIDGE. 53 The figures are either composed of riglit lines or curves, more commonly the former, but a few instances have been recorded of natural objects, such as the outline of an Emu's foot, seen by Leichhardt on a gum tree in the Gulf Country.* One thing is self-evident, such carvings possessed a dual if not a triple significance. We have already seen the employment of them to indicate an interment, presumably acting the part of a tomb- stone, for it is believed by some that the figures on a tree in each case correspond to those on the inner side of deceased's 'possum rug, the inombarai, or "drawing," which Fraser thinks was distinctive in each family, or a peculiar modification of the tribal moinharai.'\ So far as 1 can gather, such devices invariably indicated the last resting-place of a male. Mr. E. M. Curr statesj that the Breeaba Tribe, at the head-waters of the Burdekin River, North Queensland, employed marked tiees to commemorate a battle. He figures a tree from the banks of the Diamantina, barked and marked by a series of close, irregularly super-imposed notches, like those made by a Black when climVjing a tree. These, however, can hardly be compared to carvings. According to Mr. J. Henderson, Dr. John Fraser, Mr. A. W. Howitt, and Mr. Macdonald previously mentioned. Bora Grounds are also embellished with carved trees. The first-named describes 1^ the approach to one of these initiation places at Wellington as through "a long, straight, avenue of trees, extend- ing for about a mile, and these were carved on each side with various devices. . . At the lower extremity of this, a narrow path- way turned off towards the left, and soon terminated in a circle." Mr. Henderson further remarks that the fact of the use of this place for Bora purposes was communicated to him by the then head- man of the tribe. Dr. Fraser says|| that the Gringai Tribe, one of the northern N.S. Welsh tribes, clear two circular enclosures, one within the other, for their Bora, and that the trees growing around the smaller circle are carved " with curious emblematical devices and figures"; whilst Mr. Macdonald informs us that on the Bora ground of the Page and Isis River Natives, as many as a hundred and twenty marked trees occur round about.H Confirmation is further aftbrded by Mr. W. 0. Hodgkinson, who saw a Bora ground on the Macleay River with "trees minutely tatooed, and carved to such a considerable altitude that he *Journ. Overland Exped. Moreton Bay to Port Essington, 1847, p. 356. t Journ. K. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1892 [1893], xvi., p. 201. X The Australian Eace, 1886, ii., p. 433. §Obs. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832, p. 145, pi. 3. II Journ. E. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1882 [1883] xvi., p. 205. IF Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit. Ireland, 1878, vii., p. 256. 54 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. could not help feeling astonished at the labour bestowed on the work."* If, as previously stated, according to current report, the designs on the trees be the same as those on the 'possum rugs, the transfer of them to the trees surrounding a grave must have had some important and lasting meaning to the survivors. The figures on the rug may have indicated some degree of ownership, a crest, coat of arms, or monogram, as it were, and in such a case the reproduction on the trees surrounding a grave may be looked upon as an identification of the deceased. Henderson speaks of the tree carvings as symbols. "A symbol is afterwards carved upon the nearest tree, which seems to indicate the particular tribe to which the individual may have belonged."! Or had they a deeper esoteric meaning, one only known to the learned men of the tribe 1 Smyth statesj that the figures on the inner sides of the 'possum rugs " were the same as those on their weapons, namely, the herring-bone, chevron, and saltier." How easily these same devices can be traced, in a general way, both on the carved trees and some of the wooden weapons, is amply shown by many of the excellent figures given in Smyth's work. This painstaking Author, in briefly dealing, too briefly in fact, with this interesting subject, says,^ " The natives of the Murray and the Darling, and those in other parts adjacent, carved on the trees near the tombs of deceased warriors strange figures having i7ieanings no doubt intelligible to all the tribes in the vast area watered by these rivers." By the Kamilaraij] they were regarded as " memorials " of the dead. It is much to be regretted that before the last reuniant of this fast disappearing race has passed away, a translation, or at any rate an explanation of these matters, cannot be obtained. * Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 292. t Ob?. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832, p. 149. J Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 288. § Ibid, p. 28G. The italics are mine. II T. Honery, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1878, vii., p. 254. Publications of the Australian Museum.— OoNxiNnED. IV.— GUIDES. 1 Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains in the Australian Museum. 1870. 8vo. (Out of print.) 2. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. iv.-56 Wrapper, 3d. (Out of print.) 3. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1890. 8vo. pp. 156. Wrapper. v.— MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. 1. List of Old Documents and Eelics in the Australian Museum. 1884. Eeprinted with additions, 1890. 8vo. pp. 4. 2. Descriptive List of Aboriginal Weapons Implements &c., from the Darling and Lachlan Eivers, by K. H. Bennett, F.L.S. 1887. 8vo. pp. 8. (Out of print.) 3. Notes for Collectors. 1887. 8vo. Is. 4. Hints for the Collectors of Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, by F.Eatte pp. 26, with a plate. 6d. 5. Hints for the Preservation of Specimens of Natural History, by E. P. Eamsay 1891. 4th Edition, pp. 32. Is. VL— RECORDS. Vol. I., March, 1890 to Deer. 1891. 8vo. pp. 202. 30 plates. Boards. Price 25s. Vol. II., No. 1. April, 1892. 8vo. pp. 22. 3 plates. Wrappers. Price, 2s. 6d. „ No. 2. August, „ „ pp. 10. 4 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. „ No. 3. August, „ „ pp. 6. 3 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. No. 4. February, 1893 „ pp. 16. 3 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. IN PREPARATION. Catalogue of the Library. Eevised and corrected. Catalogue of Shells. Hargraves and General Collections, by J. Brazier. Catalogues of Eeptiles, Lizards, Batrachia, Fishes, &c., by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Birds. Part IV. Picariae, by E. P. Eamsay. Catalogue of Tunicata, by Prof. Herdman, Liverpool, Eng. Eecords, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus & Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney ; Mr. W. Dymock, George Street, Sydney; Messrs. Turner & Henderson, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Messrs. E. A. Petherick & Co., George Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ; Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London. [Exchanges of Serials, Works, Eeports, and other publications are earnestly solicited on behalf of the Museum Library.] CONTENTS. On Further Traces of Meiolania in N. S. Wales. By E. Etlieridge, Junr., Paltsontologist 39 Notes on Australian Aquatic Hemiptera. (No. 1.) By Frederick A. A. Skuse, F.L.S. Entomologist 42 Remarks on a New Cyria from New South Wales. By Frederick A. A. Skuse, F.L.S. Entomologist 45 Geological and Ethnological Observations made in the Valley of the Wollondilly Eiver, at its Junction with the Nattai Eiver, Counties Camden and Westmoreland. By E. Etheridge, Junr., Palaeontologist ... 46 RECORDS ■JOV 38 1888 ;,■ 1 2,, 3 51 AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II., No. 5. PRINTED BY OKDER OF THE TRUSTEES. E. P. RAMSAY, F.R.S.E., Curator. ii , SYDNEY, SEPTEMBER, 1893. F. W. WHITE PRINTER, MARKET STREET WEST. POBLICATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. ' SEPTEMBER, 1893. < ^ ■ I.— CATALOGUES. 1. CATALO(JtrS OF THS SPECIMENS OF NATURAL HiSTORY AND MISCELLANEOUS CURIOSITIES IN THE Australian Museum, by G. Bennett. 1837. 8vo. pp. 71. (Out of print.) 2. Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the AustIialian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1864. 12mo. pp. 133. (Out of print.) 3. Catalogue of the Minerals and Eocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1873. 8vo. pp. xvii.-115. (Out of print.) 4. Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Accipitres. 1876. 8vo. pp. viii.-64. Boards, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. Part II. Strides. 1890. 8vo. pp. 35. Wrapper, Is. 6d. Part III. Psittaci. 1891. 8vo. pp. viii.-llO. Wrapper, 5s. 5. Catalogue of the Australian Stalk and Sessile-eted Crustacea, by W. A. HasweU. 1882. Svo. pp. xxiv.-324, with 4 plates. (Scarce) Wrapper, 21s. 6. Catalogue of the Library OF the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. 178. Wrapper, Is. 6d., with two supplements. (Out of print.) 7. Catalogue of a Collection of Fossils in the Australian Museum, with Introduc- tory Notes, by F. Ratte. 1883. Svo. pp. xxviii.-160. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 8. Catalogue of the Australian Hydroid Zoophytes, by W. M. Bale. 1884. Svo pp. 198, with 19 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. 9. Descriptive Catalogue of the General Collection of Minerals in the Australian Museum, by F. Ratte. 1885. Svo. pp. 221, with a plate. Boards, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 38. 6d. 10. Catalogue of Echinodermata in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Echini. 1885. Svo. pp. iii. ii.-54, with 5 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 2nd Edit., 1890. 11. Descriptive Catalogue of the Medusa of the Australian Seas. Part I. Scypho- medusEe. Part II. Hydromedusee, by R. von Lendenfeld. 1887. Svo. pp. 32 and 49. (Withdrawn from sale.) 12. Descriptive Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, by A. J. North. 1889. Svo. pp. iv. v.-407, with 21 plates. Wrapper, 12s. 6d. Coloured plates, £2 5s. 13. Descriptive Catalogue of the Sponges in. the Australian Museum, by R. von Lendenfeld, 1888. Svo. pp. xiv.-260, with 12 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, lOs. 6d. 14. Catalogue of the Fishes in the Australian Museum. Part I. Palafiichthyan Fishes, by J. Douglas Ogilby. 1888. Svo. pp. 34. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. ; boards, 3s. 6d. 15. Catalogue op the Marine Shells of Australia and Tasmania, by J. Brazier. Part I. Cephalopoda, 1892. Svo. pp. 20. Paper, 2s. 6d. Part II. Pteropoda, 1892. Svo. pp. 22. Paper, 2s. 6d. Part III. Gasteropoda (Murex), 1893. Svo. pp. 32. Paper, 2s. 6d. 16. Catalogue of Australian Mammals, with Introductory Notes on General Mammalogy, by J. D. Ogilby, 1892. Svo. pp. xvi.-144. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. II.— MONOGRAPHS. 1. Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations, by the late A. "W. Scott, with Illustrations by his daughters, Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Forde. Edited and revised by A. S. Olliff and Mrs. Forde. Vol. IL, Parts 1,2 & 3. Wrappers, 15s. each. III.— MEMOIRS. 1. History and Description of the Skeleton op a new Sperm Whale in thk Australian Museum, by W. S. Wall. 1851. Svo. pp. 66, with plates. Reprint 1887. Wrappers, 2s. 6d. 2. Lord Howe Island, its Zoology, Geology, and Physical Characters. 1889. Svo. pp. viii.-132 with 10 plates. Boards, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, 10s. 6d N'OV 28 1893 PHOLAS OBTUEAMENTUM. — HEDLEY. 55 PHOLAS OBTURAMENTUM ; an UNDESCRIBED BIVALVE FROM SYDNEY HARBOUR. By C. Hedley, F.L.S. [Plate XIV.] In the course of a critical examination of various Mollusca from Port Jackson, specimens of the only Pholas reported thence passed under review. This species has hitherto been accepted as P. similis by all writers and collectors who have occupied them- selves with the marine mollusca of our coast. This identification appears to have originated with G. F. Angas, who in his " List of additional Species of Marine Mollusca to be included in the Fauna of Port Jackson and the adjacent Coasts of New South Wales,"* enumerates as species 93 : — "Barnea similis. Pholas similis, Gray, MS. Brit. Mus. ; Thesaurus Conch, pi. ciii., f. 12-14; 'Bottle and Glass' rocks, in sandstone (Brazier)," This entry is repeated verbatim by Mr. T. White! egge in the " List of the Marine and Freshwater Invertebrate Fauna of Port Jackson and the Neighbourhood. "f Mr. Bi'azier informs me that this determination was also supported by the late G. B. Sowerby. Prof. Tate records Barnea similis, Gray, J as "burrowing in clay at low tide mark, Port Lincoln, St. Vincent Gulf, and south-east coast [of South Australia] ; also in Tasmania." On examining the statement of Angas closely, our faith in his accuracy is weakened by observing that Gray's name was not, as he states, a manuscript one. It was first published with a description in 1835 in the Appendix of Yates' New Zealand, p. 309, and it again appeared, with further information, eight years later, in Vol. ii. of Dieff"enbach's New Zealand, p. 254 where the author remarks that it is " very like Pholas parvus, but larger, broader, and more acute in front." Between the New Zealand and the Australian species a dis- crepancy at once appears on comparing examples of the Port * Proc. Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 99. t Journ and Proc. Koy. Soc. N.S.W., xxiii. (1889), p. 234. X Trans. Soy. Soc. S. Australia, iz., p. 80. Sept. 1893J 56 RECOKDS OF THE AtJSTRAlIAN MUSEUM. Jackson Pholas with the figures illustrating the former (Thesaurus Conchyliorum, Yol. ii., pi. ciii., ff. 12, 13, 14).* Having no examples of the New Zealand species at my disposal, I am con- strained to base my remarks on these engravings, which, from their finish, should be faithful representations. Sowerby's mistake in supposing the species to be an uiidescribed one, implies that he had Gray's types before him ; while both Philippi's diagnosis of P. antipodumf and Gray's description answer well to these drawings and also leave no room for doubt that the specimens were actually obtained in New Zealand. Viewed from the ventral side the difference is most apparent, the gape extending a third further along the ventral margin, and being much wider anteriorly in Sowerby's figure than in the local species ; P. similis may be likened to a cylinder cut obliquely at an angle of 30° and P. ohturamenf.um to one cut at an angle of 45° Dorsally the profile of the New Zealand form appears to be more swollen and to taper more sharply at the anterior extremity than does the Australian. The spinose ridges would seem to be more feebly developed, and the size to be smaller in the local species ; but, without more material for comparison, the writer would not attach specific importance to such characters. The Sydney shells, having been procured from sandstone rock, may reasonably be supposed to be smaller and smoother than if their burrows had been drilled in softer substances. The next ally of our species seems to be P. manilensis, Philippi, \ next to that the British P. parvus, Pennant, and least of the three the New Zealand P. similis. The unfigured Papuan P. beccarii, Tap. Can.§, probably is akin. These five appear to represent a small and natural group, among which the Australian species is clearly distinguishable by the more anterior position of the beaks and by the less posterior extension of the gape. This species may be characterised as follows : — Pholas obturamentum, sp. nov. Shell somewhat tongue-shaped, evenly tapering from the beaks to the posterior extremity, rounded posteriorly, dorsal and ventral margins straight, gibbous ventro-anteriorly, the closed valves in- cluding a heart-shaped space rather longer than wide ; valves in * Except Philippi's Abbild. Beschr. Conch., Vol. iii., Pholas, pi. i., f. 3., the other published figures, viz.. Conch. Icon., Vol. xviii., Pholas, pi. iii., f. 10, and Conch. Cab. (2) Vol. xi., pt. xx., pi. vi., f. 3, are mere copies, the latter a bad one, of Sowerby's f . 12. t Zeits. Mai. iv., 18i7, p. 71, &c. JThes. Conch, pi. ciii., ff. 17, 18. § Ann. Mus. Civ. Geneva, vii., p. 1032. NOTES ON AUSTBALIAN TTPHLOPIDJE. — WAITE. 57 contact along the ventral margin for half the length of the shell, the left valve slightly overlapping the right. Colour a uniform dull white. Epidermis pale straw colour, largely abraded, thin and very wrinkled. Sculpture about thirty concentric growth laminte in the interstices of which are two or three raised hair lines; anteriorly these laminae are puckered up into lines of square-headed thorns by transverse waves radiating from the beaks. Opposite the beaks the thorny ridges diminish for a few series and cease, posteriorly they are represented by faint wrinkles on the growth laminae. Beaks situated at a quarter of the length of the shell from the anterior extremity. Hinge margin narrow, sharply recurved, not appressed to the valve and destitute of such denticles as possessed by P. dactylus. Dorsal plate lanceolate, single, entire, striated by divaricating growth lines, with a shallow median furrow. Subumbonal process long, flat and curved. Length 40, height 20, breadth 16 mm. Attached to some specimens are pale brown, tough, coriaceous siphon sheaths. Type. — In the Australian Museum, Sydney. The specimens on which my description is based were collected by Mr. Brazier in a small outcrop of shale at Vaucluse Bay, That gentleman informs me that he also encountered the species at "The Nobbys," near Newcastle, and at the mouth of the Bellinger River, some examples attaining twice the dimensions of those now recorded. NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN TYPHLOPIDjE. By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S. 1. Typhlops curtus, Ogilhy. It is worthy of remark that no one in Australia has hitherto investigated the TyjMojyidce of the continent : the reason probably lies in the fact that only a very small portion of this immense area can be said to be at all adequately known, and scientific workers have ample material of more attractive and better differentiated forms than characterise the Typhlopidce. Although of all snakes this group is admitted to be the most difficult of determination, some fifteen Australian species are known ; all these have, however, been described in Europe : by Gray and 58 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAJf MUSEUM. Boulenger in London, Peters in Berlin, Schmidt in Hamburg, Schlegel in Leyden, and Jan in Milan : consequently all the type specimens are in Europe, and without direct reference to these the task of determination is no light one ; it is, however, a pity that such valuable material as the large collection of local Tyijldopidoi contained in the Australian Museum should remain year after year uninvestigated, and in taking up the examination of these specimens I therefore propose to publish any points of interest with which I may meet, in the hope that it may be a step in the direction of placing our knowledge of the Australian Typldopicke more on a level with better worked families. The Collection in the Museum, although large, is, as might naturally be expected, somewhat local, being composed mainly of individuals collected in New South Wales, more particularly in the neighbourhood of Sydney. As only a few of the species described have been obtained from this Colony, any specimens from other parts of Australia with which we might be favored would be especially valuable. In this connection I may mention that the Trustees of the Macleay Museum, Sydney, have very kindly granted me per- mission to examine the extensive collection of Typldojndte formed by the late Hon. Sir William Macleay ; and Mr. C. W. de Vis has generously otlered to place in my hands, for investiga- tion, the examples contained in the Queensland Museum of which he is the Curator. Only one species has, I believe, been described in Australia, and it is therefore disappointing to have to point out its identity with a species previously described. In all the Ty phlojndce, so far as I am aware, the body scales are arranged in an even transverse series. In the " Records of the Australian Museum," Vol. ii., p. 23, Mr. J. Douglas Ogilby describes a species under the name of Typldops curius, and remarks that it has twenty-three series of scales round the middle of the body. This apparent departure from the usual conditions led me to re-examine the type specimen, when I found the number to be twenty^/'ottr. The species must therefore be referred to Typhlops ligatus, Peters,* with which it agrees in every particular. Peters obtained his specimen from Port Mackay. Ogilby's type is from Walsh River, Gulf of Carpentaria, and I have found in the Museum Collection other examples from Coomooboolaroo, Dawson River. Therefore, so far as is known, this species is confined to Queensland. [I have submitted the foregoing note to Mr. Ogilby, who entirely agrees with my remarks, and was not aware of Peters' paper when he wrote his description.] * Monatsb. d. K. Akad. d. W. Berlin, 1879, p. 775, fig. 3. NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN TYPHLOPIDJE — "WAITE. 59 2. Typhlops ruppelli, Jan. [Plate XV., Figs. 5 and 6.] It may occasion some little surprise that I seek to raise to specific rank a species which is generally considered as identical with T. nigrescens, Gray. This species is conmion in New South Wales, and has a more or less conspicuous dark patch on each side of the body near the anus. In commencing an examination of the large collection of Australian Typhlopidcn in the Museum, I made a careful study of T. nigrescens, and came to the conclusion that Peters was correct in regarding it and T. ruppelli as one and the same species.* During further investigation, however, I have dis- covered examples which are so entirely distinct that I have no longer any doubt as to the specific position of T. ruppelli. When describing this species, Jan remarksf that it is especially characterised by a round black spot on each side of the anus. In no example of T. nigrescens which I have examined is the spot darker than the body scales, and only in extreme cases does the color at all approach it. Moreover the coloration is confined to three scales at most, and on account of the shortness of the tail appears very close to the extremity of the body. (Plate xv., fig. 5). In T. rilppelli the spot is extremely conspicuous, is absolutely jet black and infinitely darker than any of the body scales. It is of larye size, occupying several scales, and owing to the greater relative length of tail is at some distance from the extremity of the body. (Plate xv., fig. 6). The relative length of the tail is one of the most striking points of difi"erence. In T. nigrescens it has about twelve scales and is broader than long (Jan says a quarter longer than broad), while in T. rilppelli there are about twenty-five scales, and the length is fully twice the breadth. The former species is of more robust form, has the posterior part of the body much thickened and attains larger dimensions, reaching 570 millim. ; while the latter is of more even diameter and smaller, none of our specimens exceeding 340 millim. The scales on the head do not differ very materially : in T. ruppelli the internasals approach more nearly together, and the portion of the rostral between them is rather more acute than in T. nigrescens. This is indicated in Jan's figures,! but as pointed * Monatsb. d. K. Akad. d. W. Berlin, 1865, p. 262. t Icon. Gen. des Ophidiens, p. 14. X Ibid, 9 Liv., pi. i., figs. 1 and 2, 60 RECORDS OF THE AXTSTRALIAN MTJSETJM. out by Peters with regard to T. preissi and other species* they are not absolutely reliable. It appears highly probable that Peters had never seen an example of T. ruppelli when he stated its identity with T. nigrescens, but like Prof. McCoyf had considered that Jan des- cribed the species from an example of T. nigrescens; probably one in which the anal spots were well marked. 3. Typhlops proximus, sp. nov. [Plate XV., Figs. 1 - 4.] Habit stout, thickened posteriorly. Snout very prominent, with acute margin. Rostral more than half the width of the head, ex- tending almost to the level of the eyes, narrowed in front and below ; the portion visible from beneath longer than wide ; nasal incompletely divided, the fissure extending from the first labial to the upper surface of the snout ; nostrils inferior, close to the margin of the snout ; preocular narrower than the ocular ; nasal the widest. Eye very distinct, situated in the angle between the preocular and supraocular. Internasal, supraoculars and parietals enlarged. Four upper labials. Diameter of the middle of the body thirty-five times in the total length. Tail, not longer than broad, terminating in a short stout spine. Twenty scales round the body. Colors. — Variable in spirits, generally brownish-olive to greyish- brown above, each scale margined with yellow, lower surfaces yellow ; sometimes a more or less distinct small brown patch on each side of the anus. Dimensions. Total length Length of head Width of head ... Width of body ... Length of tail Width of tail Habitat. — New South Wales and Victoria. Several specimens. Type. — In the Australian Museum, Sydney. Reg. No. 64n. There should be no difiiculty in distinguishing T. proximus from the other Australian species ; the character of the nasal fissure being in contact with the first labial and produced on to the upper surface of the snout is common only to three other species, •Archiv. fur. Naturg. 1862, p. 35 (not 1861, Zool. Eecord, i.) t Prod. Zool. Victoria, ii., p. 9. 405-0 millim. 8-5 8-5 11-5 8-0 11-0 NOTES ON ATJSTRALIAN TYPHLOPID^ — WAITE. 61 namely, T. nigrescens, Gray, T. regince, Boulenger, — each of which has twenty-two transverse scales and a rounded snout — and T. ligatus, Peters, readily recognisable by the narrow rostral and the twenty-four rows of scales. In T. proximus, as already mentioned, the snout is decidedly acute, and the scales are arranged in twenty series. In Plate xv., figs. 3 and 4 are drawn from the type specimen, and figs. 1 and 2 from an average example of 2'. nigrescens introduced for the purposes of comparison ; in the latter, four body scales are in contact with each parietal, while in T. proximus there are only three, owing to the smaller number in the transverse series. The figures being drawn to the same scale (four times natural size) it will be seen that the head of this species is relatively larger than that of T. fiigrescens, for the specimens are of practically equal length, being 405 millim. and 395 millim, respectively. It will be noticed that Jan's figures* are fairly accurate, and McCoy, although describing T. nigrescens, has figuredf at any rate the head of the species I here determine. Since the foregoing was in type, I have written to Professor Sir Frederick McCoy, and mentioned how closely his figure resembles T. proximus ; and although in the text he states that the body scales are in twenty-two rows, I ventured to ask him to re-count the rows in the specimen figured, and I quote the follow- ing from his reply : — " First I must thank you for drawing my attention to a misprint, — in my description of Typhlops nigrescens in my Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria, Dec. xi., — of twenty-two scales instead of twenty, which I find in my MSS. and in all the specimens..." He further mentions that in his figures (Plate 103, figs. \a. and \c.) the rostral is not drawn quite sufiiciently prominent; this would increase the similarity between his figures and mine, and as he assures me that all the figures on the Plate were drawn from the same specimen (although, owing to the apparent discrepancy in the number of body scales, I had suggested to him that they were not), it appears evident that Plate 103 illustrates T. proximus and not T. nigrescens. The anal spot is, however, more conspicuous than in any of my specimens, but is subject to much variation, being absent in some examples. As Prof. McCoy mentions that all his specimens possess the character of having only twenty rows of scales on the body, it would appear that there are no examples of T. nigrescens in the National Museum, Melbourne, and we may therefore provisionally infer that this species does not occur in Victoria, and while it is very * Icon. Gren. des OphidienSj 9 Liv., pi. i., fig. la., et seq. t Prod. Zool. Victoria, ii., pi. 103. 62 BECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. common in New South Wales, T. proximus is, on the other hand, comparatively rare. Owing, however, to the very limited number of observations made upon the Australian Typhlopida, it would at present be extremely unwise to hazard many remarks upon their distribution. DESCRIPTION OF a NEW SHARK from the TASMANIAN COAST. By J. Douglas Ogilby. Cextrina bruniensis, sp. nov. Centrina bruniensis, Morton {in lit.) Body oblong, with the back and sides rounded, and the belly flattened. Head small and stiongly depressed, its breadth equal to the distance between the tip of the snout and the spiracle : snout short and obtuse, the distance between its tip and the nearest point of the mouth less tlian that between the same and the anterior margin of the eye. Nostrils equidistant from the eye and the extremity of the snout. Eye large, with a strong bony supraorljital ridge, situated midway between the tip of the snout and the anterior gill-opening. Spiracles large, opening behind the upper half of the eye, with a moderate intervening space. Mouth small and transverse, with the lateral groove very broad and deep. Upper jaw with a patch of small, conical, curved teeth anteriorly, consisting of about four irregular rows ; a single series of much larger, erect, compressed, minutely serrated, scalp- riform teeth in the lower jaw. Gill-openings small, the posterior one pierced immediately in front of the base of the pectoral tin. The first dorsal commences above the middle gill-opening, and rises by a continuous and equal gradation to the spine, its outer margin Vx^ing straight ; behind the spine the rise is much more abrupt, and the contour is slightly convex with the tip rounded ; the posterior margin is deeply concave ; the height of the fin beneath its extremity is equal to the distance between the anterior gill-opening and the tip of the snout, that of the spine equal to the head in front of the spiracle ; the spine is situated in the anterior portion of the last fourth of the base of the fin, is perfectly DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SHARK OQILBY. 63 straight, with a slight inclination forwards, and protrudes a short distance beyond the membrane ; its base is exactly midway between the tip of the snout and the origin of the caudal, while the distance between the bases of the two dorsal spines is but little more than tlie length of the base of tlie first dorsal in front of its spine, and five-sevenths of the length of the fish in front of it ; the intradorsal ridge is very strongly developed ; the second dorsal has a general resemblance in shape to the first, but is not so large ; the upper margin is more regularly even, and the extremity, which is much more pointed, hangs vertically above the base of the caudal, instead of falling within the vertical from its own base, as with the anterior fin ; the length of its base is equal to that of the intradorsal space, and to the height of the fin beneath its tip, and is four-sevenths of the outer margin ; the spine is situated in the latter portion of the anterior half of the fin, and is gently curved backwards throughout its entire length ; in height it is but little less than that of the first dorsal ; the pectoral fin is well developed and pointed, its length equal to the space which divides its anterior basal margin from the nostril ; the distance between its base and that of the ventral is two-fifths longer than that between the dorsal spines, and is traversed by a strongly developed lateral ridge; the ventral fin commences beneath the spine of the second dorsal, and the distance between its ter- mination and the origin of the lower caudal lobe is equal to that between the second dorsal and the caudal fin ; the caudal lobes are well developed ; the outer margin of the npper lobe is straight, the angle and the posterior margni rounded ; the lower lobe is triangular, with the anterior margin slightly concave, and equal in length to the posterior margin, which is sinuous, with the angle rounded. The skin is covered with small rough scales, each of which bears a well developed spinate projection, which consists of a central spine from which radiate four compressed wings, each one terminating at its outer angle in a somewhat shorter spine than the central one. Color. — Uniform sandy brown. The Shark described above was sent to the Australian Museum, by the authorities of the Tasmanian Museum, Hobart, for identifica- tion and preservation, and was placed in my hands for description previous to being returned. The specimen was picked up on the shore of Bruny Island, Tasmania, in a dried state, but on being relaxed was found to be in a fair state of preservation. The enormous height of the dorsal fins, and their contiguity, the one to the other, separates this species at a glance from C. salvtani ; the scales also difiJer considerably. Type. — In the Tasmanian Museum. The specific name has been given to it at the request of Mr. Alex. Morton, Curator of the Tasmanian Museum. 64 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MTTSEUM. DESCRIPTION OP a NEW PELAGIC FISH FROM NEW ZEALAND. By J. Douglas Ogilby. Some months ago the Australian Museum received, through the kindness of the Fresh Food and Ice Company, Sydney, a fine specimen of an unknown pelagic fish from New Zealand, being one of a consignment forwarded to the Company for sale in Sydney, the bulk of which consisted of Trout, Rock Cod (Percis eoliasj, and Flounders ( lihombosolea moiiopusj. This exainple, having been imported for edible purposes, had of course been thoroughly cleaned before being placed in the ice chamber, and I am therefore, unable to give the number of pyloric appendages. The occurrence of this genus in Australasian waters, is quite as interesting as the discovery of Tetragonurus* some years ago at Lord Howe Island, and bears a close analogy to it, both genera being more or less distinctly Mediterranean types. Centrolophus maoricus, sp. nov. B. vii. D. 38. A. 25. Y. 1/5. P. 21. 0. 19. The length of the head is equal to that of the caudal fin, and five and a half in the total length ; the greatest height of the body is beneath the longest dorsal rays, and is contained five times in the same. The eye is large, and is surrounded by a prominent naked lid ; it is situated near the upper profile of the head, and its diameter is four and one-tenth in the length of the head, and one and one-seventh in that of the snout, which is obtuse and abruptly truncated, and projects slightly beyond the lower jaw ; the interorbital space is convex and its width is equal to the length of the snout. The nostrils are situated far forward, immediately behind the angle of the snout ; the anterior is oval and vertical, the posterior much larger and subarcuate. The upper profile of the head is slightly concave. The jaws are equal, and the cleft of the mouth is of moderate width, the maxilla reaching to beneath the anterior fourth of the orbit. The vertical limb of the preopercle is straight and slightly inclined forward, its angle and lower limb finely denticulated ; the margins of the sub- and inter-opercles rather more strongly so. A single series of cardiform teeth in the jaws, so irre;^ularly placed as to form in many cases an apparently double series. The dorsal fin * Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, x. p. 718, and op. cit. (2) i. p. 511 ; Eamsay & Ogilby, op. cit. (2) iii. p. 9. REVIEW OF THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILUS — OGILBY. 65 commences a little behind the posterior half of the pectoral, and the length of its base is two and one-fifth in the total length; the anterior rays are short and gradually increase in length to the twelfth which, with the thirteenth and fourteenth, is the longest in the tin, and about one-seventh longer than the snout ; behind these the rays become abruptly shorter, so that the outer margin of the fin is concave behind them, and the posterior two or three rays appear to be distinctly elongated, the last being about equal to the eighteenth : the anal commences beneath the middle dorsal ray, and its shape is similar to that of the dorsal, the base of which is exactly twice the length of its base; the fifth ray is the longest, and is but a fraction shorter than the longest dorsal ray, while the distance between the base of the first ray and the origin of the caudal is contained one and one-fourth times in that between the same point and the extremity of the snout : the pectoral is small and rather pointed, the fourth to seventh rays the longest, two and one-seventh in the length of the head : ventrals small, equal in length to the snout : caudal deeply emarginate. Scales very small, each one pierced by a small, central, circular pore ; opercle, sub- and inter-opercle scaly, the scales being of equal size to those on the body ; rest of the head naked, covered with a thick and densely porous skin ; vertical fins scaly over about two- thirds of their height. Lateral line forming a long curve to beneath the longest dorsal rays. Colors. — Uniform brown, darkest above ; the sides of the head washed with dull blue ; the fins and opercles with gold. Type. — In the Australian Museum. The Australian Museum also possesses a specimen of Pteraclis velifer, a species previously unrecorded from New Zealand. REVIEW OP THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILUS, COCCO, AND ITS ALLIES. By J. Douglas Ogilby. The present paper was suggested by the occurrence on the coast of New South Wales of a specimen of Schedophilus maculatus, this being the first record for the genus from Australian waters, and the time has been deemed opportune to review the history, such as it is, of the various species, the more especially that these pelagic forms are liable to occur at any time upon any part of the 66 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. Australian coast, and, wh^re so little is known of them, it is advisable that no opportunity should be lost of recording any fresh facts in connection with their distribution and mode of life. The genus Schedophilus was originally placed by Giinther among the Coryphcenina, at that time considered to be a Group of the Scombridce, but subsequently accorded family rank. The dis- covery, however, off the Pacific coast of North America of two closely allied forms, induced Professors Jordan and Gilbert to remove these fishes, respectively known as Icosteus enigmaticus and loichthys lockingtoni to a separate family, for which they proposed the name Icosteidee, and in which was included the Bafhy master of Cope, a genus wliich differs in a much greater degree from the typical Icosteus than does Icoateus from a typical Sohedophilm^ which latter genus is apparently omitted entirely from the family ; the words of those authors, after diagnosing the Icosteidce, being : " This group, as at present constituted, is composed of three very diverse genera, each of a single species, inhabiting the deeper waters of the North Pacific. It is probably most nearly related to the Malacanthidce, from which it is dis- tinguished by the presence of pyloric coeca, and by the non-labrid dentition."* The formation of a new family for these fishes, and the con- sequent disruption of his Goryphaenidce, does not meet with Dr. Giinther's apjDroval, and he further holds that the splitting up of Cocco's genus is distinctly untenable; he remarks : " I fail to find in the description (of S. lockingtoni) cha,r?icters which would warrant a generic separation from Schedophilus, or the creation of a distinct family Icosteidce."-f With the latter part of this opinion we are entirely in accord, for we cannot consider that such cliaracters as the dentition and the al)sence of pseudobranchiae, however useful in separating genera, can with propriety be applied to the differ- entiation of families. With reference to the generic distinctions pointed out by Lockington, Jordan, and Gilbert, we cannot, however, so readily give in our adherence to Dr. Giinther's views ; such characters as the presence or absence of scales, of groups of epidermal spines, and of an airbladderj being of sufticient importance to make us hesitate before declining to accept the genera Icosteus and Icicithys proposed by the American ichthyologists. In this communication we shall, however, include all the known species under the common term Schedophilus, using the other names as signifying * Synopsis, p. 619. t Voy. Challenger, xxii. p. 46. I This is apparently of less importance, and is of course well known in the true Mackerels. REVIEW OF THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILUS — OGILBY. 67 natural subdivisions of the genus, which, when our knowledge of these pelagic forms is more thorough, may or may not be raised to full generic rank. SCHEDOPHILUS.* Schedophilus, Cocco, Giorn. Innom. Mess. Ann. iii. 1829. Crius, sp. Valenc. in Webb & Berthel. lies Oanar. Poiss. p. 45, 1836. Icosteus, Lockington, Proc. US. Nat. Mus. ii. p. 63, 1880. Icichthys, Jordan & Gilbert, Proc. US. Nat. Mus. ii. p. 305, 1880. Schedophilopsis, Steindachner, SB, Ak. Wien, Ixxxvi. p. 82, 1882. Branchiostegals six or seven : pseudobranchite present. Body oblong-ovate or ovate, strongly compressed. Cleft of mouth moderate. Preopercle spiniferous. A single series of small teeth in the jaws : vomer, palatines, and tongue edentulous. One dorsal fin, extending nearly along the whole back, formed by flexible rays, the anterior of which are more or less simple : anal similarly formed : ventrals thoracic, with one spine and four or five rays. Scales small and eyelid, or absent ; ver- tical fins with a basal scaly sheath. Airbladder present or absent. Geographical Distribution. — Mediterranean ; tropical and sub- tropical parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans ; not as yet recorded from the Indian Ocean, nor from the East Coast of America. Synopsis of the species. A. Scales small ; branchiostegals seven ; ventral fins with five soft rays (Icichthys) a. Scales striated ; dorsal commencing above the margin of the opercle /. maculatus. aa. Scales smooth. h. Dorsal commencing behind the head I. lockingtoni. Dorsal commencing above the vertical margin of the preopercle /. hertheloti. * Agassiz gives, as the derivation of Cocco's generic name, o-^eSry, scheda, and <^(./Vos, amicus. The former of these words means a leaf or tablet, and has therefore no significance in connection with the fish ; if, however, the name be derived from (T\€Oia, the meaning of which is a raft or float, a recognised habit of the young Schedophili would be felicitously expressed. 68 REC0ED3 OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. B. Scales minute; bran chiostegals six or seven. (Schedophilus) a. Lateral line smooth; ventral fins with five soft rays, inserted in front of the base of the pectorals IS. medusophagus. C. Scales absent ; branchiostegals six (Icosteus). a. Lateral line armed with groups of small spines ; ventral fins with four soft rays, inserted behind the base of the pectorals /. enigmaticus. In the above synopsis I have been obliged to place S. hertheloti along with S. lockingtoni and S. maculatus, because of the com- paratively large -size of the scales — as shown in Dr. Steindachner's figure — in comparison with those of iS". medusophagus, as pourtrayed in Dr. Giinther's figure, and as were present, if my memory serve me, in my Irish example of that species. Schedophilus maculatus. Schedophilus maculatus, Gnth. Catal, Fish. ii. p. 412, 1860, and Journ. Mus. Godefi'r. Fisch. p. 148, 1876. Schedophilus marmoratus, Kner, SB. Ak. Wien, liv. p. 366, 1866. B. vii. D. 9/27. A. 3/23. V. 1/5. P. 19. 0.17. L. lat. 105. L. tr. 22/47. Length of head equal to its height at the hinder margin of the orbit, and 3-33 in the total length (without caudal); height of body 2 '20 in the same. Eye large, with the supraorbital ridge well de- veloped and overhanging, its diameter 3 '10 in the length of the head, and equal to the interorbital space, which is almost fl.at ; snout very short and obtuse, its length 1-50 in the diameter of the eye. Jaws equal : cleft of mouth moderate and oblique, the maxilla reaching to the vertical from the middle of the eye. Upper profile of the head rising almost vertically from the premaxillaries, thence sloping to the occiput, which, with the nape, is strongly convex, and compressed into a moderately sharp ridge. Both limbs of the preopercle armed with strong spines, those at the angle being the longest, and having their extreme tips curved upwards ; those on the vertical limb straight, but directed dorsally : sub and interopercles spiniferous, the spines of the latter more strongly developed. Body oblong-ovate, and strongly compressed. A single series of small, rather distant, hooked teeth in the jaws. The dorsal tin commences above the margin of the bony opercle ; its nine anterior rays are distinctly spinous; the last the highest, a little higher than the diameter of the eye ; beyond the spinous portion the rays increase gradually in height to the middle of the fin, from whence they descend as gradually to the last, which is five sixths of the ninth spine, the outer REVIEW OF THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILUS — OGILBY. 69 margin of the fin forming a gentle curve : the anal commences beneath the sixteenth dorsal ray, its origin being a little nearer to the tip of the snout than to the middle of the base of the caudal, and ends a trifle further back than the dorsal ; its spines are stronger than those of that fin, the third the highest, two thirds of the dorsal spine : ventral well developed, inserted beneath the base of the pectoral, the second ray the longest, five sevenths of the distance between its origin and the vent, and five ninths of the length of the head ; the spine is strong, equal in length to the third anal spine : pectoral rounded posteriorly, two thirds of the length of the head : the least height of the caudal peduncle is three fourths of its length. Scales small, eyelid, concentrically striated: cheeks, opercles, and occiput scaly; rest of head covered with a thick skin ; a series of small pores surrounding the eye : bases of all the fins deeply scaly. Lateral line gently curved to beneath the posterior fourth of the dorsal fin, thence straight. Colors. — Ground color pale yellowish brown, so densely covered with deep reddish brown blotches and bands, as to appear only as short, oblique or longitudinal stripes ; dorsal fin with seven, anal with four blackish basal spots, which in the former are continued on to the rays above the basal sheath ; in the latter are connected by a narrow band running along the outer margin of the sheath ; caudal yellowish, with two large basal and three larger median dark brown spots. Hahitat. — Chinese Seas ; South Seas ; Coast of New South Wales. The specimen from which the above description was taken, was obtained some years ago on Manly Beach by Mr. Henry Prince, and was, with his usual generosity, presented by him to the Australian Museum. Though washed ashore, it was in good con- dition, the only injury being a slight one to the tips of the caudal rays. The length to the broken rays is three inches and a half. SCHEDOPHILUS LOCKINGTONI. Icichthys^' lochingtoni, Jordan & Gilbert, Synops. Fish. N. Am. p. 621, 1882. Schedophilus lochingtoni^ Gnth. Voy. Challenger, xxii. p. 46, 1887. B. vii. D. 40. A. 28. V. 1/5. L. lat. 120. Ccec. pyl. 6. Length of head 5-00, height of body 4*00 in the total length. Eye moderate, longer than the snout, its diameter 4*00 in the length of the head. Lower jaw prominent : cleft of mouth * Derived from eiKW to yield, and ^X^^^ ^ fish, in allusion to the flexible skeleton. 70 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEITM. moderate, slightly oblique, the maxilla, which is slender and scarcely widened at the tip, concealed beneath the preoi'bital, and extending to beyond the vertical from the front margin of the pupil. Upper profile of head slightly convex, the snout abruptly descending. Preopercle with radiating stri;e, each of which terminates in a flexible point : opercle and subopercle crossed by similar strite. Body oblong and somewhat compressed. Teeth in the jaws minute, sharp, closely and evenly set. The dorsal fin commences nearly midway between the vent and the origin of the ventrals ; all the rays are soft and, with the excep- tion of the first, branched ; the anterior rays very low, the fin gradually rising posteriorly, the highest rays 3-00 in the length of the head : the anal fin commences slightly in front of the middle of the body, and ends just in front of the last dorsal ray : ventral short and small, inserted a little behind the pectorals, with one of the rays slightly filamentous, its length 3-00 in that of the head : pectorals rounded, small, not so long as the head : caudal broad and fan-shaped, the peduncle slender. Scales small, soft, and smooth, in one or two series on the preorbital.* None of the fin rays armed with spinules. Lateral line nearly straight, smooth. Airbladder wanting. Colors. — Brown, paler below, somewhat punctulated. Habitat. — Deep water off" the coast of California. Length seven inches and a half. SCHEDOPHILUS BERTHELOTI. Criu8\ lerthelotii, Valenc. in Webb k, Berthel. lies Canar. Poiss. p. 45, pi. ix. f. 1, 1836. Schedophilus lerthelotii, Gnth. Catal. Fish. ii. p. 412, 1860. Schedophilm hotteri (Heck.) Steindachn. SB. Ak. Wien, 1868, Ivii. p. 379, pi. ii. f. 2. D. 36-38. A. 23-25. V. 1/5. P. 21. Ccec. pyl. 6. Length of head I 3-75, height of body 3 00 in the total length. Eye large, its diameter 2-60 in the length of the head : snout short, but little more than half the diameter of the eye : interorbital space flat, 1-33 in the same. The maxilla extends to beneath the middle of the orbit. Snout very strongly convex; occiput convex; a shallow concave interspace. Preopercular teeth numerous, rather short, *,Other scales on the head, if any, lost on the typical example. t From KpLO'i, a ram. X Calculated from Dr. Steindachner's description of a young example. I have not been able to consult Messrs. Webb & Berthelot's work, while Dr. Giinther's notice, owing probably to the only specimen available to him being a half -grown skin, is valueless for comparison. A EEVIEW OF THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILTJS — OGILBY. 71 those on the vertical limb not (according to Stemdachner'' s figure ) directed upwards ; the denticles of the interopercle moderately strong. Body oblong-ovate, compressed. Teeth in a single series, longer, less numerous, and blunter than in S. inedusophagus, but similarly curved. The dorsal fin commences above the vertical margin of the preopercle : ventral well developed, inserted almost entirely in front of the base of the pectoral, and reaching as far as the first anal ray ; its length 1"25 in that of the head. Scales small, eyelid. Colors. — Body reddish violet, the head brownish ; entire body sprinkled with numerous dark violet dots, the trunk having in addition ill defined blackish cross-bands, or band-like transverse spots, which extend on to the basal portion of the dorsal and anal fins ; caudal with cross-bands posteriorly. Hahitat. — Canaries ; coasts of Spain and Dalmatia. SCHEDOPHILUS MEDUSOPHAGUS. Schedophilus medusophagus, Cocco, Giorn. Innom. Mess. Ann. iii. No. 7, p. 57, 1829; Bonap, Faun. Ital. Pesc. c. fig.; Gnth. Catal. Fish. ii. p. 412, 1860, and Journ. Mus. GodefFr. Fisch. p. 149, 1876, and Trans. Zool. Soc. xi. p. 221, pi. xlvii. 1881; Steindachn. SB. Ak. Wien, 1868, Ivii. p. 377 ; Lutken, Spol. Atlant. pp. 525, 602, pi. ii. fig. 9 (juv.) 1880; Gill, Science, i. p. 117, 1883; Day, Brit. Fish. ii. 1884, Add. p. 367 outline figure i. p. 120; Ogilby, Proc. Roy. Dub. Soc. p. 515, 1885. B. vi.-vii. D. 45-50. A.-27-29. V. 1/5. P. 18. C. 21. Length of head equal to its height, and rather less than 4-00 in the total length (without caudal); height of body, 2*66 in the same. Eye situated immediately below the upper profile of the head, its diameter nearly as long as the snout, which is obtuse, and 4-00 in the length of the head : interorbital space convex, 1-25 in the diameter of the eye. Lower jaw projecting : cleft of mouth of moderate width and oblique, extending to the vertical from the front margin of the eye; the maxilla rather narrow, widening towards its extremity, reaching to beneath the middle of the orbit. Both limbs of the preopercle armed with short spines, the upper ones on the vertical limb being a little the longer and directed obliquely upwards : interopercle spiniferous, the sub- opercle less so : opercle membranous ; its upper portion with radiating osseous striae, which project beyond the margin. Body elongate-ovoid, and strongly compressed. Teeth minute, implanted in a single series on the sharp edge of the jaws. The dorsal fiu commences above the root of the pectoral, and terminates at a short distance from the caudal ; it is rather low, the longest rays, 72 KECOEDS OF THE ATJSTEALIAN MTJSETIM. which are behind the middle of the fin, not erectile into a vertical position ; the rays are slender and fragile : the anal commences a little behind* the middle of the length of the fish, and beneath the twenty thiixl dorsal ray, and ends a little nearer to the base of the caudal than does the dorsal ; there is no distinct spinuous portion to either the dorsal or the anal fin : ventral rather small and close together, inserted in advance of the base of the pectoral, its length (in the figure) two fifths of that of the head; pectoral with a broad base, the upper rays longer than the lower, its length fiti the figure) two thirds of that of the head : caudal fin rounded, rather shorter than the head ; the least height of the caudal peduncle about equal to its length. Scales minute, eyelid ; on the head apparently present on the cheeks only. Lateral line curved to beneath the anterior third of the dorsal fin, thence straight. Colors. — Pale greenish olive marbled with darker, the markings being in the form of spots on the upper and of irregular longitudinal bands on the lower half of the body : vertical fins spotted with blackish. Irides nearly white ; a ring of small white pores en- circling the eye. This species has been obtained in the Mediterranean, the Mid- Atlantic, the Pacific near Samoa, on the east coast of Spain, and on the north-east coast of Ireland, the writer having the good fortune to secure the last-mentioiied example immediately after its capture. Length to nine inches and a half. In Dr. Steindachner's description, the dorsal rays are said to vary between thirty five and forty seven, which, unless the smaller number should prove to be a printer's error for fox'ty five, is a most unusual variation in such a species, and, taken in conjunction with the fact that some examples were found to have six, others seven, branchiostegal rays, would go far towards suggesting the possibility that two species have been confounded together under the name Schedophilus medusophagus. SCHEDOPHILUS ENIGMATICUS. Icosteusjf (snigniaticus, Lockingt. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xxii. p. 63, 1881 ; Jordan & Gilbert, Synops. Fish. N. Am. p. 620, 1882; Steindachn. SB. Ak. Wien, Ixxxvi. p. 82, 1882; Gnth. Voy. Challenger, xxii. p. 46, pi. xliv. 1887. * A little before in Gunther's figure in the Transactions (g.v.) + Derived from etKw, to yield, and oa-jiov, a bone; alluding to the soft and flexible nature of the bones. KEVIEW OB" THE GENUS SCHEDOPHILUS — OQILBY. 73 SchedopJiilopsis* spinosus, Steindachn, loc. cit. Ixxxiii, p. 396, 1881. B. vi. D. 52-55. A. 37-40. Y. 1/4. L. lat. 110-120. Length of head 5-00 (4*25 without caudal), height of body 3-50 in the total length. Eye small, its diameter 6-Oo - 7-00 in the length of the head, 1-66-1 '85 in the length of the snout, and 2"20 - 2"50 in the convex interorbital space. Jaws equal : cleft of mouth of moderate width, the maxilla reaching to beneath the middle of the eye : nostrils small, simple, approximate, situated nearer to the end of the snout than to the orbit. Preopercle with several small spinous processes on the margin. Body elongate- ovoid, much compressed ; the upper profile rises abruptly from the interorbital space, and describes a gentle curve to the end of the dorsal fin. Teeth in the jaws in a single series, minute, those in the lower jaw rather the larger. The dorsal fin commences opposite to the base of the pectoral, and terminates on the same plane as the anal ; the anterior rays are short and unbranched ; the rays gradually increase in height posteriorly, and the longest, which are close to the end of the fin, reach nearly to the base of the caudal : the anal commences opposite to the twenty fourth to twenty seventh doi'sal rays, and is similar in shape to the posterior half of the dorsal fin : ventral small and narrow, in- serted a little behind the base of the pectoral, the second ray the longest, its length three sevenths of the distance between its origin and the vent, and four elevenths of that of the head :t pectoral broad, rounded, the middle rays the longest, equal to the postorbital portion of the head : caudal rounded, the least height of the peduncle less than its length, and about 5-50 in the height of the body. Scales absent. Lateral line gently curved above the anterior rays of the anal, thence straight, clothed along its entire length with groups of minute spines : all the fin rays with similar spines. Colors. — Light yellowish brown, pellucid below the dorsal and above the anal fins : upper half of head and body ornamented with large blackish spots, irregular in shape, and smallest on the head and neck ; they form a series along the base of the vertical fins, which are similarly spotted. Habitat. — Pacific coast of the United States, in deep water. Length up to twelve inches. * From Schedophilus, and o\pL<;, appearance. t In the Challenger figure. 74 EEOORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MtTSEtTM. On the OOOURRENCE of BEEKITE in connection with "FOSSIL ORGANIC REMAINS," in N. S. WALES. By R. Etheridge, Jnr., Palaeontologist. [Plate XVI.] Among the many mineral substances replacing the original carbonate of lime composing what are generally known under the name of " fossils," are iron-pyrites, iron-oxide, sulphur, malachite, magnesite, talc, and silica of various forms, such as Beehite, chalcedony, and both common and precious opal. *' By far the commonest mode of replacement is that whereby an originally calcareous skeleton is replaced by silica. This process of ' silicification ' — of the replacement of lime hy silica — is not only an extremely common one, but is also a readily intelligible one ; since carbonate of lime is an easily and flint a hardly soluble substance. It is thus easy to understand that originally calcareous fossils, such as the shells of Mollusca, or the skeletons of Corals, should have in many cases suffered this change, long after their burial in the rock, their carbonate of lime being dissolved away, particle by particle, and replaced by precipitated silica, as they were subjected to percolation by heated or alkaline waters holding silica in solution."* " In a large number of cases of silicification," continues Prof. Nicholson, " the minute structure of the fossil which has been subjected to this change is found to have been more or less injuriously affected, and may be altogether destroyed, even though the form of the fossil be perfectly preserved. This is the rule where the silicification has been secondary and has taken place at some period long posterior to the original entombment of the fossil in the enveloping rock ; whereas if the original fossilisation has been effected by infiltration with silica in the first instance, then the minute structure is usually perfectly preserved. In secondary silicification, as seen in corals and shells, the carbonate of lime of the original fossil is gradually more or less completely replaced by silica, the process beginning on the ex- terior and gradually extending inwards."! In New South Wales we are at present acquainted with three methods of replacement of carbonate of lime — by iron-pyrites, * H. A. Nicholson, Man. Pal., 3rd Edit., 1880, I., p. 7. \Lqc. cit„ p. 7. OCCURRENCE OF BEEKITE IN N. S. "WALE3 — ETHERIDQE. 75 common and precious opal, and " orbicular silica " or Beehite. We have in the Collection a valve of a Tertiary Pelecypod from Port Fairy, in Victoria, completely converted into iron-pyrites ; the Collection of the Department of Mines possesses some ex- cellent specimens of conversion into the two opals from the Western Opal-fields ; whilst in the present communication it is intended to deal with certain corals, showing the entire structure replaced by orbicular silica, or Beekite, a mineral not recorded in Prof. A. Liversidge's ' Minerals of New South Wales.'* Beehite, strictly speaking, is not a true mineral species, but a chalcedonic variety of silica, replacing the carbonate of lime of fossil organic remains by secondary silicification. Bristow,! who gives the l)est description, says that in the New Red Conglomerate of Devonshire (Eng.), it occurs as rounded masses from half to one inch, but sometimes from three to six inches. The surface consists of chalcedony arranged in tubercles from the size of a pin's head to that of a pea, each of which is surrounded by one or more rings, producing a more or less rosette-like appearance. Amongst other localities, Bristow incidentally mentions its occur- rence in India, and " in Australia, in Triassic Conglomerates," but I am not acquainted with the source of his information as to the last-named occurrence. I have met with Beekite on a Strophalosia from the Permo- Carboniferous of Bingera, Co. Murchison, in the Department of Mines Collection, and plentifully on Siluro-Devonian Corals in the black limestone of Cave Flat, Murruiubidgee. If my memory does not deceive me, there are also traces of the mineral on the chalcedonically replaced Brachiopodafrom the Permo-Carboniferous rocks of Point Puer, Tasmania, in the Natural History Museum, London. Prof. A. H. Church,! who has to a certain extent artifically simulated Beekite in the Laboratory, speaks of it as " a curious silicified substance, at once a mineral and a fossil," presenting itself under such a variety of aspects as to baffle description, so far as regards its physical features. Its chemical composition, however, is more constant, the original constituents having become " so modified in constitution as to contain on an average no less than 92 per cent, of silica," a small but variable quantity of lime remaining, but more in the form of silicate than carbonate. Prof. Church's theory, expressed in his own words,§ is " that water charged with carbonic acid and silica removed the carbonate * The Minerals of New South Wales, etc., with map. (8vo. London, 1888). t Glossary of Mineralogy, 1861, p. 39. J Journ. Cham. Soc, 1861, XV., p. 109. § Journ. Chem. Soc, 1863, XVI., p. 31. 76 EEOORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MITSETJM. of calcium from corals, shells, etc., and deposited silica in its room, a portion of the calcium compound also being rearranged and re-precipitated." With the view of showing the size obtained by a single rosette, Prof. Church figures three costse and intermediate furrows of an ordinary-sized Fecten, over which it had spread. The best examples of Beekite in our Collection are a very large Syringopora from the Siluro-Devonian Limstone of Cave Flat, and a Heliolites from the Wellington Caves. In the former case the whole of the corallite walls are converted into a granular chalcedonic quartz arranged more or less in lines, where the surface is not occupied by the Beekite rosettes, which are usually contiguous to one another and touching. Each rosette consists of a central nucleus, surrounded by concentric rings, which seem to slightly imbricate at their edges. As a rule there are two or three rings, but any number may occur up to eight. Here and there, two nuclei with their rings are surrounded or enfolded in larger and outer rings, forming, as it were, double rosettes. The rings are not always continuous, but broken up into circlets of granules ; and the more numerous the circles are, the finer and closer together they become. In a few cases the rosettes appear to have been so rapidly developed as to have become more or less confluent, whereby the regularity of form is in a measure lost. The concentric structure extends through the whole thickness of the corallite walls. In the Heliolites two conditions are apparent. In the first, tlie entire surface of the corallum, including both autopores and siphonopores, is converted into a series of large rosettes, obliterat- ing totally the two orders of polygonal corallites. In the second case the autopores remain as more or less rounded openings, the siphonoporal (" coenenchymal ") surface being occupied by the rosettes, this being a species of Heliolites in which the siphonopores are largely developed. Two well-marked instances of Beekite silicification may l)e cited for comparison. Prof. James Hall has figured* a Fenestella from the Upper Helderberg Formation of New York State, in which the whole of the polyzoarium, both interstices and dissepiments, is converted in this way. Another case is that of Dr. F. Toula's figuref of Sjni-ifer striato-paradoxiis, Toula, from the Carboniferous Limestone of Spitzbergen, in which the rosettes are in some respects even better marked than in our specimens. * Ann. Eeport State Geologist of New York for 1882 [1883], No. 2, t. XXXV. (28), f. 18. t Sitz. K. K. Akad. Wissensch. (Math. Nat. CI.), Wien, LXVIII., Abth. 1, t. 1, f. 2a. DESCRIPTION OF A NEW FLEA — SKUSE. 77 DESCRIPTION OF A NEW FLEA (STEPHANOGIRCUS DASYURI) FROM NEW SOUTH WALES; with NOTES OF SOME OTHER INSECT PARASITES known in AUSTRALIA. By Frederick A. A. Skuse, Assistant in Entomology. [Plate XVII.] The specimens from which the appended description has been derived were obtained in numbers by my colleague, Mr. Edgar R. Waite, and myself whilst searching for Ixodes on the body of the Australian Tiger Cat, Das>/iirus maculatus, Kerr. It must not be entertained that the writer is impetuous to describe isolated species, or is an advocate of the only too prevalent practice. The reason for now so doing is certainly in part excusable, owing to the distinctive character of the insect under notice, but it is more especially done with the view of soliciting authentic specimens of the cutaneous Insect, Arachnid and Arachnoid parasites infesting our native Vertebrates, the majority of which will doubtless prove to be plagued with their own peculiar forms. Very few records appear to have been made of the external parasites of Australian animals, and few of these with reference to their respective hosts. With the view of collecting specimens, it might be pointed out to those in the bush districts having the opportunity, that they may be sought with success upon any animal. Even the fleas themselves have other "fleas "to bite them. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes, all have parasites infesting their skin — in most cases species peculiar to themselves; in many, several distinct forms, each of which usually occupies some particular portion of the surface of the body. These pests are by no means confined to insect representatives ; indeed the majority belong to the Arachnida. Various species of flies deposit their eggs in the skins of both warm- and cold-blooded Vertebrates, some permanently residing under the hair or feathers in their perfect condition, and gorging themselves with the blood of their victims. Many varieties of fleas ( Aphanipteraj have been recorded, most of which, under ordinary circumstances, are peculiar to some particular beast or bird. Bugs and lice, of which numerous undescribed forms doubtless exist on our native animals, may be readily collected. Of Arachnids, it is scarcely necessary to direct attention to the ticks, a species of which, Ixodes hydrosauri, Denny, occurs upon one of our large lizards. There are also many kinds of minute eight-legged mites, which feed upon various animals, 78 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. living upon or under the skin. Among these might be mentioned, for example, the well-known, microscopic, itch mites (Sarcoptidce) and the subcutaneous parasites of birds (Hypoderidce), usually to be found in great numbers, or " nests," especially in the fatty masses under the base of the wings, adhering to the veins and in other portions. Species of all these forms are represented in this country, but the material at disposal is insufficient to induce the publication of descriptions at present. Order APHANIPTERA. Family PuLiciDiE. Stephanocircus, gen. nov. Body elongate, especially in the female, bristly, noticeably stronger at the anal extremity. Antennae capitate, four-jointed; the second joint in female with long l)ristles extending to the tip of the fourth, in male very short ; fourth joint lamellar, apparently composed of nine segments. Head moderately large ; in the female with an evserted, cap-like patella in the front, strongly pectinated round its posterior margin, the face also strongly pectinated; in the male the posterior margin of the head only pectinated ; eyes wanting in the female ; trophi less than the length of tlie head ; mandibles extremely slender, minutely serrated, encased in four-jointed labial palpi, which they somewhat exceed in length ; lingua extremely slender ; maxillee elongate, triangular, somewhat exceeding the second joint of the labial palpi, with no apparent apical joint ; maxillary palpi four-jointed, the first and fourth of about equal length, the third shorter and the second the longest, acuminate ; joints of the labial palpi progressively diminishing in length and thickness. Prothorax in female with a strong pectinate fringe. Legs long, spinous ; coxee of posterior two pairs with a distinct notch posteriorly at the apex ; femora very minutely and sparingly spined ; tarsi five-jointed, the first, second, and fifth joints long, the third shorter, the fourth shortest, half the length of the fifth ; claws microscopically denticulate. Stephanocircus dasyuri, sp. nov. Length of male 1-90 mm. ; of female 2-80 mm. Castaneous brown, nitidous. Head of the male convex above, of female flat. Eyes of male small, black. Pectinal fringes and setfe black or dark brown. Thorax long, in the female nearly the length of the body. Abdomen about twice as long as broad in the male, shorter in the female, darker castaneous brown in the female, bristly. Legs of a uniform pale castaneous brown. Habitat. — New South Wales, on Dasytinis mactdatus, Kerr. The species for which the above new genus has been proposed was at first considered by me to be attributable to Ceratopsylhis DESCRIPTION OF A NEW FLEA — SKU8E. 79 of Curtis, bub the absence of eyes, remarkable structure of the head, and the elongate thorax in the female, seem to demand its exclusion from known genera. Not the slightest trace of eyes could be detected in specimens of the female, after repeated examinations under a |in. objective. Their rightful position is occupied by a bristly hair, In my opinion the female anchors herself by the spiny corona, and is perfectly blind. Appendix, DIPTERA (Flies). Family CEstrid^e (Bot-flies, Breeze-flies). Larvae parasitic on various species of mammals, found under the skin, in the frontal sinus, or in the stomach. Examples : CEsTRUS, Linn. CEstrus ovis, Linn., the sheep bot. (Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasm., p. 258, 1884). Gastrgphilus, Brauer. Gastrophilus equi, Fabr., the Horse bot. Universally distributed. Obs. — Also a species which is said to attack the natives of N. Australia (Trans. Aust. Assoc. Ad. Sc, p. 535, 1890). Family Oscinid^. Batbachomyia, Kr. Larvae living beneath the skin of frogs. Examples : B. nigritarsis, Sk., on Hyla phyllochroa (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. iv., Ser. 2., p. 175, 1889). Illawarra, New South Wales. B. quadrilineata, Sk., on Pseudophryne hibrotiii (I.e., p. 177). Burrawang, New South Wales. Family HiPPOBOsciDiE. (Forest-flies, Horse-tick, Sheep-tick, and Bird-flies). Perfect insects, living beneath the hair of mammals or the featliers of birds. Examples : HiPPOBOscA, Linn. H. australis, Guer., host unknown (Voy. de la Coq., ii., p. 302, 1830). Port Jackson, New South Wales. JZ". viridipes, Walk., host unknown (Trans. Ent. Soc, N.S. iv., p. 235, 1857). New South Wales. 80 BECOBDS OF THE ATTSTRALIAN'mTTSEUM. Ornithomyia, Latr. (Bird-flies). 0. australasice, Wied., host unknown (Auss. Zweif. ii., p. 608, 1830). Australia. 0. batchiana, Rond., host unknown (Ann. Mus. Cir. Gen. xii., p. 158, 1878). Grafton, New South Wales. 0. nigricornis, Erich., host unknown (Archiv. f. Naturg. viii., p. 274, 1842). Tasmania. 0. stipituri, Sch., on the Emu wren, Stipiturus malachurus, Lath. (Reise " No vara," Zool. ii., p. 374, 1868). Sydney, New South Wales. 0. tasmaniensix, Macq., host unknown (Dipt. Exot., 4th suppl., p. 309, pi. 28, fig. 15, 1850). Tasmania. Melophagus, Zmw. (Wingless "Sheep-tick"). M. ovinus, Linn., on sheep (Trans. Aust. Assoc. Ad. Sc, p. 540, 1890). Universally distributed. Olfersia, Wied. 0. macleayi, Leach., host unknown (Eph. Ins., p. 12, 1817). Australia, Family NYCTERiBiDiE (Wingless "Bat-ticks"). Some species known, but none yet described from Australia. APHANIPTERA (Fleas). Family Pulicid^. Perfect insects parasitic upon warm-blooded animals. Examples : PuLEX, Linn. P. echidna, Denny, on Australian VorcM^me, Echidna aculeata, Shaw (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., xii., p. 315, pi. xxxvii., fig. 6, 1843). Tasmania. P. irritants, Linn., the human flea. P. felis, Linn., on the domestic cat. P. canis, Linn., on the domestic dog. Obs. — This species swarms innumerably in certain seasons in sandy situations and in houses, often assuming the nature of a plague. P. gallina, Linn., on the domestic fowl. Stephanocircus, Sk. S. dasyuri, Sk., on the Tiger Cat, Dasyurus maculatux, Kerr. Probably generally distributed in Australia. Type. — In Australian Museum. DESCEIPTION OF A NEW FLEA — SKUSE. 81 ECHIDNOPHAGA, Oil. E. amhulans, OIL, on Australian Porcupine, Echidna aculeata, Shaw (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., i., Ser. 2, p. 172, 1886). Ohs. — Remarkable on account of its inability to jump. Per- fectly distinct from P. echidiice, Denny, from the same host. New South Wales. Type. — In Australian Museum. HEMIPTERA HETEROPTERA (Bugs). Family Acanthid.e. Perfect insects parasitic upon warm-blooded animals. Acanthi A, Fab. Example : Acanthia lectularia, Geoftr., tlie bed-bug (Catl. Hem. Hetr. Brit. Mus., part vii,, p. 43, 1873). Universally distributed. HEMIPTERA ANOPLURA (Lice). Family Pediculid.e. Perfect insect parasitic upon the bodies of warm-blooded animals, often confined to particular portions. Examples : Phthirius, Leach. P. inguinalis, Leach, on the human body. Pediculus, Linn. P. capitis, De Geer, on the human head. P. vestimenti, Nitzsch, on the human body. PniLOPTERUS, Nitzsch. Parasitic upon birds. P. (Lipeurus) variabilis, Nitzsch, on the domestic fowl. P. fLipeiirusJ baculus, Nitzsch, on the varieties of pigeons. Trichodectes, Nitzsch. Parasitic upon mammals. T. latus, Nitzsch, on the domestic dog. T. suhrostratus, Nitzsch, on the domestic cat. T. sealaris, Nitzsch, on the ox. T. equi, Nitzsch, on the horse. T. sphcerocephalus, Nitzsch, on the sheep. The above list is very incomplete, the object in publishing it being to direct the attention of our " bush " observers to the 82 RECORDS OF THE ATJSTRALl'AIT MTJSETJM:. diversity of additional forms which might be expected by research. Our knowledge of the native Arachnid and Arachnoid parasites is too meagre, as far as the exact determination of species is con- cerned, to yet attempt even a preliminary list. On a specimen op CREX CREX, SHOT at RAND WICK, NEW SOUTH WALES. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology. Recently Mr. H. Newcombe, Deputy Registrar-General of Titles, presented a freshly shot specimen of Crex crex to the Trustees of the Australian Museum. The bird was obtained the previous day, June 14th, 1893, by Mr. Walter Higgs, who was shoot- ing in a scrubby portion of the Rifle Range at Randwick, a well known haunt of the RalUdce. It was an adult female, and upon dissection the ovaries were found to be fairly developed. This species ranges throughout Western Asia, Europe, and the United Kingdom, it also occurs in Northern and North-eastern Africa, and the late Mr. Gurney records it as common during the summer months as far South as Natal, a straggler also being recorded by Mr. Ayres from Cape Colony. It occurs in Asia Minor, Arabia, and Turkestan, and it is stated by Mr. Seebohm to be common as far North and East as the Altai Mountains ; also Dr. Sharpe recently records it in a collection of birds from Fao in the Persian Gulf, but it is not included either by Hume or Murray in the Indian avifauna. Stragglers are recorded by Professor Baird to the Eastern coast of the United States, and Dresser, in his Birds of Europe, states a specimen was said to have been once obtained near Nelson, in New Zealand, but on what authority I know not. Sir Walt(>r Buller does not include it in his Birds of New Zealand. Previously this species has not been recorded from Aus- tralia, and although possessed of great powers of flight, it is hard to imagine that the specimen obtained at Randwick, should it have succeeded in reaching Northern Australia by the way of India, Sumatra, and Java, would still have wandered so much farther out of its normal range by crossing the continent to South- eastern Australia. The occurrence of this bird within a few miles of Sydney, where a number of foreign birds are frequently brought DESCKIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF PARRAKEET — NORTH. 83 by the different boats of the Continental Shipping Companies, would tend to strengthen the opinion that the specimen is an escaped cage- bird, but unless it has moulted since it obtained its freedom, the perfect condition of plumage it is in points to the contrary. The specimen has been mounted and placed in the Collection, where it will be available for future reference ; but for want of further proof it is undesirable at present to include it in the Australian avifauna. DESCRIPTION OF a NEW SPECIES op PARRAKEET, OF THE GENUS PLATYCEBCUS, from NORTH-WEST AUSTRALIA. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S., Assistant in Ornithology. Platycercus occidentalis, sp. n. Adult female. — Across the forehead a faint indication of a narrow orange-brown band ; head and hind neck dull brownish- black, the tips of the feathers above the forehead slightly tinged with green, cheeks light blue passing into bluish-green on the outer and lower sides of the throat ; a narrow collar on the lower nape, the lower portion of the breast, and abdomen to the vent, bright lemon-yellow ; chest, back, wings, scapulars and their coverts, and the outer sides of the thighs, verditer-green ; the median portion of the apical half of the feathers of the chest slightly tinged with yellow ; rump, upper, and under tail coverts, light verditer-green, the feathers of the latter having a faint yellowish tinge; primaries black, the apical half of the outer webs of the outermost series grey, the basal half blue ; the remainder blue on their outer webs, black at the tips ; secondaries, black on their inner webs, verditer-green on the outer, the apical half of the inner webs of the last inner secondaries edged and slightly tipped with pale fulvous-brown ; primary -coverts, blue on their outer webs, black on the inner ; lesser, median, and greater wing-coverts, verditer-green, the outermost feathers of the latter passing into a pale verdigris-green ; under surface of the wings and under 84 RECORDS OF THE ATJSTRAI-IAN ITUSETJM. primary -coverts, black ; margins of the shoulders, under wing- coverts and axillaries, pale verditer-blue ; two central tail- feathers green, the apical half of the outer webs margined with blue, the next on either side, green, the margins of their inner webs black, the apical half of the outer webs, blue, tipped with bluish- white ; the remainder of the feathers green at the base, margined with black on their inner webs, and changing into blue on their outer webs and bluish-white on the apical half of the feathers, the green decreasing and the blue and bluish-white increasing towards the lateral feathers, which are but slightly tinged with green at their base ; under surface of the two central tail feathers black, shaded with green on their outer and inner webs for two- thirds of their length, the next on either side black, the margins of the outer webs and the tips bluish-white ; the remainder black at the base, light blue on the apical half ; bill, bluish-horn colour, lighter at the tip ; feet, dark brown. Total length of skin 14*5 inches ; wing 6'5 inch ; outer tail feathers 4'2 inch ; central tail feathers 8'45 inch ; bill from forehead 0*9 inch ; from nostril 0*7 inch ; tarsus 0'8 inch ; mid-toe 0*9 inch. Habitat. — Roeburne, North-west Australia. Type. — In Australian Museum, Sydney. Note. — When held in certain lights, the two central tail feathers show numerous bronze cross-bars. Another specimen has the apical half of the outermost secondaries tinged with blue, and the two central tail feathers tipped with black. Rema/rhs. — Two specimens were obtained by Mr. E. H. Saunders at Karratha Station, thirty-six miles S. W. of Roeburne, North-west Australia, early in 1889, and were referred to by me at the Sep- tember meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in the same year, as immature specimens of Platycercus zonarius, but upon a recent examination of a series of skins of the latter species in different stages of maturity, at present in the Reference Collec- tion, as well as those in the Macleayan Museum at the University, and Dobroyde Collection, I find that the specimens from North- west Australia are quite distinct. In the disposition of its markings P. occidentaUs resembles P. zonarius, but it differs from that species in having light blue instead of dark blue cheeks ; in the greater extent of the con- spicuous lemon-yellow of the lower portion of the breast and the whole of the abdomen, aiid which extends as far as the vent, instead of the deep gamboge-yellow of the centre of the abdomen only; in the verditer-green of the chest, back, wings, scapulars and inter- scapular region, instead of dark green, and in the absence of the narrow black band immediately below the collar. Publications of the Australian Museum— Continued. IV.— GUIDES. 1 Guide to the Australian Fossil Eemains in the Australian Museum. 1870. 8vo. (Out of print.) 2. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. iv.-56 Wrapper, 3d. (Out of print.) 3. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1890. 8vo. pp. 156. Wrapper. v.— MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. 1. List of Old Documents and Eelics in the Australian Museum. 1884. Eeprinted with additions, 1890. 8vo. pp. 4. 2. Descriptive List of Aboriginal Weapons Implements &c., from the Darling and Lachlan Eivers, by K. H. Bennett, F.L.S. 1887. 8vo. pp. 8. (Out of print.) 3. Notes for Collectors. 1887. 8vo. Is. 4. Hints for the Collectors of Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, by F. Ratte pp. 26. with a plate. 6d. 5. Hints for the Preservation of Specimens op Natural History, by E. P. Eamsay 1891. 4th Edition, pp. 32. Is. VI.— RECORDS. Vol. I., March, 1890 to Deer. 1891. 8vo. pp. 202. 30 plates. Boards. Price 25s. VoL IL, No. 1. April, 1892. 8vo. pp. 22. 3 plates. Wrappers. Price, 2s. 6d. No. 2. • August, „ „ pp. 10. 4 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. No. 3. August, „ „ pp. 6. 3 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. No. 4. Feby., 1893 „ pp. 16. 3 „ „ „ 2s. 6d. „ No. 5. Septr., 1893 ., pp. 30. 4 „ „ „ 5s. IN PREPARATION. Catalogue of the Library. Eevised and corrected. Catalogue of Shells. Hargraves and General Collections, by J. Brazier. Catalogues of Eeptiles, Lizards, Batrachia, Fishes, &c., by J. D. Ogilby. Catalogue of Birds. Part IV. Picarice, by E. P. Eamsay. Catalogue of Tunicata, by Prof. Herdman, Liverpool, Eng. Eecords, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus & Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney ; Mr. W. Dymock, George Street, Sydney; Messrs. Turner & Henderson, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Messrs. E. A. Petherick -^ • • • ... 10-5 Ml-3 ,, ,, 1.TX ... 21- Description. — Skull stout and heavy, sides of muzzle slightly convex. Nasals somewhat expanded behind, their lateral edges concave, narrowest in the middle, posterior suture forming an obtuse backwardly directed angle. Ascending processes of pre- maxillae greatly and suddenly broadened above, otherwise the pre- maxillo-maxillary suture not greatly inclined. Naso-premaxillary somewhat less than the nasomaxillary suture. Frontal region narrow, immensely swollen, the supraorbital edges sharp and well defined ; they are coincident with the fronto-parietal sutures, coalescing where joined by the median frontal suture, thence forming a single prominent sagittal crest to the interparietal. Intertemporal area narrow, little more than the narrowest breadth of the nasals combined, and equal to their anterior breadth. Posterior palate without vacuities. In consequence of the inter- parietal and occipital bones having been removed, their condition, and also that of the foramen magnum cannot be described. Teeth. — The peculiarities already recorded are generally borne out by this example, P descends much below 1 2 and P ; the two latter are equal in length, P being much the broader. The canine is about three-quarters the length of the smaller incisors and proportionately strong. The premolar has no external ledge and the posterior ridge is deeply notched. The molars are perhaps SEMI-ALBINO SPECIMEN OF DACELO GIOAS — NOETH. 87 larger than usual, the cusps very prominent and sharp. The premolar and molar series of the two sides converge before and behind ; the curve continufd forward would fall within the anterior teeth. The mandibular premolar inclines very slightly outward. In D. lumhoUzi the incisor lies in a line with the inferior edge of the mandible, whereas in D. dorianus it is tilted greatly upwards. Unlike what is found in other species, the ascending rami, and more especially the coronoid processes, con- verge rapidly above, and are thus accommodated to the very narrow intertemporal area, A comparison shows that the skull is by far the largest repre- sentative of the genus ; the intemporal breadth and the diastema are, however, actually less than in other species. These points together with the peculiar teeth, the bulging frontals — infinitely more marked than in D. lumhoUzi — the sagittal crest and other features, show that the cranium is as distinct as the external aspect of the animal. The examination of an immature skull only, can show the amount of development the crest undergoes during the lifetime of the animal. The aggregate characters of the skull indicate a further stage than has been reached by other species in the progress of diflfer- entiation from a radical stock. Note on a SEMI-ALBINO SPECIMEN of DACELO GIGAS. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S. (Ornithologist to the Australian Museum.) One of the most interesting of the recent additions to the Ornithological Collection is a semi-albino example of Dacelo gigas procured at "Thirribir," Boggabri, New South Wales, by Mr. F. J. Parks during the month of June, and which has been pre- sented by that gentleman to the Trustees. As the bird was received in the flesh and is in perfect plumage, I have taken the opportunity of describing it. General colour above and below pure white ; a spot in front of the eye, and a broad line extending from the gape to the ear- coverts, dull rufous ; ear-coverts rufous-brown with white shaft- lines ; median portion of the lengthened crest-feathers and an indistinct nuchal spot, dull rufous ; scapulars and interscapular region slightly washed with brown, the lower back faintly barred with brown ; rump and upper tail coverts dull rusty-rufous, the 88 RECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. former indistinctly barred with silvery -blue, the latter with white ; tail white, the two centre feathers freckled with dull rufous on their basal portion and irregularly barred with the same colour except at the tips ; remainder of the tail-feathers barred alter- nately with rufous and brown cross-bars for three-fourths of their length, the bars decreasing in extent towards the outermost feathers where the rufous bars are entirely lost and the brown bars become narrow zigzag lines except at the base ; primaries pale brown, white at the base ; secondaries pale brown, broadly edged with white on their inner webs ; bastard wing, primary and greater wing-coverts brown, the innermost series of the latter white ; median wing-coverts pale brown, the outermost series largely tipped with white and the innermost series with silvery-white ; lesser wing-coverts pale brown with whitish tips ; axillaries and under primary-coverts white, barred with dusky-brown; remainder of the under wing-coverts white, narrowly and indistinctly barred with dusky-brown. Upper mandible brown, the lower fleshy- white ; iris rich reddish-brown ; legs and feet pale yellowish- brown. Total length, 17 3 in. ; wing, 9 in. ; tail, 7 in. ; culmen, 2-45 in. ; tarsus, 105 inch. Sex ? ad., Reg. No. 0-8269. Of the albino specimens of D. gigas in the Museum, the finest example was sent by an unknown donor from Berrima in 1892. This bird has the whole of the plumage snow-white, with the exception of one or two of the inner and concealed plumes of the ear-coverts which are dark brown ; bill dull yellowish-white, with a few short patchy streaks of blackish-brown ; legs and feet yellow. In another albino specimen obtained at Bowral, and presented to the Trustees by the Hon. W. A. Long in 1890, the only trace of its normal plumage is likewise in the concealed plumes of the ear-coverts, and in a few brown feathers among the lesser wing-coverts. The tendency to partial or total albinism apparently exists more in this species than in any other Australian bird, judging by the number of examples represented in the Collection. In answer to an inquiry of the Curator's asking for further information regarding this specimen, Mr. Parks writes as follows : " The semi-albino Great Kingfisher I sent you was accidentally poisoned by eating mice that had been destroyed by strychnine, and was found by one of my men. I had been preserving this bird for some years, which used to feed at the door and nest in a tree close to the house, and was very sorry when the poor fellow died ; at the same time I was glad that it was found before it was too far decayed to preserve as a rara avis." Is^EST OF PETRCECA LEGGII — NORTH. 89 Note on a NEST of PETRCECA LEGGII, Sharps. The Scarlet-breasted Robin. By Alfred J, North, F.L.S. (Ornithologist to the Australian Museum.) [Plate XX.] Mr. Joseph Gabriel, F.L S., one of the most enthusiastic members of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, has recently forwarded me a beautiful nest of the Scarlet-breasted Robin, built in a very well concealed situation. The nest was found by Mr. Gabriel at Bayswater, Victoria, on the 15th Novr., 1894, and is formed in a small cavity burnt out of the thin stem of a " Mountain Musk," Olearia argophylla, at an elevation of about six feet from the ground. The dimensions of this hollow in the stem of the tree, from its base to where it narrows at the top, were six inches and a half in height by three inches and a half in width on one side, and four inches and a half by three inches and a half on the other ; and in this snug recess the nest is ensconced. It is com- posed of very fine strips of the inner bark of a Eucalypt, inter- mingled with the soft downy covering of the freshly budded fronds of a tree fern, and thickly and warmly lined inside with opossum fur ; the rim and one side of the nest are ornamented with cobwebs collected from a burnt tree and to which still adhere small fragments of charred wood, making the nest assimi- late closely to its surroundings. On one side of the cavity only a small portion of the rim of the nest is visible. The figure on the plate represents the nest as seen from above and looking into it: as viewed laterally very little of it is discernible. Eventually the nest, which has been presented to the Trustees, and contains three eggs of the usual type, will be mounted and placed in the Group Collection illustrating the life-hi3tory of our Australian birds. The situation of the nest of this species is varied ; sometimes it is boldly placed on a horizontal branch or in the forked limb of a low tree, but at all times the exterior portion of the nest is made to closely resemble its environment. In South Gippsland I have frequently found the nest of this Robin by tapping on the hollow trunk of some burnt out giant of the forest, or by watching the bird fly into one of the apertures made by fire in the bole of a large tree. 90 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. *DENDROTROCHUS, Pilsbry, ASSIGNED TO TROCHOMORPHA. By C. Hedley, F.L.S. [Plate XXI.] From considerations of shell characters, and perhaps of geogra- phical distribution, Pilsbry attached f to the genus Papuina, a compact and newly defined group, Dendrotrochus, embracing the species kindred to (Helix) helicinoides, Hombron and Jacquinot. The author of it added that the soft anatomy of the section was unknown to him. Some examples of the animal of the type species collected by Dr. V. Gaunsou Thorp, of H.M.S. "Penguin," presented by him to Dr. J. C. Cox, and transferred by the latter to the Australian Museum, have just been examined by myself. The I'esult is to convince me that at least T. helicinoides, and probably the species Pilsbry associates with it, must be dismissed from the genus Papuina, and be ranked under the genus Trochomorpha. Those features in which Dendrotrochus leans from Trochomorpha towards more normal Zonitidse, namely the tripartite sole, caudal mucous pore and side cusps of the rachidian tooth, induce me to hold it as closer than Trochomorpha proper to a primitive stock. The evidence furnished by the foot, dentition and genitalia of Den- drotrochus harmonise, in the classification I propose, with those characters of its shell which are emphasied in the diagnosis of the section. On page 1 of the work above cited, " columellar margin arcuate, short, not dilated or reflexed," is italicised as an important distinction of Trochomorpha; while on page 143, "columellar lip not expanded or reflexed " is given similar prominence in the description of Dendrotrochus. It is a matter of regret to the writer that his inquiries should have led him to mar with corrections a single page of so brilliant a work as Pilsbry's " Guide to the Study of Helices ;" but the progress of knowledge thus exacts its dues as we rise, to para- phrase the poet, on stepping-stones of our dead classifications to higher things. * Since this article was in print, I have received a letter from Mr. Pilsbry, discussing this classification. Accepting the proposed reform, he points out to me that Stoliczka described (Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xlii., Pt. ii., p. 20) a rudimentary tail pore in Sivella. From my des- cription he now considers " that Dendrotrochus is an arl)oreal section or subgenus of Trochomorpha retaining an old character in the tail pore." fMan. Conch. (2) ix., p. 143. CASE OF PRESUMED PROTECTIVE IMITATION. — SKUSE. 91 The detailed description is as follows : — Animal (fig. 1) — in spirits, with two small left and right mantle lobes, foot in length the shell's diameter, with pedal lini, oblique grooves and caudal raucous pore, apparently surmounted by a horn, sole tripartite. Genitalia (fig. 2) — penis broad, much twisted, containing a large blunt papilla, epiphallus more than twice the length of penis ; vas deferens long, bound to wall of atrium. Spermatheca boot-shaped, duct moderately long. Base of vagina black, lobed, containing no follicles. Jaw (fig. 4) — rather thin, arcuate, smooth, broad, without central projection. In a slightly torn radula (fig. 3) I counted 140 = 4 = 12 = 1 = 12 = 4= 140 teeth in 103 rows. Racliidian twice as long as wide, basal plate rather hour-glass shaped, central cusp ovate-lanceolate, projecting half its length over the succeeding plate ; small side cusps with distinct cutting points arise at two-thirds the length of the basal plate. Immediate laterals have the entocone sup- pressed, the ectocone appears as a small hook, the mesocone being broadly ovate. For three or four transition teeth the ectocone rapidly ascends the mesocone, till each of equal size form the bifid cusps of the marginals. These are minute, sinuous, and very numerous. On a case op PRESUMED PROTECTIVE IMITATION. By Frederick A. A. Skuse. (Entomologist to the Australian Museum.) [Plate XXII.] That wonderful Hepialid, Leto stacyi, Scott, seems to claim a place among those famous examples of a similar nature advanced by Bates, Wallace, and others. The protective resemblances among animals is an established fact, and it is unnecessary to quote classical instances. But I cannot find any reference to such a protective feature as that of a moth which reseml>les in situ an approach to the head of a reptile known to possess an appetite for birds. In the case under notice it may fairly be claimed that such an example exists in nature. After consulting my colleagues, by submitting to them photo- graphs of actual specimens in their natural positions — and I am especially indebted to Mr. Edgar R. Waite, whose opinion, from hjs 92 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. special kno\yledge, is particularly valuable — it was agreed that the moth represented sitting on a tree-trunk forcibly reminded one of the head of the tree lizards, members of the genus Varamifi. An example is depicted on the plate. It is the "eye" on the wing of the moth that strikes the key-note of the situation ; but in addition the shape of the wing, when the moth is resting, looks very suggescive. The moth is one which passes its larval state in the butts of Eucalyptus trees for the period of live or six years, but on emergence the perfect insect is not prone to tly, and would therefore be very liable to be attacked by birds. Hence the probability that my surmise of the striking resemblance to the head of the lizard being an instance of genuine protective imitation is correct. The reptile photographed was not very specially selected, and others might perhaps have been used wherein certain features were more strongly marked. For instance, many members of the genus Varanus have a dark line passing from the eye backwards. In conclusion, it might be well to point out that the marks on the outer margin of the visible wing of the moth are very suggestive of labials, while the various lines in front savor of the regularity of scales. Some of these tree-lizards and the moth are natives of New South "Wales. The log from which the moth figured emerged was collected near Newcastle, by Mr. AV. Kershaw, late of the Melbourne Museum, and kindly presented to this Museum, thus affording us an opportunity of observing the living moth in its natural position and development. Some SUGGESTIONS REGARDING the FORMATION of "ENHYDROS" oh WATER-STONES. By T. CooKSEY, Ph. D., B. Sc. (Mineralogist to the Australian Museum.) The mode of formation of these interesting bodies is still in considerable doubt, and therefore it seems to the writer that these notes attempting to explain their occurrence will not be without interest. Mr. E. J. Dunn has given a description of the characters of those specimens which he obtained from Spring Creek, Beech worth, FORMATION OF ENHTDROS OR WATER-STONES. — COOKSET. 9d Victoria, and in a later paper in the same volume (page 71) Mr. George Foord more minutely described them, and also gave the results of a qualitative analysis of the liquid contained in one. He found it to be a dilute aqueous solution of chlorides and sulphates of calcium, magnesium and sodium, with a soluble form of silica. The author also sought to explain their formation on the supposition that a certain proportional mixture of colloidal and crystalline silica in solution might have a tendency on deposi- tion to assume a definite crystalline form. Prof. A. Liversidge, in the Records of the Australian Museum, p. 1 of the present volume, figured and described two large speci- mens acquired for our Collection, and suggested that they might possibly have been formed by the deposition of silica in hollows or cavities in clay which could have been caused by movements in the clay itself. I have not up to the present been able to find any other literature on the subjVct, with the exception of references to these bodies as pseudo-crystals, enhydros or water-stones. A further detailed description is therefore quite unnecessary, but their character may be briefly summed up as follows : — They consist usuall\^ of hollow quartz and chalcedonic forma- tions frequently containing liquid, and are bounded externally by smooth perfectly even surfaces meeting in well-formed sharp straight edges. Some of them from their external appearance might easily be mistaken for true crystals, but a closer examina- tion shews that such cannot be the case, for no two surfaces appear to correspond one with the other. This 'fact negatives the supposition that they might possibly be pseudomorphs. In some specimens the walls are formed entirely of chalcedony, in others the outer surface only is chalcedonic, while the interiors are either lined or completely filled up vvith quartz. Some exactly similar formations were also discovered in Iredell Co., N. Carolina, America, and seven specimens were sent to this Museum labelled quartz-pseudomorphs after calcite. They are exactly similar in every respect to those from Beechworth, Victoria, with this exception, that five of these specimens are composed entirely of quartz, chalcedony appearing to have played no part whatever in their formation. The sizes of the enhydros in the possession of the Australian Museum range from that of half an inch to that of seven and one-eighth inches in length. Leaving out of consideration for the moment their geometric form, most of these enhydros shew such a striking resemblance to many agates, that one is naturally led to the conclusion that a similar mode of formation must be common to all. Prof. Liversidge's suggestion that they ma}' have been formed by the infilling of cavities in clay, seems to me to fail to account * Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of Victoria, X., p. 32. 94 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. for the uniformly flat and even character of the surfaces, and the perfectly straight edges in which those surfaces meet. Mr. George Foord's theory, that a mixture of colloidal and crystalline silica might have a tendency to assume a definite form (that of plates) on deposition is obviously insufficient to account for them, in view of the fact that some of the specimens from America are composed entirely of quartz. A more probaV)le explanation appears to the writer to be this, that their geometrical form is due to the deposition of chalcedony or quartz on the walls of cavities formed by the intersection of tabular crystals of calcite, the latter having been afterwards removed in solution leaving the enhydros free. The thin septa frequently observed in them are formed in the same manner, the laminae of calcite being very tliin, and the complete specimens in reality a combination of two or more single ones. The occurrence of numerous plates of chalcedony with the enhydros is merely what one would expect, they are, no doubt, broken fragments of similar bodies which were too thin and fragile to retain their original form after removal of the calcite. The exterior surfaces of the enhydros would of course reproduce in an inverted manner those striations, markings, etc., which happened to be existent on the surface of the calcite laminse, and might therefore lead to the supposition that the chalcedony itself partook of a crystalline character. On the above assumption the angles between the surfaces of the enhydros must be those between the laminse of calcite, and some among them would tlierefore be the same as those known to exist between corresponding surfaces of calcite tables in twin position. From among the numei'ous angles so formed, several were found to agree, as closely as could be expected from the rough means of measurement at my disposal, with the known angles 127° 29h', 52° 30^', 90° 46', and 89° U'. The above view of their formation has been further strengthened by my finding among the numerous mineral specimens in the Museum Collection one in which thin tables of calcite intersect forming geometrical cavities, the walls of which have received a very thin coating of silica. This specimen may therefore be considered as shewing the enhydros in an initial stage of forma- tion. Casts in gelatine taken of a few of these cavities gave forms very similar to those of some of the enhydros. The latter bodies then, if the above explanation be the correct one, are casts of cavities ; and a complete series of them, placed in the position in which they were originally formed, would con- stitute a mould of those calcite crystals on which the chalcedony and quartz were deposited. 16th September, 1895. Publications of the Australian Museum.— CoNTiNrED. IV.— GUIDES. 1. GUIDK TO THE AUSTRALIAN FoSSIL EeMAIXS IN THE AuSrEALIAN MuSEUM. 1870. 8V0. (Out of print.) 2. Guide to the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1883. 8vo. pp. iv.-.56. Wrapper, 3d. (Out of print.) 3. (iuiDE TO the Contents of the Australian Museum. 1890. 8vo. pp. loG. Wrapper. v.— MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS. 1. List of Old Documents and Relics in the Australian Museum. 1884. Reprinted with additions, 1890. 8vo. pp. 4. 2. Desckiptive List of Aboriginal Weapons, Implfments, &c.. from the Darling and Lachlan Rivers, byK. H, iiennett, F.L.S. 1887. 8vo. pp. 8. (Out of print.) 3. Notes for Collectors 1887. 8vo. Is. 4. Hints for Collectors of Geological and Mineralogical Specimens, by F. Ratte. pp. 26, with a plate. Gd. ,5. Hints for the PRESERv.iTiON of Specimens of Natural History, by E. P. Ramsay. 1891 4th Edition, pp. 32. Is. VL— RECORDS. Vol. I., March, 1890 to Deer. 1895. Vol. ir.,No. 1. April, 1892. 8vo. No. 2. August, ,, ,, pp. 10. 4 No. 3. August, ,, ,, pp. 6. 3 No. 4. Feby., 1893. ,, pp. 26, 3 No. 5. Septr., 1893. ,, pp. 30. 4 No. 6. August, 1895 ,, pp. 10. 5 8vo. pp. 202. 30 plates. Boards. Trice, 258. pp. 22. 3 plates. Wrappers. Price, 28. 6d. 28. 6d. ,, 28. 6d. „ 28. 6d. ,, OS. „ 28. Cd. IN PREPARATION. Catalogues op Library, Shells, Reptiles, Lizards, Batbachia, and Fishes, ButDe, TuNiCATA, ETC. And Records, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus ife Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Turner & Henderson, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ; Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Eoad, London. [Exchanges of Serials, Works, Reports, and other publications are earnestly solicited on behalf of the Museum Library.] CONTENTS. PAGE The Skull of Dendrolagus dorianus, Kamsay. By Edgar K. Waite, F.L.S 85 Note on a Semi-Albino Specimen of Dacelo gigas. By Alfred J. North, F.L.S 87 Note on a Nest of Petrceca leggii, Sharpe. (The Scarlet-breasted Eobin.) By Alfred J. North. F.L.S 89 Dendrotrochus, Pilsbry, assigned to Trochomorpha. By C. Hedley, F.L.S 90 On a Case of Presumed Protective Imitation. By Frederick A. A. Skuse 91 Some Suggestions regarding the Formation of " Enhydros" or Water-Stones. By T. Cooksey, Ph.D., B.Sc 92 I^.ii'l RECORDS MAR ic 1806 AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM EDITED BY THE CURATOR. Vol. II. No. 7. Contents and Index- PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES. Curator. ^'^ SYDNEY, JANUARY, 1896. F. W. WHITE, PRINTER, MARKET STREET WEST. PUBLICATIONS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. JANUARY, 1896. I.— CATALOGUES. 1. Catalogue of the Specimens of Natural Histgey and Miscellaneous Cueiosities in THE Australian Muskum, by G. Bennett. 1837. 8vo. pp. 71. (Out of print.) 2. Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by C Kreflft. 1H64. 12mo. pp. 133. ;0 at of print.) 3. Catalogue of the Mineeals and Rocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, by G. Krefft. 1873. 8vo. pp. xvii.-llo. (Out of print.) 4. Catalogue of the Australian Birds in the Au.stealian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Accipitres. 1876. 8vo. pp. viii -fi4. Boards, 28. ; cloth, 3s. Part II. Striges. 1890. 8vo. pp. 35. Wrapper, Is. Gd. Part III. Psittaci. 1891. 8vo. pp. viii-110. Wrapper, .5s. Part IV. Halcyones. 1894. 8vo. pp. viii-24. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 5. Catalogue of the Australian Stalk and Sessile-eyed Crustacea, by W. A. Haswell. 1882, Svo. pp. xxiv.-324, with 4 plates. (Scarce) Wrapper, 21s. 6. Catalogue of the Library of the Australian Museum. 1883. Svo. pp. 178. With two supplements. (Out of print.) 7. Catalogue of a Collection of Fossils in the Australian Museum, with Introductory Notes, by F. Ratte. 1883. Svo. pp. xxviii.-160. Wrapper, 2s. 6d. 8. Catalogue of T.ig[E Australian Hydroid Zoophytes, by W. M. Bale. 1884. 8vo. pp. 198, with 19 plates. Wrapper, 3s. 6d. 9. Descriptive Catalogue of the General Collection of Minerals in -the Australian Museum, by F- Ratte. 188.5. Svo. pp. 221, with a plate. Boards, 2s. 6d. ; cloth, 3s. Gd. 10. Catalogue of Eciiinodeemata in the Australian Museum, by E. P. Ramsay. Part I. Echini. l) 1 28. 6d. Title, Contents, and Index . . . . ) " » -- Or complete, bound, 25s. IN PREPARATION. Catalogues of Libeaey, Shells, Reptilks, Lizaeds, Batrachia, and Fishes, Bieds, Tunicata, etc. And Records, periodically. May be obtained from the Attendants at the Museum, or from Messrs. Angus & Robertson, Castlereagh Street, Sydney ; Messrs. Turner & Henderson, Hunter Street, Sydney ; Mr. E. W. Cole, George Street, Sydney, Book Arcade, Melbourne, and Rundle Street, Adelaide ; Messrs. Melville, Mullen & Slade, Melbourne ; Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner &. Co., Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road, London ; Messrs. R. Fried lander it Son, Berlin. [Exchanges of Serials, Works, Reports, and other publications are earnestly solicited on behalf of the Museum Library.] CONTENTS. JVo. 7. A Museum Enemy — Dust. By Edgar E. Waite On the Season Changes in the Plumage of Zosterops ccsrulescens By Alfred J. North ... Notes on MoUusca from the Alpine Zone of Mount Kosciusko. By C. Hedley Description of Pugnus, a New Genus of Kingiculidse, from Sydney Harbour. By C. Hedley ... Description of a Dapanojptera from Australia. By Frederick A. A Skuse ... Stephanocircus, Sk. : A Kejoinder. Mineralogical Notes, Nos. 1 and 2. Title Page Contents ... List of Contributors List of Plates Corrections ... Index By Frederick A. A. Skuse By T. Cooksey PAGE 95 98 101 105 106 110 111 i. iii. V. vii. viii. ix. EXPLANATION OP PLATE I, All the figiires refer to Cerapus flinderd. A. — View of a portion of one end of the tube with the animal (a large male) in it, x 9'5. P>. — Dorsal view of the same animal when extracted from the tube, x 9'o. The bases of the antennae are shown, also a portion of the second gnathopoda and the last pair of pereiopoda ; the other limbs being concealed from view. The pleon is bent back under the body. (The front of the head in figures A. and B. has been drawn much too broad.) a. s. — Upper antenna x 22*5. a. i. — Lower antenna x 22'5. gn. 2(? A. — Second gnathopod of large male, x 22-5. gn. 2 S B. — Second gnathopod of younger male, x 52. gn. 2 9 . — Second gnathopod of female, x 90. prp. 3 (? . — Third pereiopod of large male, x 52. prp. 3 ? . — Third pereiopod of female, x 52. ur. 1. — First uropod ^ ur. 2. — Second uropod ur. 3. — Third uropod T.— Telson / -Seen from above, all x 90. Plate I. OHAS. CHILTON, del. ad nat. G. H. BARROW, lith. .11 a'l'A.ii 'io Y.on'AViJiJ'r//A . ' yj::d:j'.ij,1 'fecjj.Y,' 'io f-"S':ii3i'i"'J .JiJ;rc>B ,y;aJMu iiaJw KJV.-i\;J«'-i .o „ Y.cf aljsnrgi'io ailJ moai L90i/f,o-jc|9Jf .esis IsiisiMa •jiid \o nii-: t;rriW'».R oxlT EXPLANATION OP PLATE IL Eggs of the following species. Fig. 1. Ninox connivens, Latham. Winking Owl. „ 2. Calyptorhynchus funereus, Shaw. Fimereal Blact Cockatoo. „ 3. Calyptorhynchus solandri, Temminck. Solander's Black Cockatoo. ,, 4, Centropas phasianus, Jj^th.a.va. Swamp Pheasant. „ 5. Polytelis alexocndrce, Gould. Princess of Wales' Parrakeet. „ 6. Orthonyx spinicaudus, Temminck. Spine-tailed Orthonyx. The figures are of the natural size. Eeproduced from the originals by heliotype. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate II. Plate No. 2 not being ready in time, to save delay the Number is issued, and the plate will be supplied with next Number. \k\A) i/Ba oi ,yuii*j ifi /hnof jJiiiod Jon l' .o>l ')S'aV1 fxoflqqua ed Iliw y^filq uifi F)iirj J)0iJH8i ^li 'ij;fiTr;;>I oilj EXPLANATION OF PLATE IIL Nest and eggs of Ptilotis frenata, Eamsay. Bridled Honey-eater. The figures are of the natural size. Keproduced from the originals by heliotype. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate III. EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. Fig. 1. Reduced outline of the type of P. maconelli, Reeve, from P.Z.S., 1851, PI. xii., upper figure. „ 2. Reduced outline of Mon. Austr. Land Shells, PL iii., fig. 5. „ 3-5. Reduced outlines from specimens lent by Dr, Cox. „ 6. Reduced outline of the type of P. falconeri. Reeve, from Concho- logia Iconica, Vol. vii. (Helix), PI. Ixviii., fig. 355. ,, 7. Reduced outline of specimen from~the Richmond River, N.S.W. (Aust. Mus. Coll.) „ 8. Reduced outline of Mon. Austr. Land Shells, PI. xvi., fig. 6. Rec - Aus.Mus. Vol. II. Plate IV. /'5e33'S2) C. h'edieu^ del. EXPLANATION OF PLATE V. Fig. 9. B. kershawi, Brazier, from the author's type in the Australian Museum. „ 10. Apex of shell of P. atomata to show sculpture of embryonic shell, magnified. „ 11. Jaw of ditto, magnified. „ 12. Egg of Pedinogyra cunninghami, natural size. „ 13. Genitalia of P. atomata. REC. AUSTR. MUS. VOL. II. Plate V. C. HEDLEY, del. ad nat. G. H. BARROW, lith. EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. Fig. 14. Two rows of rachidian and immediate lateral teeth from the radula of P. atomata, much magnified. „ 15. Two rows of the 36th to the 42nd teeth from the margin of the radula of the same, much magnified. REC. AUSTR. MUS. VOL. II. Plate VI. C. HEDLEY, del. ad nat. G. H. BARROW, lith. EXPLANATION OF PLATE VII. Egg of Manucodia comrii, Sclater. Natural size. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II, Plate Vii, Kepioducerl by Heliotype. 6. H. Barrow, del. EXPLANATION OP PLATE VIII. Crystals of Molybdenite, Kingsgate, N.S.W. Natural size. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate VIII. V^ G. H. Barrow, del. Reproduced by the Photoline Printing Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX. Enhtdro, or Water Stonb. Natural size. Length, ^g- inches ; height, 2-n5- inches ; width, 2-iV inches. REG. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate IX. G. H. Barrow, del. Reproduced by the Photoline Printing Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OF PLATE X. Enhydeo, or Water Stonb. Natural size, foreshortened from atob. Length, from a to 6, 7^- inches ; height 6f inches ; width, 3i^ inches. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II, Plate X, G. H. Barrow, del. Reproduced by the Photoline Printing Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XI. Fig. 1. Limn(Jbates strigosa, Sk., magnified. „ 2. Elytron of same, more magnified. „ 3. Hydrometra australis, Sk., magnified. „ 4. Cyria imperialis, Don., natural size. „ 5. Cyria tridens, Blackb., natural size. „ 6. Right elytron ; 7, antenna ; 8, 0, Etad 10, head-parts of same ; all magnified. [The figures have been reproduced from drawings by Mr. G. H. Barrow, of the Australian Museum, by the photoline process.] REG. AUST. MUS. VOL. il. Plate XI. ) m -.. 4 G. H. BiRROW, del. Keiiroduced by the Photoline I'rintiiii; Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XII. Fig. 1. The mass of Hawkesbury Sandstone, known as " Hands-on-the- Rock," Wollondilly Eiver, S.W. corner of the Parish of Werriberri, County Camden. [Prepared from rough sketches by the Authof, by Mr. G. H. Barrow, of the Australian Museum, and reproduced by the photoline process.] REG. AUST. MUS. VOL. 11, Plate XII. G. H. BiiiROW, del. Keproduced by the Photoline Pnntinj; Co., Sydney EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIII. Fig. 1. Carved tree (Casuarina) near grave, at the "Hermitage," Werriberri Creek, Parish of Burragorang, County Camden. „ 2. Carved tree (Eucalyptus?) near grave, and contiguous to that represented in Fig. 2. „ 3. Carved tree (Eucalyptus ?J same localities as those of Figs. 2 and 3. [Prepared from rough sketches by the Author, by Mr. G. H. Barrow, Australian Museum, and reproduced by the photoline process.] . ,o',#:»' '- i.«s;t*tat««-!«*i EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIV. Pigs. 1, 2, and 3. Dorsal, lateral, and ventral aspects respectively of P. obturamentum. „ 4 and 5. Outlines of P. similis to contrast with figs. 1 and 3, copied from figs. 12 and 14, pi. ciii.. Vol. ii., of The Thesaurus Con- chyliorum. In the margin of that plate the figures are said to be " f rda. nat. diam." [The figures have been reproduced from drawings by Mr. C. Hedley, of the Australian Museum, by photo-lithography.] EEC. AUST. MUS., VOL II. tLATE XIV C. Hedley, Del. FAfctrk. Photn-Engravitig Co. Process. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XV. Pigs. 1 and 2. Head of Typhlops nigrescens. „ 3 and i. Head of I'yphlops proximus. Fig. 5. Tail of Typhlops nigrescens. „ 6. Tail of Typhlops rilppelli. [The figures, whioh are four times natural size, have been reproduced from drawings by Mr. Edgar E. Waite, of the Australian Museum, by photo-lithography.] EEC. AUST. IMTJS., VOL. II. Plate XV Edfjar R. Waite, Del. ElH-trir Photo- Engnitiag Co. Process. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XVI. Fig. 1. Large rosettes with small nuclei, and five to eight rings. Syringo- pora, Cave Flat. „ 2. Small rosettes with few rings, a double one to the upper right hand of figure. Syringopora, Cave Flat. „ 3. Smaller rosettes. Syringopora, Cave Flat. „ 4. Surface of Heliolites, on the upper right hand both autopores and siphonopores are obliterated, whilst on the lower left hand one of the autopores remains open. Wellington Caves. [The figures, which are drawn from nature by Mr. G. H. Barrow, have been reproduced by the photoline process.] REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate XVI. G. H. BARROW, del. Reproduced by the Phutoline Printing Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OP PLATE XVII. Fig. 1. Stephanocircusdasyuri, S'k., (male); 1 a, head of same ; 16, antenna. „ 2. Stephanocircus dasyuri, Sk., (female) ; 2a, head of same ; 26, antenna ; 2c, maxillary palpus ; 2d, fore-leg ; 2e, hind-leg. [The figures, which are all greatly magnified views, have been re- produced from drawings by Mr. G. H. Barrow, by the photoline process.] REC. AUST. MUS. VOL. II. Plate XVII. G. H. BARROW, del. Reproduced by the Photoline Printing Co., Sydney. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XVIII. Dendrolagus doriamis, Eamsay. Fig. 1. Skull in profile. Natural size. [From drawings by the Author.] Pld.te XVUI tdgar /?. Waite 0(^J EXPLANATION OF PLATE XIX. Dendrolagus dorianus, Bamsay. Fig. 2. Sknll from above ; reduced. „ 3. The same from below ; reduced. [From drawings bj the Author.] REC A'jaT. nUS VOL u ?la.le X\X. tdcjG ■ R. Wg.'te. del EXPLANATION OF PLATE XX. Nest and eggs of Petroaca leggii, Sharpe. Scarlet-breasted Eobin. The plate represents the nest as viewed from above. Half natural size. REC. AUST. MUS. VOL . 11 ?lale .XX; EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXI. Trochomorpha helicinoides, H. & J., mapfnified. Fig. 1. Dead animal extruding from the shell. „ 2. Genital system. „ .3. Portion of radnla, showing (^entral, transitional and margina. teeth. ,, t. .Taw. [From drawings by the Author.] TIEC. AUST. MUS, VOL.11 Plate XXI. mi' Q2auy EXPLANATION OP^ PLATE XXTT. Ki<^-. 1. Head of lizard of th(^ f^eniis Varama^ on tree trunk. ,, 2. Moth, Lefo staciii, Scott, sittiuj^ on tret* trunk. Both natural size. i REC.AUSTMUS VOLII. Plalp XXJl EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXIII. Fig. 1. Pugnus varvus, Hedley. Figs. 2, 3, 4. Various aspects of Flammulina excelsior, Hedley. „ 5, G, 7. Various aspects of Endoclonta nivea, Hedley. [All magnified, and to various scales, drawn from types by the Author.] Plate xxiii. 3 2044 072 191 083