504 NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN SHIPWORMS, 



and Calobaies australis, Wright, {Op. cit. p. 564, PI. Lxiv. figs. 1-5) 

 from Freemajitle, Western Australia. Described from a defective 

 specimen, the latter, suggests Prof. Wright, " may prove to be 

 only an Australian form of Calohates thoracites, Gould." 



Capt. Ferguson, Chief Harbour Master of Williamstown, gives 

 many interesting particulars on pp. 8-11 of Report on Class III. 

 " Indigenous Vegetable Substances," of the Catalogue of the 

 Victorian Exhibition of 1861, of the boring of submerged timliers 

 in Victorian waters. The damage he I'ecords is attributed to 

 '■'^ Teredo navalis" Ijut we are not informed that any scientific 

 examination of the pest was made or its correct name ascertained. 

 Effects of its destruction upon Red Gum, Blue Gum, White Gum, 

 Stringybark, Blackwood, Sheoak, Teak and Swan River Mahogany 

 are respectively tabulated. The last-named, or Jarrah [E. mar- 

 ffinata), had, as elsewhere, completely resisted attack ; next in 

 endurance was Red Gum ; the worst, Teak, was completely 

 riddled.* 



In the Proc. Roy. Soc. Van Diemen's Land, 1852, pp. 74-77, 

 Sir William Denison discusses the "Operation of IWedu navalis 

 on Colonial Timber." Two trees [supposed by Maiden (Useful 

 Native Plants of Australia, p. 34) to be E. globu'.us and A'. 

 amygdalina] employed as piles at the Franklin Wharf, Hobart, 

 were much worm-eaten. In his " Census of the Marine Shells of 

 Tasmania," Tenison Woods mentions on p. 47, " Teredo navalis, 

 Linne, rare, and probably introduced." Gray alludes to a Tas- 

 manian Teredo (P.Z.S. 1857, p. 246). 



In N.S.W. and Queensland shipworms are by boatmen, fisher- 

 men, and the waterside folk generally, termed "cobra," a word 

 which, like dingo, yarraman, kangaroo, &c., is considered by the 

 Europeans to be aboriginal, and by at least most aboriginal tribes 

 to be English. The blacks esteem "cobra" highly as an article 

 of food, devouring them raw. Having ventui'ed to taste, my 

 palate compared it to an oyster. 



* Sir F. von Mueller writes, Eucalyptographia, Decade iv. , that, " next to 

 the Jarrali, E. ro'^trata best resists the attacks of Teredo.'' For particulars 

 of the former, see Decade iii. of the same work. 



