NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Dr. Ramsay exhibited a live specimen of a beautiful snake, 

 Nardoa gilherti, one of several caught and forwarded to him by 

 Mr. James Kamsay, of Wattagoona, N.S.W., a gentleman who 

 has largely contributed to the collections in the Australian 

 Museum. 



Mr. North read the following note : — " It may be interesting 

 to know that several of the Gouldian finches have bred in Dr. 

 Ramsay's aviary at the Museum. A pair, ^ and 9) of the black- 

 headed phase hatched out on May 13th last (1888) three young 

 ones, one of which, although having a dull-coloured breast, has 

 developed the crimson head of Poe2:)hila mirabilis. There can be 

 now no doubt whatever that P. gouldice, the black-headed phase, 

 and P. armitiana, the yellow-headed phase, are merely varieties of 

 P. inirabilis, originally described by Hombron and Jacquinot in 

 the " Voy. au Pole Sud." Many specimens recently brought to 

 Sydney show the various stages of plumage above-mentioned, 

 bearing out Dr. Ramsay's previous statement respecting the 

 various phases of plumage exhibited in this species." 



Dr. Cox exhibited a large flat stone, 66^ centimetres long and 

 38|- broad at its widest part, used by the natives near Cooper's 

 Creek, N.W. of Bourke, in New South Wales, as a mill stone for 

 grinding the seeds of the Nardoo and also of the Pig-weed 

 ( Portulaca oleracea), the latter being much cultivated by the 

 natives in that district for the sake of the seeds, which are 

 used as an article of food ; the plant is grown on slightly 

 raised mounds in the way pumpkins and melons are grown, 

 and before the seed vessels are quite ripe and have opened, the 

 whole plant is cut up, reversed, and dried in the sun ; the 

 seed vessels are then plucked off, and threshed or rather 

 rubbed down, and the seed collected for grinding. The stone 



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