388 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. C. T. Musson, F.L.S., contributed the following notes : — 



(1) "In June, 1887, I shot on the border of a small artificial 

 dam, on Boolcarrol Station, 30 miles north of Narrabri, N.S.W., 

 two specimens of the Top-knot pigeon ( Lojoliolaimus antarctica^ 

 Sharw.), one of which on examination was found to have a curious 

 ball of earth on each leg, caked quite hard and completely sur- 

 rounding the \e,g just clear of the ground when the bird was 

 walking. One of the legs was cut off, with its accompanying 

 incubus, and is sent herewith for exhibition*; unfortunately the 

 connection between the clot and leg has become severed. The 

 larger ball only is shown, but it will be noticed that it is of con- 

 siderable size, and no doubt accumulated as the bird wandered about 

 on the muddy margin of some water-hole. One need hardly dilate 

 on the importance of birds as seed-distributors, — a question which 

 has been thoroughly discussed by Darwin, Wallace, and others ; 

 but when we find an example of one of the many methods of 

 distribution capable of demonstration, it is well to note the fact. 

 In this case the amount of earthy matter is not great (weighing 

 9 grains), but there is ample for the inclusion of many such seeds 

 as are likely to be lying about in places where pigeons might be in 

 the habit of alighting for water." 



(2) " Whilst collecting on Mount Archer, near Rockhampton, 

 Queensland, during September, 1887, I found under some loose 

 stones in one of the numerous gullies, a Coleopterous insect, carry- 

 ing on one of its elytra a specimen of a land-snail ( Vitrina). It 

 does not require a very great stretch of imagination to consider 

 that, could the insect have taken flight with this strange companion 

 as passenger, it might have been the means by which distribution 

 would have been aided, and thus a new colony be started where 

 possibly the species had been before unknown." 



* The specimen was duly exhibited. 



