237 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



As instances of the severity of the prevailing drought, Mr. 

 North exhibited, with the permission of the Curator, specimens 

 of Chlamydodera maculata and Philemon citreogvlaris, which had 

 been received in the flesh by the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum. The former was shot in an apple tree on the 19th May 

 in a garden at Smithfield, about twenty miles from Sydney, b}^ a 

 son of Mr. James Stein, the donor. The spotted Bower-bird, 

 Chlamydodera maculata, is an inhabitant of the scrubs on the 

 inland plains in the western and north-western portions of the 

 State, and seldom occurs east of Byrock. Philemon citreogularis, 

 another inland species, was procured on the 31st May by Mr. H. 

 Newcombe at Kurnell, or, as it is now called. Cook's Landing 

 Place, on the shores of Botan}^ Bay. Previously neither of these 

 species had been recorded from the County of Cumberland. On 

 the 16th May Mr. North saw a flock of Pied Crow-shrikes 

 {Strepera graculina) in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, several 

 individuals of which have been since trapped, and are now in one 

 of the aviaries. Although this species frequents during the 

 autumn months the northern and western suburbs, he had never 

 observed it in a wild state in the city before. What might be 

 regarded as an irruption of Blood-birds (Myzomela sanguinolenta) 

 has taken place in the Sydney coastal districts. In ordinary 

 seasons during winter this species occurs near the coast onl}^ in 

 limited numbers. At present they are in hundreds at Middle 

 Harbour, Long Reef, Bondi, Randwick, Kurnell and intermediate 

 localities where previously they had been unobserved. Mr. H. 

 Newcombe, who presented eight specimens to the Trustees of the 

 Museum, supplied the information that at Kurnell on the 31st 

 ult., some boys had about thirty specimens that they had killed 

 with sticks and stones. 



