589 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. W. J. Rainbow exhibited a small collection of Arachnida 

 obtained by Count Morner and Mr. W. W. Froggatt in the 

 Solomon Islands, including Palystes sj^eciosus Pock., Gasteracantha 

 signijer Pock., G. scintillans Butl., from Russell Island, a variety 

 of the latter from Guadalcanar Island, and G. metallica Pock., 

 from Bougainville Island. The Arachnida of the Archipelago 

 are not well known. The most important paper dealing with 

 this branch of the fauna was published by Pocock ("Scorpions, 

 Pedipalpi, and Spiders from the Solomon Islands," Ann. Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. i. (7), June, 1898, p.457). The Solomon Island 

 Archipelago is the habitat of the most brilliantly coloured 

 Gasteracanthids knov/n. 



Mr. A. F. Basset Hull exhibited a skin and an e^gg of the 

 White-faced Storm-Petrel {Pelagodroma marina Latham), and 

 eggs of the Little Penguin {Eudyptula minor Gould), taken by 

 him on Tom Thumb Island (Five Islands Group) near Wollon- 

 gODg, N.S.W., on 17th October, 1909. The island, barely half 

 an acre in extent, was inhabited by a colony of about one 

 hundred Storm-Petrels, breeding in burrows in the sand a few 

 inches beneath the roots of Mesemhryanthemum, sp. The burrows 

 were from 2-4 feet in length, with small semicircular entrances. 

 On the south-eastern side, where the first arrivals had made 

 their homes, the burrows contained partly incubated eggs; on 

 the middle of the island the eggs were fresh, while on the 

 north-western side the latest arrivals were sitting in their 

 completed burrows, preparatory to laying. The eggs were laid 

 on the bare sand, or on a few sprigs of salt-bush {Atriplex sp). 

 The bird exhibited was a male, and was taken while sitting on 

 an egg. The Penguins were found in crevices of the rocks 

 beyond reach of the breakers, or in shallow burrows amongst the 

 vegetation at the top of the island. Their nests contained in 



