BY E. P. RAMSAY, F.L.S. 633 



is only a very short space between the detached anterior portion 

 of the dorsal rays and the rest of the fin. 



The total length of this specimen restored would be about six 

 feet, the width about one inch, and the height seven inches with- 

 out the fin. Colour uniform, of burnished silver, no markings 

 or spots on the body, fin membranes opalescent, longest rays 

 about a-quarter of the height of the body. 



Notes on some of the Habits and Customs of Atjstealian 



Natives in Queensland. 



By Dr. J. C. Cox, F.L.S. 



The Natives of Australia are so rapidly disappearing, owing 



to their altered habits and the evil influences which accompany 



civilization, and so little is recorded of those habits, that any 



authenticated facts regarding them are worthy of note ; I crave 



no apology therefore for offering the few brief notes to this Society 



which I have made regarding some of the tribes to the North of 



Queensland. 



It has been known for a considerable time that the male members 

 of some of the Native tribes which inhabit the North-west part of 

 Australia, and a few tribes also which inhabit that part of the 

 Continent to the North-west of Fort Bourke have an operation 

 performed on their genital organs when about ten or twelve 

 years of age, the object of which it is difficult to surmise. The 

 operation which I refer to is that of having their urethras slit up 

 from the posterior part of the meatus at the point of the glans 

 along the median line of the under surface of the penis as far 

 back as the scrotum. My friend Mr. Sydney Brown was the first 

 to call my attention to this curious custom, having observed it 

 amongst the tribes North-west of Fort Bourke, who gather and 

 use the narcotic plant known as Pitchcrie ; before being able to 

 make observations for himself, he had heard of this practice, but 



