188 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Macleay read a note from Mr. Wilkinson, enclosing the 

 following notes on the habits of the Aborigines, by Dr. Turner, 

 Bishop of Grafton and Armidale : — 



Armidale, April 18th, 1885. 

 C. S. Wilkinson, Esq. 



Dear Sir, — At p. 436 of Vol. 8, p. 4 of the Linnean Society 

 of N.S.W., is a brief paper by yourself upon a custom of the 

 Aborigines in the Mount Poole district, and as an accident 

 enables me to say something about a like custom among the 

 Armidale blacks, I venture to submit a short statement to you. 

 Walking some years ago in the bush, a mile or so out of Armidale, 

 I picked up a black-fellow's dilly-bag, I forget now what the nature 

 of its general contents was, but in it was a stone apparently of 

 yellowish calcareous crystals, very dirty ; as I thought it was 

 hardly likely such a stone would be preserved without some reason 

 for its preservation, I kept it and waited an opportunity of enquiry 

 as to its purpose. Some months after a blackfellow came about my 

 house and I showed him the stone and asked him what it was for ; 

 he said at once ii was to obtain water, and volunteei-ed the state- 

 ment that the gins were not allowed to look at it, they had to 

 carry it but not to look at it on any account. It was a remarkable 

 stone, and when I went to England I took it with me, meaning to 

 give it to some Public Museum, but I am almost afraid it never 

 got there. The stone, as well as I can remember, was about 3 in. 

 or 3;|in. long, \\'va.. thick, and nearly 3 in. deep. 



Mr. E. P. Eamsay exhibited (1) on behalf of Mr. K. H. Bennett, 

 of Mossgiel, the eggs of Falco suhniger, and of the Glareola 

 grallaria, mentioned in his paper ; also the following rare eggs : — 



(2) Gyjjoictinia melanosternon, Menura victorice and Astur radiatus. 



(3) Some new birds from the Astrolabe Range of New Guinea, 

 including the following : — Parotia lawesii, a small but distinct 

 species allied to P. sexpennis ; Lopliorina siuperha minor, a small 

 form of Lophorina sujjerba ; a male and female of a species of 

 Gallus, jungle fowl, remarkable for the great development of the 

 spurs, and apparently different from all other varieties. {^) A 



