28 



NOTES AXD EXHIBITS. 



Mr. Hedley called attention to specimens of Fiona marina, 

 Forskal, collected at Maroubra Bay, on February 9th, 1896, by 

 Mr. T. Whitelegge, who first found the genus in Australia last 

 year, the discovery being recorded in Proc. Malac. Soc. I. p. 333, 

 footnote. The first examples found were swimming free, and 

 were tinted that shade of dark blue common to lanthina, Glaucus, 

 Fmyita, Velella, Physalia and other pelagic animals. In the 

 present instance they were of a pearl-grey colour, and were sunk 

 in deep grooves evidently gnawed by themselves in fragments of 

 an indeterminate species of Sepia shell, upon which grew examples 

 of Lepas ansi/era about 10 mm. in length. With them were 

 associated several masses of ova, resembling those figured • by 

 Bergh (Result. Camp. Scient. Prince Monaco, Fasc. iv. PL i. f. 

 16). In support of the suggestion that the coloration of these 

 specimens was a protective adaptation to the colour of the Sepia, 

 the molluscs, ova and cuttlebone were exhibited. 



Mr. Hedley also reported that on March 8th last Mr. AVhite- 

 legge had further increased the list of Australian genera by the 

 discovery of the specimens of Fir'ol >idt^s desma'-estl, Lesueur, which 

 were exhibited on behalf of the tinder. Two males and three 

 females were thrown by the waves on the sandy beach at 

 Maroubra Ba}', and were so little injui'ed as to swim about 

 actively for some hours in a vessel of sea-water. The species had 

 been identified by the excellent figures in PI. xvi. of the " Voyage 

 de la Bonite : Zoologie." The bibliography of this species brought 

 down to a late date would be found in Challenger Reports, Vol. 

 xxiii., Heteropoda, p. 22. Like the preceding, this genus is not 

 included in Prof. Tate's census (Trans. Roy. Soc. 1888, pp. 70-81), 

 but an undetermined species of Firoloides had been recorded from 

 Bass Straits by Dr. Macdonald (Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. 

 xxiii., 1862). 



Mr. Edgar R. Waite exhibited a large number of living young 

 Green Tree Snakes ( Dendrophis punct'data), the property of Mr. 



