A LARGK EXAMPLE OK MEGALATHACTUS AEUAyiS, L. — HKDLKY. 99 



According to Brauer,*^ the Murex (/if/at<oi Born is a synonym 

 of this species. 



Buccinum incisum of Martyn is usually considered to belong 

 here also. The locality he gave has been noted as erroneous by 

 E. A. Smith." 



The islanders of Torres Htrait employed this shell in their 

 ceremonies. Prof. A. C. Haddon" has described and figured its 

 use in the "zogo,"or sacred ground of Murray Island. In a 

 dx'awing by Prof. T. H. Huxley," the species is shown mounted 

 on a funeral screen at Mt. Ernest, Torres Strait. 



When visiting Bentinck Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, in June, 

 1903, as the guest of Dr. W. E. Roth, I gathered a specimen 

 (PI. xxii.) eighteen inches in length which the aborigines had 

 employed for carrying water. To facilitate transport, a hole had 

 been knocked in the ventral surface at the margin of the inner 

 lip, in which the thumb was inseited while the fingers grasped 

 the columella. 



Dr. Pioth notes^" that at Mapoon, Cape York Peninsula, where 

 it is called " pandaii," the natives eat tlie mollusc and manufac- 

 ture the shell into nose-pins and water-vessels. 



I am indebted to Mr. A. Morton for permission to notice here 

 an interesting specimen preserved in the 

 Tasmanian Museum. A shell (fig. 24) 

 about nine inches in length was per- 

 forated in the back of the penultimate 

 whorl, and had been used as a trumpet 

 by the Papuans. It was collected on the 

 Fly River, British New Guinea, by the 

 late Rev. James Chalmers. 



The furthest point to whicli I have 

 traced the species to the south-west is 

 Rest Bay, Exmouth Gulf, W.A., where 

 Admiral P. P. King observed" " a buc- 

 cinum of immense size" upon the beach. 



On Darnley Island it appears, from an 

 observation by Jukes, to be known as ^'-^'' 



"mabaer."'-' Fisr. 24. 



Megalatractvx aniait I's. 



« Brauer— Sitzb. K. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Ixxvii., 1, 1878. p. 171. 



T Smith— Proc. Zool. Soc, 1890, p. 317. 



* Haddon — Head-Hunters, Black, White, and Brown, 1901, p. 54, pl.vii. 



' Macgrillivray — Voy. " Rattlesnake," ii., 1852, p. 37, pi. ii. 



1° Roth— North Queensland Ethnography, Bull, iii., 1901, p. 18; 



vii., 1904. p. 3. fig. 203. 

 " King — Survey Coasts Australia, i., 1827, p. 26. 

 " Jukes— Voy. "Fly," i., 1847, p. 189; ii., p. 286. 



