OCCASIONAL NOTE. 



No. I. 



SEPIA BRAGG I, VERCO.— A RECORD for the STATE. 



By C. Hedley, Conchologist. 



Heavy and continuous gales had prevailed for a fortnight, during 

 which eighteen inches of rain had fallen and several wrecks had 

 occurred on the coast. A Museum party then spent a profitable 

 afternoon inspecting the pelagic drift on Maroubra Beach. On 

 8th August, 1908, a tremendous sea still running, we found a 

 continuous purple streak of lanthina, Velella, and Physalia 

 along the wash of the waves. This drift was wholly pelagic, no 

 ground fauna appeared at all ; probably such was carried down 

 by the undertow. The drift seemed also southern, such surface 

 forms as Glaucus and Porpita were remarkable for their absence. 

 The storm had overwhelmed sea fowl ; Cadet D. B. Fry found a 

 dead, though fresh, Penguin (Eudyptula minor) on the sand, a bird 

 which rarely reaches so low a latitude. Carcases of Prion ariel 

 were numerous. 



Cadet R. Kinghorn found a Spirula spirula shell with part of 

 the animal attached. A drift spar encased in living barnacles 

 yielded the crab N autiloyrapsus minutus, Linn., to the scrutiny 

 of Mr. A. R. McUnlloch. Amongst the thousands of lanthina 

 ianthina, Linn., we detected a dozen of the rarer lanthina exiyua, 

 Lamarck, with their floats complete. 



Perhaps the most interesting article fell to my share in the 

 shape of a couple of shells of Sepia brayyi, Verco, 1 described 

 last year from South Australia, but as yet undetected on the 

 Pacific Coast. Our specimens are only an inch in length. The 

 South Australian type is 60 mm. long, while a specimen from the 

 Heytesbury Coast, Victoria, kindly presented by Mr. G. B. 

 Pritchard, is 62 mm. in length. 



It is probable that the Tasmanian record of Sepia elouyata, 

 D'Orbigny & Ferussac,- is based on Sepia brayyi. 



An icthyological treasure, the second known specimen of 

 Eupetrichthys angustipes, Ramsay and Ogilby, rewarded Cadet 

 E. le G. Troughton, who found it stranded on Maroubra Beach 

 the following Saturday. 



1 Verco— Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., xxxi., 1907, p. 213, pi. xxvii., tigs. 6, 

 6«, 66, tic, 6d. 



2 Tate and May— Proc. Lion. Soc. N.S.W., xxvi., 1901, p. 351. 



