THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 153 



that gentleman noticed a peculiar spatula formation at the end of 

 the second primary feather, and at once placed it in a separate 

 genus under the name of Spathopterus. Mr. North's action has 

 been challenged by some local critics, but the fact that the 

 British Museum authorities have endorsed the alteration should 

 satisfy our members that the change was warranted. As Gould 

 has omitted any mention of the sexes of the specimens he 

 examined, it is only just to assume that the required information 

 was not at hand. However, as the birds exhibit many of the 

 characteristics of the Polytelis, I have embraced them in this 

 paper. The range of this species has been traced from about 

 loo miles east of Alice Springs in Northern Territory to near 

 Mount Bates in Western Australia, and from Joanna Springs in the 

 North-West to the Finke River, at Crown Point, in the southern 

 part of the Northern Territory. During the greater part of the 

 year they are in flocks scattered over the most desert-like portions 

 of the interior, where they subsist on the small seeds of the 

 Spinifex (Triodia), and seek shelter in the desert oaks (Casuarina). 

 But whenever their breeding places have been discovered they 

 were near water. During September or October, 1895, Mr. 

 Chas. Pritchard found them breeding on the Todd, Hugh, and 

 Palmer Rivers. Although they had not been known to visit 

 those localities during the previous thirty years, strange to relate, 

 they bred there again in 1901. With the exception of the 

 spatulate wing feathers, previously alluded to, the sexes are alike 

 in plumage, and the young differ very slightly from their parents. 

 Mr. A. Zeitz, of Adelaide Museum, who has bred several young 

 ones in his aviary, informed me that the spatule does not 

 appear until the third moult. Gould was slightly in error in 

 stating that this bird is of the same size as P. harrabandi. It is 

 much smaller, but has a longer and narrower tail. 



NOTE ON AN INTERESTING OCCURRENCE OF THE 

 PELAGIC FORAMINIFER, CYMBALOPOBA (TRET- 

 OMPHALUS) BULLOIDES, ON THE COAST OF 

 SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



In the " Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club," November, 

 1902, pp. 309-322, Mr. A. Earland has given an account of 

 some pure foraminiferal material, formed of the above species, 

 which was gathered by Mr. E. H. Matthews, of Yorke Town, 

 South Australia. The latter recounts finding the material stranded 

 on the shore at Corney Point, Hardwicke Bay, west of Yorke 

 Peninsula. Mr. Matthews says : — " The tide was beginning to 

 ebb, and I found along the ripple edge what I took at first to be 

 seaweed spore, got my glass out and found it to be this foram. 

 . . . I gathered about a teaspoonful, and could have got 



