THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 83 



district, between Mount Gambier and Beachport, in waterholes. 

 I have never seen or heard of any eels being caught in the 

 Murray." 



Having seen that eels and blackfish (Gadopsis) were being 

 introduced into Western Australian streams, I wrote to Mr. L. 

 Le Souef, Secretary of the Acclimatization Committee of Western 

 Australia, in Perth. He says there are certainly no eels in the 

 southern streams, and inquiries made by him for me resulted in 

 no evidence of their occurrence in the northern rivers of the 

 State. 



The Horn Expedition found no eels in the Finke basin, 

 though other fish were common in places, even up to over a 

 pound in weight. 



" The British Museum Catalogue " records eels from Cape 

 York, in the north of Queensland, and right down the east coast. 

 We now know they are absent from all the interior basins, and 

 from the Murray basin. They are unknown in South Australia, 

 except in the south-east, and are absent from Western Australia. 

 I have not been able to find whether they occur in the Northern 

 Territory or in the Gulf country. 



Looking at the wider distribution of the genus Anguilla, 

 Giinther, in his " Introduction to the Study of Fishes," says it 

 occurs throughout Europe, except in the Black Sea and Caspian 

 basin. The genus is unknown in South America, in Western 

 North America, and in West Africa. Now, curiously, this 

 deficiency is extended to the south-west of Australia, and to the 

 greater part of its south coast. 



This is an extremely puzzling series of facts. Did the genus 

 breed in fresh water we might guess at a solution, but breeding in 

 the sea, as it does, I can suggest no explanation. 



THE RANGE OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES PARRA- 

 KEET, SPATHOPTERUS ALEXANDRA, North. 

 By G. A. Keartland. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' CJiih of Victoria, \Qth July, 1905.) 

 As time elapses we are gradually gaining information regarding 

 the range of these beautiful parrakeets, which proves it to be 

 more extensive than was at first supposed. 



These birds were originally discovered by Mr. Waterhouse, 

 over forty years ago, at Howell's Ponds, in the far north. The 

 next specimens, secured about twenty-five years later, were a pair 

 of nestlings taken by Mr. Magarey at Crown Point station, on the 

 Finke River, north-west of Charlotte Waters. Then, during Lord 

 Kintore's overland trip from Port Darwin to Adelaide, Dr. 

 Stirling shot several at Newcastle Waters. On i6th June, 1894, 



