88 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



pulchellus, A. Gr., Euphorbia Drummondii, Boiss., Stackhousia 

 viminea, iSm., Alternanthera triandra, Lam., Ptilotus macro- 

 cephalus, Poir., P. spathulatus, Poir., Lotus Australis, Andr., 

 Swainsonia lessertiifolia, D. C, Glycine Latrobeana, Benth., or 

 G. tabacina, Berith. (?), Tillaea purpurata, J. D. 11., Lythrum 

 salicaria, L., Myriophyllum verrucosum, Lindl., Hydrocotyle 

 hirta, R. Br., Grevillea rosmarinifolia, A. Cunn., Sambucus 

 Gaudichaudiana, D. C ., Brachycome exilis, Sond., B. calocarpa, 

 F. V. M. (?), Calotis anthemoides, F. v. M. (?), Stuartina Muelleri, 

 Sond., Podolepis acuminata, P. Br., Rutidosis Pumilo, Benth., 

 Craspedia chrysantha, Benth., Goodenia pinnatifida, Schlicht, 

 Villeya paradoxa, P. Br., Solanum aviculare, /. Forst., Vallisneria 

 spiralis, L., Potamogeton natans, L., P. obtusifolius, Mert. and 

 Koch., Heleocharis sphacelata, P. Br., Ophioglossum vulgatum, 

 Bauhin. 



Birds and Edible Fungi. — In the August number of the 

 Victorian Naturalist a reference was made to the Southern Stone 

 Plover, Burhinus (CEdicnemus) grallarius, Lath., by Mr. D. 

 M 'Alpine, who put forth the query, " Does the Curlew eat 

 fungi ?" I am sufficiently well acquainted with my informants 

 of the following positive information to believe it quite correct. 

 Messrs. Duncan and M'Kenzie are trappers and mushroom 

 collectors, who formerly resided at Point Cook, near Williams- 

 town, and they say that the Sea Curlew, Numenius cyanopus, 

 Vieil., never forages on land for fungi, or for other food, but that 

 the larger Stone Plover does. The Plover shows a partiality for 

 the common mushroom, making direct for a group, and turning 

 them all over. By catching hold of the stalk and giving a twist 

 the fungus is reversed, when the gills are eaten. The pileus is 

 only partly destroyed by the bird's bill passing through it. 

 Whether the fungus is thus partly eaten for its own sake, or for 

 the insects usually contained therein, my informants are unable 

 to say. On one occasion, seeing a number of mushrooms under 

 a tree and plovers near by, the trappers retreated, when the birds 

 approached and attacked the fungi, thus proving them the enemy 

 for which the mushroom-gatherers had long sought. — R. Hall. 

 [In the abbreviation of this note in last month's Naturalist (page 

 63), the wrong bird was unfortunately named as causing damage 

 to mushrooms. — Ed. Victorian Natiaalist.] 



