159 



2. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



AbstvMct of Proceedings, October 26th, 1910. — Mr. A. F. Basset 

 Hull exhibited skins of a) Oestrelata leucoptera Gould, b) Eudyptula minor 

 Gould, and c) Fclagodroma marina Latham; also eggs of the two latter 

 species. These exhibits were collected during a visit to the Islands off the 

 entrance to Port Stephens, N.S.W., on the 16th October instant. The 

 Oestrelata was found on Cabbage Tree Island the locality where Gould's 

 type of the species was taken. The birds were discovered in considerable 

 numbers, evidently mating and preparing their nests, but no eggs were found. 

 Two of the birds taken contained nearly matured eggs. Gould, in describing 

 this species, says "The Australian seas abound with Petrels, the investigation 

 of the various species of which, their habits and economy, as well as their 

 places of abode, will serve to occupy the attention of ornithologists for yeai's 

 to come." (Handbook, IL, p. 455, 1865). The Pelagodroma was found 

 breeding in large numbers on the northern side of Broughton Island. In 

 most cases the burrow contained a fresh egg^ but two were found partly in- 

 cubated. The Eudyptala was found breeding on Cabbage Tree Island. Nests 

 contained slightly incubated eggs, or young in various stages of growth up 

 to nearly full size of the adult, but still with some of the down adhering to 

 the neck and shoulders. This constitutes a record breeding-place of both 

 species, 146 miles further north than the exhibitor's previous record of both 

 breeding on Tom Thumb Islands, off WoUongong (these Proceedings, 1909, 

 p. 589). — Mr. Froggatt exhibited specimens, and communicated his ob- 

 servations on the life-history of a curious fly {Oiiycodes fumatus Erichs.) 

 whose larvae have proved very destructive to the shoots of apple-trees, in an 

 orchard at Galston, in a previously unrecorded manner; examples of another 

 dipteron, Pterodoiitia melii Erichs., frequenting tree-trunks or stumps, and 

 probably parasitic on spiders; and specimens of a large longicorn, Demon- 

 sthra helleri Lam., and its larvae, from the Solomon Islands. — Mr. A. R. 

 McCuUoch exhibited, by permission of the Curator of the Australian 

 Museum, two fishes which were previously unknown in Australian water — a 

 small shark, Scyliorhinus marmoratus Bennett, Avhich had been taken at 

 Port Darwin X. Territory, and the other an eel. Echidna zebra Shaw, from 

 Fremantle, W.A. — Ij An additional Note on the Birds of Lord Howe 

 and Norfolk Islands. By Tom Ir e dale. (Communicated by A. F. Bassed 

 Hull). — The opportunity of inspecting the Watling drawings, in the British 

 Museum, prompted the author to investigate the authenticity of the early 

 chronicles relating to some of the birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands, 

 now extinct, or whose identity has never been settled satisfactorily. From 

 the consideration of the historical evidence available, the author concludes 

 that the extinct White Gallinule [Notornis alba) was restricted to Lord 

 Howe Island; that the "Norfolk Island Petrel" of Latham is probably 

 Puffinus griscus Gm., which still breeds about the typical locality, and not 

 P. chlor orhynchus Less., as su]i])osed by the late Dr. Sharpe; and that draw- 

 ing No. 282, regarded by Dr. Sharpe as representing P. tenuirostris Temm., 

 is undoubtedly a figure of the Oestrelata still breeding, or which apparently 

 used to breed, on Norfolk Island, which must bear the name Oe. phillipi 

 Gray, and which is different from Oe. neglecta Schl. Some omissions are 

 rectified, and observations supplementary to those of Mr. Hull (Proceedings, 



