NOTES ON EXHIBITS, 
By J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 
[Read before the Royal Society of Queensland, 5th March, 1906. } 
Mr. PrestpENT, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN,— 
I have the honor to place before your Society to-night the 
following exhibits of more or less general interest. In the 
first place I would call your attention to two specimens 
(Exhibits A. 1 and 2) of an extraordinary egg-case formed 
by a scyllioid shark, Chiloscyllium punctatum. This case 
is unique among all other known forms in the means 
employed to attach it after deposition to some foreign 
substance, such asa projecting point of coral or the root of 
a mangrove, and so insure the safety of the young fish 
from stress of weather during its helpless fetal state. In 
this egg-case you will readily see that, in place of the long 
tendriliform tentacle arising from each corner of the “ mer- 
maid’s purse,’ so familiar to all who know the sho es of 
the British Isles, we have a cunningly fashioned handle 
attached to one of the longer sides of the case, thus form- 
ing a perfectly appointed “ mermaid’s bag,” as shown in 
exhibit A. J., while A. 2 is the case from which the fetal 
shark (Exhibit B) was taken. This discovery, for which 
we are indebted to the patient research of Mr. John T. 
Jamison of Woody Point, is the more interesting because 
it proves the oviparity of the typical hemiscylline sharks, 
and necessitates a rearrangement of the scyllioid families, 
and incidentally confirms my long-expressed opinion of 
the generic validity of Hemiscyllium modestum, which I 
have placed with the ’‘ wobbegongs ”’ (Orectolobide) under 
the new generic title Brachelurus. My views on the sub- 
ject will be fully set forth in a paper now in preparation, 
which I hope soon to lay before the Society. 
