NOTES AND QUERIES. 171 



moreover, was lucky enough to find its larva, and at the present moment 

 have a fine healthy chrysalis, which I am in hopes of breeding. It is 

 about ten times as big as that of P. machaon ! At Cooktown I was 

 glad to take about 13 fresh species of Australian butterflies, and if we 

 had only remained there a few days longer I might have doubled the 

 number. From Cooktown here (about 1100 miles) we steamed inside 

 the great barrier reef and close to the mainland, often passing through 

 groups of lovely islauds, and occasionally anchoring alongside one of 

 them for the night. One afternoon, towards four o'clock, I noticed 

 flocks of strange birds passing the ship, and making for some thickly- 

 wooded islands ahead of us. They kept a long way from the ship, and I 

 was at a loss to make out what they were. At one time I thought they 

 were wildfowl of some kind. They were white with black wing-feathers 

 and white black-tipped tails. They flew with their necks stretched out, 

 but not fast enough for wildfowl. Then I fancied they might be plovers, 

 but they seemed too big, and did not flap their wings sufficiently. At 

 last a flock came within nearer range, and I discovered, to my astonish- 

 ment, that they were pigeons, and, as we neared the islands, there they 

 . were in thousands upon thousands settling on the trees. By the time 

 we anchored it was six o'clock, and there was only half an hour's day- 

 light left, and, with one of my messmates, away I weut to try for a 

 shot. At the first report of our guns what a sight met our eyes ! A 

 living stream of these birds rushed from every tree and bush upon these 

 three islands and wheeled about overhead, every moment some of them 

 descending to pitch again. The trees were high up on the island, and as 

 the birds flew out they were regular rocketers and nearly out of shot. I 

 landed on a sand-spit, while the other fellow pulled round to the opposite 

 side of the island, and fired away a lot of cartridges at the birds as they 

 whistled through the gloom high above me, but unless the birds fell on the 

 little saud-spit they were lost, for the bush was so thick it was impossible 

 to find them ; indeed, I never thought of looking. I bagged three brace, 

 and my friend when he returned had a brace, and a small reef heron. If 

 we could have had a couple of hours of daylight we might have shot 

 hundreds. They were fine and plump birds, as large as our English Ring 

 Dove, creamy white, with primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries of the wings 

 smoky-black, and tail-feathers tipped with black. I skinned a couple of 

 them the next day. They are the white nutmeg pigeon of Gould 

 (Myristicivora spilorrhoa of G. R. Gray). — Extract from letter of G. F. 

 Mathew, R.N., F.L.S. Communicated by Rev. M. A. Mathew. 



Vermin destroyed on an Irish Estate. — By permission of Mr. Smyth, 

 of Headborough, I give from his carefully-kept register a table of "vermin" 

 which were trapped, poisoned, or otherwise destroyed during twelve years 



