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THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



Fayum in Egypt. These indicate that 

 the land mammals from which whales 

 were derived were probably very primi- 

 tive flesh-eating or insect-eating mam- 

 mals. 



It may not be amiss to speculate 

 somewhat on what will be the future 

 history of some of our whales. I have 

 already spoken of the huge size and 

 bulk which many of them attain. It 

 is an inexorable law of nature that 

 when an animal gets " too big for its 

 boots " so to speak, it must become 



extinct. Time after time we come 

 across examples amongst fossil animals 

 of huge size which sooner or later have 

 disappeared, Mhile their smaller and 

 more active congeners have lived, 

 flourished and left numerous descend- 

 ants. 



In the ordinary way we can ex]3ect 

 that extinction \\ill very soon descend 

 vipon our larger whales, and the com- 

 mercial instinct of man has hastened 

 the process and made it the more in- 

 evitable. 



'' Records of the Australian Musemn" 

 vol. XIV., No. I , was recently published. 

 It contains, principally, the accounts 

 of the research work performed by the 

 .scientific staff of the Museum : — 



Mr. C. Hedley has prepared notes on 

 some Australian 6'«,s«/6% and clears away 

 confusion surrounding C. jimbriata and 

 C. bicarinata. 



Mr. A. R. McCulloch supplies keys 

 to the Australian fishes of the genera 

 Chaetodon, Callionymus and Cubiceps, 

 together with illustrations of several 

 s]>ecies, and collaborates with Mr. W. J. 

 Phillipps in describing the variation of 

 several New Zealand fishes. In a 

 paper by Mr. McCulloch and Mr. F. A. 

 McNeill a small crab, Scopimera in- 

 flata, described in 1874 from the East 

 Indies and not again recognised till its 

 recent re-discovery on the coasts of 

 Queensland and New South Wales, is 

 figured, and excellent illustrations, 

 showing its method of burrowing and 

 forming sand pellets, are given, and 

 a new shrini]), Ati/a striolota, from the 

 Nepean River, the first record of this 

 genus from Australia is described. 



Mr. W. W. Thorpe describes an 

 aboriginal magical plate which is said 

 to have been used both for curative 

 and malevolent piirposes. This plate 

 originated in the north-west of Austra- 

 lia and travelled down to Ooldea, on 

 the Trans-Australian Railway. 



Mr. E. Le G. Troughton contributes 

 a paper in which the genus Leporillus 



is revised and the stick-nest building 

 rat Leporillus conditor, of which little 

 has been known since its discovery by 

 Sturt in 1844, is fully described. Illus- 

 trations and references to literature not 

 previously cited, are given. 



Mr. J. R. Kinghorn describes a new 

 genus of elapine snake {Oxyuranus 

 maclennani). This interesting speci- 

 men was presented to the Museum by 

 Mr. H. L. White, whose collector, Mr. 

 W. McLennan, obtained it whilst on 

 an expedition in the Cape York Penin- 

 sula, North Queensland. 



Professor T. Harvey Johnston, B. Sc, 

 University of Adelaide, and Mr. G. H. 

 Hardy, Walter and Eliza Hall Fellow 

 in Economic Biology, University of 

 Queensland, contribute a paper on 

 some sarcophagid files from Lord Howe 

 Island, collected there by Mr. A. Mus- 

 grave of this Museum. One new 

 species is described, and the others are 

 identified Avith Australian forms. The 

 question of their distribution is dis- 

 cussed. 



Professor T. Thomson Flynn, D. Sc, 

 University of Tasmania, shows that an 

 Australian lizard {Tiliqua sciiicoides) 

 is viviparous and possesses a well 

 developed allanto-placenta of the con- 

 joint type — a structure now recorded 

 for the first time from a reptile, and 

 which may, perhaps, have an import- 

 ant bearing in elucidating the difficult 

 problem of the origin of the mam- 

 mals. 



