THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 125 



out a young opossum from under a tussock of grass, and it was 

 secured unhurt, and it is now with another in our Zoological 

 Gardens. We were told to beware of a vicious old billygoat 

 which lives a lonely life on this island, but fortunately we did not 

 come across him in our rambles. Two pairs of the Tasmanian 

 Sooty Crow Shrike were seen, and a newly finished nest formed 

 in a sheoak tree, but not yet laid in. It is a curious fact that 

 these birds seem to keep to this small island, and are seldom seen 

 on the adjacent islands, which are larger. A pair of White-eyed 

 Crows were also seen with their young, which had evidently only 

 lately left their nests. The little White-eyes were numerous among 

 the bushes, and a few of the White-fronted Scrub Tit were seen. 

 A specimen of the Shining Flycatcher was also secured. We saw 

 a pair of the White-bellied Sea Eagle gracefully soaring above our 

 heads until they disappeared in the azure. Their breeding 

 season was probably over, as the young birds are generally fully 

 fledged by the end of November. The vegetation, except in the 

 sheltered hollows, is scanty, but wherever the scrub was absent 

 the tussocky grass grew very thick, and in some hollows the 

 Goodenia flourished, and, being in flower, looked a blaze of yellow 

 in the distance. It is the favourite feeding ground of the Swamp 

 Parrakeet, but none were seen on this occasion. The cliffs 

 round the island were very steep, and no sea-birds seem to breed 

 on them, if we except the Penguin, but in most places it was even 

 too steep for them. Dover Island we did not visit, although it is 

 joined by a narrow isthmus to Erith Island, which the waves 

 break over at high water if the sea is rough, but on the day we 

 were there it was very calm — in fact, we did not see the sea any- 

 thing but calm once during our stay at the group, except the day 

 we returned home, when it made up for it. The island seemed 

 covered with short, dense scrub, and was very precipitous, and 

 we found climbing about the island we were on quite enough 

 without visiting the other. We all returned to the beach for 

 lunch, which we had on the rocks alongside the old pontoon. 

 One of our members had been fortunate enough to secure a pair 

 of the Yellow-bellied Parrot. During the afternoon we examined 

 the penguin rookery, but found mostly young birds in the bur- 

 rows, which we left undisturbed. We left early in the afternoon, 

 so as to give plenty of time to dredge on our return, and as the 

 depth of the water across was from twenty to thirty fathoms, we 

 went very slowly, drawing the dredge over the rocky bottom, and, 

 however hard we worked at the oars, it seemed to make very little 

 difference to our pace, and it was a great relief to the rowers when 

 the dredge was hauled in, which it was when we reached the 

 sandy bottom of East Cove. However, several interesting 

 specimens of Polyzoa and Sponges were obtained, including the 

 Adeona wilsonii, Acropora gracilis, Adeonellopsis lata (var.), Cellaria 



