THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 113 



late Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods, but upon close examination there 

 can be no doubt about its being an abnormal form of Thalotia 

 conica, Gray. 



On examination the apical portion of about four whorls prove 

 to be identical with those of the last-named species. Something 

 has then occurred to interrupt its ordinary growth, as is plainly 

 shown in the figure (kindly drawn by Mr. F. E. Grant) ; 

 then the succeeding whorls become abnormally convex, the 

 body whorl especially so, and the shell is proportionately 

 broader than is usual in the normal form. 



Tenison-Woods remarks : — "In general form resembling 

 T. conica, but smaller and more closely ornamented. The mouth 

 is also an approach to a clanculus." This is not accurate. As 

 regards dimensions, of more than fifty specimens of T. conica 

 before me from Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, those 

 of the largest one are long. 20 lat. n mm.; those of Woods's 

 shell are long. 18 lat. 15 mm. The ornament is normal, with 

 the exception of that on the body whorl, which has an inter- 

 mediate fine spiral thread of granules between the strong spiral 

 ridges, and this extra thread continues round it, gradually getting 

 finer, and disappears on the penultimate whorl ; but even this 

 is not altogether a distinctive feature, as it is plainly discernible 

 at the outer lip in some specimens of normal form. Amongst the 

 Victorian specimens before me is a broad form, long. 16 lat. 14 

 mm., and another smaller one with the body and penultimate 

 whorls almost as convex as that of Tenison-Woods's type, and 

 the mouth of the latter is identical in character with that of many 

 specimens of T. conica, excepting that the outline of the outer lip 

 is rounder. In very many species in the family Trochidae the 

 number of spiral ridges varies in the same species, as also does 

 the number and development of the granules on the ridges. 



Considering the facts set forth, Tenison-Woods's species must 

 rank as a synonym of T. conica, but it is of abnormal growth. 



ADDITIONAL NOTE ON MACGILLIVRAY'S PARRA- 



KEET, PLATYCEBCUS MACGILLI7RAYI, North. 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., 



Ornithologist, Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Since the publication of my description of this species in the last 

 issue (p. 91), I have received from Mr. A. S. Macgillivray the skin 

 of a male obtained by him on Leilavale station, Cloncurry 

 River, Queensland. It differs from the type principally in 

 having the feathers of the mantle, back, rump, upper tail 

 and upper wing coverts of a lighter verditer-green and more 



