NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 741 



assumed all the usual attributes of a brooding hen, using the same 

 notes of call and warning that are peculiar to a mother hen, and 

 scratching and searching for food for them with equal assiduity. 

 The young chicks are now about a month old ; the foster mother 

 about five months old." 



Mr. A. Sidney Ollifi" exhibited a nest of a social caterpillar 

 belonging to the Bombycidse which had recently been sent to the 

 Australian Museum by jNIr. E. G. Dyce, who had found it in the 

 neighbourhood of Harefield. The nest was a bag-like structure 

 about 7 inches long and 2^ inches wide, and was found attached 

 to the bough of a Eucalypt. The exterior of the nest was light 

 brown in colour, with the texture and appearance of parchment, 

 and the walls were supported within by gum-leaves which had 

 been worked into their substance. The only opening was from 

 below. When first received the nest was occupied by some dozens 

 of larvje, brown hairy creatures of the ordinary bombyciform 

 type, but subsequently they left their covering. Mr. Ollifi" said the 

 larva was evidently processionary in its habits, but until he had 

 succeeded in rearing the moth it was impossible to say to what 

 genus it belonged. Whether the larvae undergo their transfor- 

 mations within the nest — as in the case of Anaphe, an African 

 nest-maker — or whether they desert the nest before assuming the 

 pupal condition were points which could only be decided by direct 

 observation, but Mr. Ollifi" was inclined to think that the latter 

 woidd prove to be the case. It was to be hoped that more 

 material would be forthcoming as, unfortunately, the chances of 

 rearing the moth from the present nest were small, owing to the 

 larvae being infested with Ichneumonidse. 



Mr. Skuse exhibited specimens of the 41 species of Diptera 

 described in his paper. 



Mr. Ogilby exhibited a specimen of a rare Percoid fish, 

 Anthias (Pseudanthias) cichlops, Blk., recently received from 

 Lord Howe Island. He remarked that, so far as he could 

 ascertain, but one other specimen, Dr. Bleeker's type, was 

 known, and this was obtained at Priamam, on the west coast 

 of Sumatra. It is remarkable for being much more elongate 

 tlian is usual with this yenus. 



