HORN EXPEDITION — NARRATIVE. 109 



growiiiL;' a species of .Swiiinsoiiia (S. ca/icsaus) wliicli was only met witli in one 

 otliei- spot along tlie Todd Puver. Under the rocks and stones and drl'/is on tlie 

 liill sides were colonies of molluscs, one of which {Aut:;nscl/a i!/a'i;c/r//s) a little 

 snail with a series of small plate-like iil)s i mining across the wiioi-ls was new and 

 was only found in this one spot. 



The water-holes apart from the usual species of fish yielded nothing. The 

 entire absence of frogs was very noticeahle, as the ruslies w Inch !;iew in piofusion 

 round the water-pools might have been expected to harhoiir a certain ninnher, hut 

 not one was to be seen or heard, their al)sence being |)rob,ibly associated with the 

 slight brackishness of the water. 



Aiound the spring on the western bank was a patch of black earth in which 

 were found a consideral)le number of the earthworms prcN ionsly alluded to- their 

 cocoons, each with a well-marked "tag" at either end were fairly numeioiis, but 

 there was no trace of any nuu-e tJian the one species and they are limited to a 

 small patch of ground only a few yai'ds sfpiare. 



Even beetles were dillicult to tind and amongst larger animals all tliat we 

 secured were a few of the ubiquitous lizard, y1. n/ir/z/u/us, a snake, Aspiditcs 

 nie/anoccp/ia/iis, and a few rodents. Manmials both here and elsewhere wert^ \ ci-y 

 difficult ii\deed to ol)tain, which was prolia.bly owing to the fact that the majority 

 of them are nocturnal and that during the winter months, when at nights the 

 temperature is often below the freezing point, they do not venture out. At Mount 

 iSonder we had obtained specimens of the hare-wallal)y (I.Hi^orc/ics/cs coDspicillatin 

 var. lekhardtii), a diliei'ent .species from the or:e found during the Elder Exjiedition 

 when Mr. Streich stated that a foini identified as L. Iiirsiilus by Messrs. .Stirling 

 and Zietz appeared to be plentiful in the Victoria deseit. We also secured in a 

 tr'ap a specimen of the so-called rabliit b.-uidicoot, I'cnv^a/c /di^o/is, the long, soft, 

 grey and white fur of which I'endeis it one of the prettiest of the smaller marsu- 

 pials. Its burrows abound, being often very extensive, and it inust fall a pi'ey to 

 the blacks in gr'eat numbers as the white tips of its tail — called by them aljiita — ■ 

 are very extensively used to make ornaments of various kinds. They are strung 

 together- so as to form tassels, each of which may corrtain from twenty to thirty 

 tails. They ai'e to the lilacks what Ermine tips have been to the whites of other- 

 par'ts of the world, though as fashions do not change much in Centr-a,l Au.stralia 

 the Pei-agale has been mor-e consistently sought after than e\en the Ermines. 



The genus as at present known is i-epresente<l by the species F. /n^^o/i'i whit-h 

 is widely distributed in West, S(juth and Centr-al Austr-alia and liy P. Iciiciira, 



