430 NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



warra, N.S.W. C. leucoptei-us Gould, should therefore rank as a 

 synonym of C. destructor Temm." 



Mr. North also drew attention to the early breeding of several 

 species of birds in the neighbourhood of Sydney, probably owing 

 to the unusually fine and dry weather for months past. The 

 prolific autumn breeders, Meliornis novce-hollandice and M. sericea, 

 had continued nesting throughout the usual break in June and 

 July between the early autumn and winter breeders. Origma 

 rubricata had been found breeding near Manly by Mr. A. F. B. Hull 

 in June, and by Mr. L. Harrison in July. At Middle Harbour 

 Mr. North saw fully fledged young of Ptilotis leucotison the 1 5 th 

 August, being fed by their parents, and at Chatswood obtained 

 the nest and fledglings of Melithrejitiis brevirostris. At Roseville 

 fledglings of Melithreptus lunulatus left the nest on the 17th 

 instant. Of ordinary breeders at this time of the year, nests with 

 eggs or young have been noted, during August, of Glycyphila 

 fulvifrons, Meliornis novce-hollandice, M. sericea, Geobasileus 

 chrysorrhous, and Acanthiza pusilla. For eight consecutive 

 years at Middle Harbour Mr. North had noted the nests of 

 Origma rubricata built in two cave-like shelters, and attached to 

 the same flakes of rock, one of the nests at present nearing com- 

 pletion, the other containing three fresh eggs. Owing to the 

 rapid growth of the suburbs along the Milson's Point railway 

 line, and consequent destruction of trees and undergrowth, this 

 district is being rapidly spoilt as a collecting ground. This is 

 more pronounced at Roseville and Lindfield in the vicinity of the 

 railway, many of the places where nests were photographed in 

 situ a few years ago, and figured in the above Catalogue, now 

 being covered with houses. 



Mr. Fletcher exhibited, on behalf of Miss M. Lodder, of Laun- 

 ceston, some small fishes 1-2 inches long, which Mr. Masters had 

 been good enough to examine, and had found them to be the 

 young of a species of Galaxias. They were obtained at West 

 Strahan, Tasmania, in the early part of the year, in an unusually 

 dry season; and the point of interest about them was that they 

 were dug up in damp soil remote from any water. Similar 



