ZOOLOGICAL NOTES FROM SYDNEY. 355 



a most noisome odour arising. While I was still wondering 

 whence this was proceeding, one of the fishermen quickly settled 

 the point hy placing one of the last-mentioned fishes under my 

 nose. I can assure the reader that I did not allow him to keep 

 it there many seconds. It is a most objectionable stench, and 

 would, in the writer's opinion, serve no doubt to restrain many 

 other fishes from preying upon this one. In general appearance 

 the fish is not unlike the "Flathead" (Platycephalns fuscus), but 

 the mouth is very considerably smaller. I found that the odour 

 was given off from two orifices at the back of the eyes, one on 

 each side of the occiput. 



I have no doubt that the story of the s.s. 'Perthshire' will 

 be fresh in the memories of some readers at least. The 

 vessel, while on a five days' voyage from Sydney to the Bluff 

 (N.Z.) during last year, broke down, and was helplessly adrift at 

 the mercy of the elements for a period of five weeks. While she 

 was lying disabled on the 5th of May, about five hundred miles 

 from the nearest land — Cape Howe, N.S.W. — a common " Bronze- 

 wing Pigeon" (Phaps chalcoptera) flew aboard in an exhausted 

 condition. The alighting of land-birds on ships close in shore, 

 when the vessels are " making the land," is not an uncommon 

 occurrence ; but that a Bronze-wing Pigeon should have found a 

 haven on a disabled vessel five hundred miles from the nearest 

 land is indeed singular. This Pigeon is a short-flight bird, and, 

 although it travels long distances during the hours of a long 

 summer's day, it does it with frequent rests. How then did this 

 hapless Bronze-wing manage to keep up over the five hundred 

 miles of storm-tossed sea until it reached the vessel ? The flock 

 Pigeons of the far west and interior, which come periodically in 

 countless thousands, are tireless flyers, at times coming in such 

 swarms that at a distance they appear like a drifting cloud ; then 

 for a year or two they are encirely absent. One of these last- 

 mentioned birds would have negotiated the distance (especially 

 with the strong westerly wind behind it, which was blowing from 

 the land at the time, and had been blowing for some days) with 

 little difficulty. The marvellous thing is that a Bronze-wing 

 should have done it ; about the least likely species of Pigeon to 

 attempt the feat — willingly ! When I saw the bird it looked very 

 well, and none the worse for its adventures. 



Before finishing my notes on this occasion, I would like to 



