ZOOLOGICAL NOTES FROM SYDNEY. 357 



spines covered with a poisonous mucus. This mucus causes the 

 most severe pain when introduced into the system. My attention 

 was here drawn to a sharp coughing sound, which I found pro- 

 ceeded from two specimens of the " Fiddler" Kay (Trygonorhina 

 fasciata). Botany Bay is a great place for many species of 

 Sharks, Kays, and other Flat-fishes. One Ray was procured 

 from that locality which measured fifteen feet from "wing" to 

 " wing." 



What a hideous monster is human ignorance ! We have in 

 this city bubonic plague (Pestis bubonica). In some of the 

 factories hundreds of workmen have destroyed their dinner- 

 baskets. One may well ask, " What connection is there between 

 dinner-baskets and plague ?" None whatever. That is to say, 

 not any more than there might be with hundreds of other articles 

 in daily use. The reason of their destruction is as follows : — 

 Some of the men have discovered in their baskets the larvae of 

 the beetle which attacks this kind of ware. The beetles were 

 there all the time, but the men had " no eyes to see " till they 

 became possessed of the plague scare. As they did not know 

 what the larvae were, they came to the conclusion that their 

 occurrence in the baskets must have something to do with the 

 plague. Speaking of ignorance reminds me that I once observed 

 an itinerant microscopist exhibiting to a wondering crowd a 

 small bottle containing small fresh-water crustaceans of the 

 genus Cypris, but he informed them that the animals were — 

 Hydatids. Returning to the plague. As a consequence of our 

 visitation by this dread enemy, an enormous amount of dis- 

 infectant has been poured daily into our drains and sewers. A 

 great quantity of this has found its way into some of the bays of 

 our harbour, and it has had the effect of asphyxiating thousands 

 of fishes. The presence of all these fishes floating at the surface 

 forms a unique and most unpleasant spectacle. 



Explanation of Plate IV. — Central Figure. — Neptunus pelagicas, M.-Ed\v. ; 

 mottled variety. Upper Central Figure. — Tubercular-setose variety. Left-hand 

 Figures. — Upper: Dwarfed cheliped. Lower: Pleopoda. Female; sterile female ; 

 male. Central Lower Figure. — Masticatory organs. Right-hand Figures. — 

 Upper : Sternal aspects : male ; sterile female ; female. Lower : Male ; female ; 

 sterile female. 



