NOTES. 



On an Anomalous Snake. — One of the characters of the 

 genus Pseudonaja is the possession of two nasal plates between 

 which is the nasal orifice. The only representative we have of 

 the genus, P. michalis, is in the young state conspicuously 

 marked with broad dark bands across the body, which disappear 

 as the snake approaches maturity, with the exception of one 

 across the nape which is persistent, and gives name to the species. 

 A curious variation has occurred in a very young specimen, ii 

 inches long, presented to the Queensland Museum by Mrs. 

 Lenneberg of Brisbane. The body is, with the exception of dark 

 edges to the scales above, of uniform pale-brown, but the nuchal 

 band is present and separated by a pale interspace from the 

 suffused brown of the top of the head, in which darker spots are seen 

 on the ocoipitals and supra-orbitals. The snake exhibits the further 

 anomaly of having but one nasal shield with the nostril in its 

 middle. In all other respects it is a P. nuchalis. — 0. W. De Vis. 



A Possible Source of Isinglass. — The sample of isinglass 

 exhibited is separated mechanically from the fibro-cartilaginous 

 base of the dorsal fin of the shovel-nose shark, Rhinobatiis granu- 

 latus. From an estimate of the cartilage contained in the body 

 of one recently prepared in the museum it would appear that more 

 than one-third of the gross weight of the fish could be converted 

 into commercial gelatine of ordinary and superior quality. The 

 fish is abundant in the bays of the coasi, and it would surely be 

 worth trial whether a raw material such as shark's fins largely 

 exported to China could not be profitably utilised at home. 



0. W. De Vis. 



Nest of Philemon Corniculatus, Lath. — Two nest^i of the 

 common Leather-head shewn, exemplify the adaptability of so 

 called instinct to the employment of new means to an end. Two 

 separate pairs of birds have discovered a quantity of string and 

 have perceived the advantage of using it in attaching the brim of 

 their nests to the boughs. They have not only laced the nest 

 itself to the bough, and carried the string several times round the 

 bottom of the nest, but they have with evident premeditation 

 hitched loops of the string round neighbouring sprigs six inches 

 from the nest. The lashing of the edge of the nest to the bough 

 and the mooring lines are of strong string, the twine worked in 

 the fabric outside is much finer. — C. W. De Vis. 



Mesoplodon Layardi, — The remains of this whale, a mem- 

 ber of the Ziphiidce^ were found at Zilzie, near Emu Park. 

 They were obtained some distance up the beach, so that probably 

 it h::d stranded either during a spring tide or a storm. That they 



