0969 



had lain some time was evident from their bleached appearance, 

 and freedom from soft tissues, excepting traces of ligaments 

 on the occipital condyles, and the centra of the 4th and 5 th 

 cervical vertebrae. 



I believe it is the first instance on record of this rare whale 

 being found on the Queensland coast. Its discovery may be 

 accepted as a proof of its existence in our waters But after 

 making many enquiries amongst seafaring men, I found none 

 who had seen a hving specimen. Believing this to be the 

 experience of others, and also remembering the paucity of cetacean 

 remains in our museums, I think Mr. De Vis deserves great 

 praise for his skill in determining the animal from a few of its 

 bones. 



I was at first inchned to regard them as belonging to an 

 undescribed species of the genus Ziphius ; but the three anchy- 

 losed cervical vertebrte, the dental formula, and the peculiar sharp 

 enamelled crown arising from compreseed and ovoid disc of osteo- 

 dentine, refer it to the genus and species mentioned above. 



When the jaws of our subject were surrounded by the usual 

 tissues, the teeth did not project beyond the gums. Now, as 

 Mesoiilodon layardi is asserted to have its two teeth greatly 

 developed, and even curved round over the rostrum so as to 

 interfere with the movements of the jaws, I infer that, although 

 the Emu Park specimen was adult, it had not advanced very far 

 in years. — W. N. Jaggard. 



A Locust Plague on the Lower Herbert. — Mr. Edward 

 Gedley of Victoria Sugar Plantation, in a letter dated ist March, 

 1884, writes "We are trouTDled with locusts so much so that I 

 fear we shall have to cease work." The subject has also been 

 commented upon in the press throughout the colony. Some of 

 these locusts, stated to be from one to five weeks old, forwarded 

 by Mr. Gedley to the Queensland Museum, prove to be mostly 

 females, not carrying eggs. They are probably the Stenohothriis 

 V'-ttifrons, Walk. (B. M. Cat. Derm. Salt.^ pg. 766) previously 

 recorded from Australia, an insect belonging to a well known 

 family of locusts with destructive migratory habits. As it would 

 appear that some at least of the insects originated where their 

 ravages were most felt, one of the difficulties in the way of sug- 

 gesting a plan for withstanding their incursions is particularly 

 met — a difficulty which was so recently experienced in the case of 

 Caloptcmis sinettis Uhler^ oi the Western States of America. 

 This destructive locust Caloptenus is also met with in Australia, 

 and to some of its numerous endemic species must I think be 

 referred the depredations of this class so frequently experienced 



