CAPT. W. E. ARMIT ON TACHTQLOSSUS. 



411 



formed a clearing on one of the seaweed-covered blocks before 

 referred to. In the midst of this clearing was a pedestal of flint 

 rather more than 1 inch in diameter, standing up above the sur- 

 face of the chalk : it projected so much that a tap from my 

 hammer broke it off. On the top of the smooth fractured surface 

 of this flint the occupant of the clearing had taken up its abode. 

 The shell was closely adapted to the uneven surface, which it 

 would only fit in one position. The cleared surface was in a 

 hollow with several small natural cavities, where the limpet 

 could have found a pit ready made to shelter in ; yet it preferred, 

 after each excursion, to climb up on to the top of the flint, the 

 most exposed point in all its domain. 



In South America our limpets have, I believe, representatives 

 with shells a foot in diameter. If the proceedings of these South- 

 American giants are at all the same as those of the limpets of our 

 own shores and are in proportion to their size, they must materi- 

 ally aid in the encroachment of the sea on the land when the rock 

 happens to be soft *. 



Notes on the Presence of Tachyglossus and OrnithorJiyncJius 

 in Northern and North-eastern Queensland. By Capt. 

 William E. Aemit, T.L.S. 



[Eead June 20, 1878.] 



Some doubt having been evinced of the existence of Tachyglossus 

 and OrnitJiorliyncTius in Northern Queensland, I am desirous of 

 laying a few facts before the Society, which will establish the ex- 

 treme northern limit of the species as far as yet known. 



Tachyglossus occurs at Bellenden Plains, situated some thirty 

 miles north-east of Cardwell, in about 18° S. latitude. It fre- 

 quents the scrubs on the mountains and river-banks, and on one 

 occasion, in 1873, I found the hind legs of one in a black fellow's 

 "Milly-bag." At Georgetown, distant some 200 miles west of 

 Cardwell, this animal is pretty common ; and last year I succeeded 

 in capturing three males. One adult female I secured in 1876, 

 having a fine young one in the pouch. All the above speci- 



* Subsequent to the reading of the foregoing, my attention was called to a 

 paper by Fred. C. Lukis (' Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 1831, vol. iv. p. 346), wherein 

 figures of limpet-tracks are given. Although I find that, independently, I cor- 

 roborate his observations, nevertheless, so far as I can learn, the bulk of my 

 facte and suggestions have not hitherto been dwelt on by previous writers. 



