The South Austraihn Naturalist. 
41 
When feeding the long beak of the adult is thrust below 
the bark into the cambium hu'cr to suck the juices, and on passing 
under trees where the insects are in large numbers one may often 
notice a sprav or fine shower of honey-dew that they give off, 
verv similar in nature to that given off by scale insects and aph- 
ides, although more abundant. 
d'he sound producing or stridulating organs are at the junc- 
tion of the abdomen and thorax of the males, the drums acting 
as resonators; each species has a characteristic series of notes. 
In summer our common species may be frequently heard in the 
hills, but it was much more abundant years ago, before the spar- 
row was established, this bird being an inveterate enemy of mem- 
bers of the family and frequently eating such large species as the 
(jreen cicada and double-drummer. The black cicada has appar- 
enth' never been regarded as a pest, but the green species of New 
South Wales and \dctoria makes a loud monotonous noise that 
is irritating to many people; thousands of specimens all tuning 
up at the same moment, and stopping at the same time. In col- 
lecting these insects one may often creep up quietly to the male, 
who will continue his song until the hand is almost closing on him, 
when he takes to flight with a whirring noise. 
Many of our native birds eat cicadas, swallowing them whole, 
or leaving only the wings, but in Tasmania and Victoria several 
species of Melampsalta are seized by birds and only the abdomen 
eaten, the specimens then ^\y back to trees and remain quite quiet; 
but when the uninjured ones start singing, the)' start singing too. 
A species that occurs on J.ord Howe Island now forms an im- 
poitant item in the summer food of gulls, tlicse dash at the in- 
sects on the trees, frightening them into flight, when they are seiz- 
ed and the bod\' parts eaten. 
SHFdd. COLLKCTING 
Bv 
AT 'niE 
V. Trigg. 
OUd'KR HARBOR. 
A short motor-boat trip out through the entrance to the Har- 
bor nonhward, brings one to shallow water two miles seaward of 
St. Kilda. Selecting a low-tide day it is possible to wade over several 
acres of sandy, weed-grown shallows, the home of man)' varieties 
of molliisca, crustaceans, starfish and other inliabitants of the 
salt water. One is iniinediately attracted by the myriads of 
Pinnas, commonly known as razor fish, which project their sharp- 
edged valves above the sand, to which thev are firmh' anchored 
by their strong thread-like b\'ssus. To get this shell complete it 
is necessary^ ^to excavate and carefully remove it from its bed. 
r. inermis (Tate) is in great numbers, its smooth sides distinguish- 
ing It from a variant, partly covered with closely laid rows of folia- 
