THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 121 
These gentlemen testified to the correct translation and authen- 
ticity of the extracts. These passages, therefore, remarks the 
Tropical Agriculturist, written possible 3,000 years ago, and 
certainly not less than 1,400 years, are of singular interest, 
foreshadowing as they do, the great discoveries of Manson and 
Ross. 
AuLeGed Luminous Owrs.—In a’recent issue of the London 
Times, Miss L. L. Veley contributes a letter on the subject of 
luminous barn-owls, in which it is suggested that the emana- 
tion is due to the feathers of the birds coming in contact with 
luminiferous decaying wood in their roosting-places. This 
suggestion, remarks Natwre, which has doubtless occurred to 
many naturalists, affords a probable and satisfactory explan- 
ation of the phenomena. 
Aw Ivterestina Motiusc.—Considerable interest attaches to 
an account by Mr. ©. H. Danforth, published in vol. xxiy., 
No. I., of the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, of a new genus and species (Pzedocliune dolitformis) 
of pteropod molluse, from Casco Bay, Maine. The new form, 
which was taken in plankton, does not properly fall under any 
established family, although perhaps it approaches most 
nearly the Clionids, from which it differs in having an odd 
number of cephalocones, and the entire posterior part of the 
body filled by the viscera. In life the creatures swam for 
some time by means of their fins, and then sank fora time 
below the surface, after which the swimming was resumed. 
With the exception of numerons vacuoles in the integument 
filled with yellowish or yellowish-brown fluid, the body is 
transparent, 
A Huer Dracon-Fry.—In part 4 of the Proceedings of the 
Tinnwan Society of New South Wales for 1907, My. R. J. Till- 
yard, M.A., H.E.S., describes, under the name of Petalura 
ingentissima, & monster dragon-fly, and which is regarded as 
the largest species of Odonata known. -The total length of the 
male is 120 mm., and the female 125 mm. Ina note upon the 
species, Mr. Tillyard says :—* When I was collecting in the 
Cairns district of North Queensland, during the summer of 
1904-5, I was told of the occurrence at rare intervals of a 
dragon-fly of such enormous proportions that I scarcely credited 
the story. It was said to come swooping down ‘like a bird,’ 
and local residents went so far as to declare that ‘its bite would 
pretty well kill you. When I captured Anaw guttatus at 
Atherton I thought this was the species referred to, but 
when I showed it to a Cairns resident, he declared that the one 
he had spoken of was far bigger than that. I kept on the look- 
out, and a few days before I left Kuranda I was rewarded by 
seeing an enormous dragon-fly along the banks of the River 
Barrow. Iwas unable to capture it, but I could see that it 
