160 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
Rey. M. H. Reid who found it :—‘ I never knew that a grass- 
hopper would eat flesh, but seeing was to believe. I went to 
see some of the chiefs during that time great swarms 
of locusts devoured every green thing. While looking at the 
locusts crawling over the native huts I observed the one I gave 
you. It held a mouse firmly, and had actually fastened its legs 
about the mouse, so that there was no way of escape. . . . 
Some of the locusts had great spiders and others great roaches 
(cockroaches), and in fact anything which would make food.” 
The reading of the foregoing naturally created a discussion on 
- the carnivorous habits of the Acridizdz it being considered a 
very unusual phenomenon. It may be pointed out in connec- 
tion with this, that locusts, in plague times, when they have 
denuded a district of its herbage and foliage, have been known 
to devour the dead bodies of their comrades, and also to enter 
houses and eat textile fabrics; even boots have been recorded 
as contributing to their food upon such occasions. 
Emus Anpd Prickty Prar.—According to the Pastoralists’ 
Review, the spread of the prickly pear in the eastern states of 
the Commonwealth is largely influenced by emus. The birds 
are very fond of the fruit of the pear, and eat it in large 
quantities. Then they parade about, spreading the plant in 
clean country, as their excreta is a mass of pear seeds. In 
this way, the jotrnal quoted, points out large areas of good 
country can be spoilt in a very short space of time. 
Prickty Pear as A Mosquito PreventivE.—M. Sauzeau de. 
Puybernean, a French physician states.that the leaves of the 
common prickly pear, if chopped up and thrown into water. 
will prevent mosquitoes breeding for weeks or months. ‘The 
resinous mucilage of the leaves floats on the surface of the 
water and stops the breathing tubes of. larve. (wrigglers) and 
pupe. Furthermore, in stagnant, footid water the prickly pear 
juice has the property of absorbing the gases of decomposition. 
New Fosst. Mammats rrom Hoypt.—The expedition of the 
American Museum of Natural History to the famous fossil 
beds of Fayiim has been highly successful. Prof. Osborne hag 
issued a short paper in the Bulletin of the American Musewm of 
Natural History, Vol. 1V,, March 25, 1908, describing some of 
the more remarkable discoveries. ‘Two new forms, unfortun- 
ately represented only by portions of the lower jaw, are so 
peculiar that their ordinal positions remain uncertain. One 
of these is named Ptolemaza lyonsi and is taken as the type of 
a new family Ptolemaiide. It is even stated that 1t possibly 
represents a new order, The other, Ap¢dium phiomensis, new 
genus and species, ‘‘ was evidently a small omnivorous or 
frugivorous form, with partly cuspidate teeth;” but at present 
its precise affinities are unknown. ‘Two other fossils are 
described, representing new genera (Phiomys and Metaphiomys). 
of rodents, placed in the family Homyide. 
21-1.09 
