16 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST, 
2 NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
GOMPHOCARPUS FRUCTICOSUS and Dawnais.—Mr, Lar- — 
combe contributes the following note:—When living at 
Trangie, planted the Bladder Bush (G@. fructicosus) in 
the school garden. It grew and flowered, when it was 
first visited by Danais petila, the small brown butterfly, 
and later on by D. menippe, the Brown Gipsy or Monarch, 
an introduced insect which has spread from America. 
through the Pacific Islands and Australia, and in our coas- 
tal districts, when in the larval state, feeds upon the foli- 
age of this plant. The Brown Gipsy laid her eggs on 
’ the Bladder Bush, but these were destroyed ‘by plant bugs. 
Zootoaican Nores.—On a recent visit to Auckland, 
N.Z., I visited a ‘‘Zoo’’ at Royal Oak, where there is a_ 
fair collection of animals. Lions seem to do particularly 
well, as I saw three very healthy-looking families of cubs. 
There were what struck me as some rather odd associa- 
tions. A large monkey was rearing two fox-terrier pups, 
and it was amusing to see the unceremonious manner in 
which the monkey grabbed the paws of a pup with its 
feet and searched amongst the pup’s hair in the manner 
characteristic of monkeys. 
One cage contained white rabbits and pigeons, whilst 
in another were two monkeys and a young pig. The pig 
was very active, and kept following the monkeys about in 
order to secure anything thrown to the latter which they 
failed to catch. The monkeys took no notice of the pig. 
On the ferry steamers on Auckland Harbour I was 
struck with the extreme tameness of the sparrows, which 
hopped about all over the decks whilst the steamers were 
en route, picking up crumbs close to passengers’ feet. 
—TnHos. STEEL. 
