THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 143 
in the centre. I could see no sign of the mouth till I mounted a 
specimen and examined it with the microscope; it is a piercing 
and sucking type. I took a female out and placed it in » 
bottle with formalin; it turned up its head and tail and floated 
on its broad thoracic segments, the mealy secretion keeping it 
quite dry for several hours. In this position it held its head 
and legs and sides of the body safely away from the formalin 
solution. 
The male insect is very much smaller, as is the male gall, 
and it has its legs more strongly developed. Mr. Froggatt 
points out that the male has no mouth, and this, of course, 
suggests a very short existence. In most of the male-galls 1 
obtained pupae. The pupa is naked with wing pads in the 
form of oblong bags. The antennde are long and curved dow» 
the sides and towards the front of the body. The pupa also” 
was in an inverted position in the gall. In one case it seemed 
to be near maturity, because when I moved it partly from the 
gall by breaking the latter away from the stem, the pupa was 
standing half way out from the gall, and moving its front legs 
slowly up and down. 
» NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
SPINE-TAILED Swirr, Chactura caudacuta—At the June meet- 
ing, Mr. Finckh exhibited a specimen of this remarkable bird 
in a beautiful state of preservation, it. having been treated by 
Mr. Steel by the method described in the Australian Naturalist 
(Vol. IV., p. 99). The specimen was obtained by Mr. Finckh 
in his garden one morning in an exhausted state. It was placed 
in a large aviary and fed on mealworms, the larvae of Tenebrio 
molitor, but lived for a week only During this time the bird 
would frequently rest for hours at a time in an upright position, 
clinging to a plain stone wall, the feet holding on to the 
rough surface, and the caudal spines pressing at an angle 
against the wall and so supporting the weight of the bird. 
The finding of this bird and the observations which Mr. 
Finckh was able to make on the use of the tail spines was 
good reward for his habit of strolling about in his grounds in 
the early morning, as at that time many bird traits can be 
observed which are not in evidence at a later hour.—EKd. 
Lire Hisrory or AN UNDETERMINED Cr1capA.—At the October 
meeting Mr. Luke Gallard exhibited, and read a note on, a fine 
series illustrating the life history of a Cicada. Early in Sep-_ 
