Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 4 (1846).djvu/314

1480 cosmopolite, Dermestes murinus. This last, a small black beetle with silvery under surface, proved a source of continual annoyance by attacking my skins of birds, which I was obliged to examine every few hours, and clear off such as had effected a lodgment, chiefly under the wing, and this in spite of the plentiful use of arsenical soap within, and corrosive sublimate without. The same circumstance occurred to Mr. Gilbert,* while collecting on Houtman's Abrolhos, on the west coast of New Holland. A small brown beetle (Pimelia?) exists in surprising numbers among the roots of grass and under stones, and I seldom awoke of a morning without finding a number located in the folds of my blanket. But the most troublesome of parasites were the various kinds of " ticks," one of which, flat and crab-like, and varying in length from one-eighth to half an inch, of a genus allied to Ixodes, by fastening to our bodies while sleeping on the sand, caused very pain- ful swellings, and occasionally even ulcerations. The different sea-fowl were much infested with these insects, which attacked chiefly the feet, eyelids, and angles of the mouth, and it was not uncommon to observe the web between the toes almost entirely eaten away by them.

Among the Crustacea, a nocturnal species of Ocypoda is the most interesting. It inhabits deep burrows in the sand, whence it issues at night,, prowling about in search of carrion of every description on which it feeds. As its generic name indicates, it runs with great ve- locity, and when chased makes either for the sea or the nearest bur- row. This species extends from Sandy Cape to Port Essington, inhabiting all the sandy coasts, islets, and sand-banks.

As might be expected, Raine's Islet abounds with marine produc- tions, especially Radiata and Mollusca. Of the former, the various species of Holothuria or Trepang, some of which are fished for by the Bugis on the north coast of New Holland, are most apt to arrest the attention. They have the appearance of large loathsome slugs, gray or black, smooth or tuberculated, possessing the power of contraction and extension to a remarkable degree, being capable of shortening themselves from a length of a foot and a half to one of five or six inches only. The intestines of several which I opened were distended with coral sand. Some fine shells were found on the reef, chiefly un-

Speared by the natives near the head of the Gulph of Carpentaria while accom- panying Dr. Leichardt's overland party from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. The writer of this saw much of him a few months before his departure on his last and fatal journey, and cannot help paying a parting tribute to the perfect integrity and indomi- table energy of his late friend. Mr. Gilbert's numerous discoveries are to be found re- corded in Mr. Gould's splendid work on Australian Zoology.