60 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MtTSETTM. Gould's C. parvissima is a decidedly smaller race, and is further-more distinguished by its upper parts being more strongly washed with olive. A specimen from Cape York measures, total length 6"3 inches, wing 3-5, tail 27, bill 0'75. It ranges as far south as the Herbert River. The wing-measurement varies from 3 '5 to 3 '6 inches. In a large series of specimens examined I can find no gradation in size between C. rvfiijaster and its smaller northern ally, C. parvissima. Dr. Sliarpe, in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"* has described a specimen o£ the latter race from Cape York under the name of the larger species, Pinarolestes rtifigaster, Gould. On STIGHOPUS MOLLIS, HUTTON. By Thomas Whitelegge, Zoologist, Australian Museum. During a recent visit to Eden, Dr. J. C. Cox obtained a Holo-thurian, which he presented to the Museum collection. The species proves to be Stichopus mollis, Hutton, hitherto only recorded from New Zealand. At first I referred it to /S'. sordidus, Theel,t but on consulting a paper by Prof. A. Deudy| since re-ceived, I find that the " Challenger " specimens are considered to be examples of Hutton's Holot/i.nria tnollis. I agree with the opinion as expressed by Prof. Dendy. There appears to be no character to distinguish them except that of colour, which is evidently variable. The colour of the Eden example in formol is light yellowish-brown, with the disks of the pedicels and the tips of the dorsal papillae darker. The large bilateral plates form a ring on the margin of the disk and encircle the large central perforate plate at the extremity of the pedicel. The dorsal papillse are supported by curved, smooth, spiny, or branched rods, disposed transversely ; the lower ones tend to form plates similar to those of the ventral pedicels ; apicajly each papilla ternnnates in a large perforate plate, which is surrounded by a series of stout moniliform rods, with either simple or spinose ends. Length of specimen 130 mm. * Brit. Mus. Cat. Birds ill. 1877, p. 296. t Chall. Eep. Zool., xiv., p. 162, pi. viii., fig. 3. X Jour. Linn. Soc. Zool. xxvi., 1897, p. 46, pi. vii., figs. 73-82. 5th August, 1897.
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