336 



PODARGIDjE. 



" The collector was sent to New South Wales by Mr. Lee, and some of the illustrations of 

 White's ' Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales in 1790,' were drawn by Watling 



Latham determined the drawings, and they bear his handwriting. He also copied many 

 of Watling's original notes, " but he says not one word about Watling or James Lee in the text 

 of his book (General Synopsis of Birds), nor can I so far find any evidence of his giving credit 

 to either of them as the source of his information. - 



" The newly acquired volume contains several 

 views of Sydney, which are of great interest." 



Dr. Sharpe then enumerates the list of drawings, 

 and quotes Watling"s original remarks and notes upon 

 them. It covers forty-six pages and is brimful of 

 interest, not only to Australian ornithologists, but to 

 anyone concerned in the early settlement of New South 

 Wales, from the time of the arrival of the First Fleet 

 in 1788, and the five succeeding years. 



By the publication of "The History of the Col- 

 lections contained in the Natural History Departments 

 of the British Museum ; Birds," Dr. Sharpe has 

 rendered inestimable service to ornithologists all over 

 the world, and the account of how the great Zoological 

 Collection of the British Museum was first founded 

 and worked up to its present unrivalled position, will 

 be read by all zoologists with great interest. 



Many of Watling's drawings, now in the British 

 Museum, form the types of species of a number of 

 Australian birds, and among them is included Fodargus 

 strigoidcs. What has so often puzzled me on referring 

 to many of Latham's original descriptions of Australian 

 birds in his " General Synopsis of Birds " and " Index 

 Ornithologicus," such as size " uncertain," is now 

 cleared up, for they were taken from Watling's drawings. 

 In a large series of these birds from Eastern Australia, the most common type procured in 

 the neighbourhood of Sydney is of the dark grey form, and seldom is one seen with as much 

 rufous on it as is shown in Gould's figure of this species in his " Birds of Australia," under the 

 Ta3.m& oi Podaygus liumeralis, axid Gonld's v&Txia.cuXa.T name of "Tawny-shouldered" Podargus is 

 not applicable to most of the specimens I have examined. An example from Kingswood, 

 obtained by Dr. E. P. Ramsay, approaches in colour more nearly Gould's figure. This specimen 

 has the lores, ear-coverts and tips of the feathers on the sides of the fore neck rufous ; in others 

 these parts are brown. Some specimens are very much lighter than others, and have large, 

 rounded, white eye-like spots on the greater wing-coverts. The most rufous bird in the collection 

 is an adult female obtained by Mr. Robert Grant on the Bellinger River ; especially is this more 

 pronounced on the tail feathers, which are distinctly barred with pale rufous and black ; it has 

 also larger white tips to the feathers on the crown of the head. Wing io'2 inches. An adult 

 female obtained by Mr. George Savidge, at Copmanhurst, on the Clarence River, is only slightly 

 more rufous than Sydney examples. An adult male, labelled Podargus cuvieri, procured by Mr. 

 George Masters at the Ouse River, Tasmania, in March 1867, is indistinguishable from specimens 

 of P. styigoides,ohi&vaed near Sydney. Wing io-8 inches. An adult male obtained by Mr. Masters on 



TAWNY-SHOULDERED PODARGUS. 



Hist. Coll. Brit. Mus. Bds., p. 109 (1906). 



