8 Campbell, Sone Additions to H-. L. White Collection, [i^f'j"! 



I was exceedingly glad personally to handle a skin of the White 

 Cockatoo that frequents Dampier Archipelago, because, from 

 reliable information, I thought, I called the Dampier Cockatoo 

 Licmetis pastinator in my " Nests and Eggs." Obviously it should 

 have been Cacatua sanguined. 



This is probably the oldest known Australian Cockatoo, for, 

 when Dampier, the navigator, in 1699, was in the neighbourhood 

 of the archipelago that now bears his name, off North-West 

 Australia, he recorded there was a " sort of white Parrot which 

 flew a great many together." Although the earliest known 

 Cockatoo, up to date its name or names are by no means settled. 

 Mr. Mathews, by much laborious research, has at last (" Birds of 

 Australia," vol. vi., pp. 211, 212) narrowed things somewhat 

 towards logical conclusions. But it is a pity he dispenses 

 altogether with the old and familiar name gymnopis (" remove not 

 the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set " may be read 

 metaphorically), while he introduces six other sub-specific (even 

 secondary sub-specific) names of his own, for the species. The 

 name gymnopis may have been inappropriately applied in the first 

 instance, yet Mr. Mathews could have used it by " designation " 

 for the race he now calls ashhyi, from the interiors of Queensland, 

 New South Wales, and South Australia. It will be observed 

 that the wing measurement I give for the Dampier bird — namely, 

 9I inches, or 240 mm. — agrees with the female measurements of 

 Mathews's small so-called race, normantoni, from the Gulf country, 

 Queensland. 



Birds of Lake Victoria and the Murray River for 

 100 Miles Down Stream. 



By Capt. S. a. White, C.M.B.O.U. 



Owing to news coming to hand that since the River Murray had 

 been in flood this past season (1917), water-birds of many species 

 had congregated in great numbers over the flooded areas to nest, 

 the writer and his ornithological friend of many years' standing. 

 Dr. A. M. Morgan, determined to make a trip to Lake Victoria, 

 and, after working that district, to examine the ornithology of 

 the river for a hundred or more miles further down. 



It may be as well to give a few facts relating to the river and 

 the country over which we observed. The River Murray was 

 first discovered and followed to its mouth by Capt. Sturt, who 

 started down the Murrumbidgee in a whaleboat on 7th January, 

 1830, and reached Lake Alexandrina on 9th February of the 

 same year. He then went on over the lakes and traced the river 

 to its mouth into the ocean. Sturt returned by the same route, 

 reaching his starting-point on 23rd March, completing the longest 

 boat journey ever undertaken by the Navy. The Murray River 

 is navigable for 3,212 miles, and passes through a great valley 



