Voi.^xviii.-j Conversazione. 221 



they visited the sea coasts and accounted for great numbers of 

 star-fishes, which were known to prey upon oysters and whelks. 



Mr. Gerald Hill said that he was very pleased to inspect such 

 an interesting exhibit of skins, especially as some of them were 

 very famiUar to him. He stated that, whilst it is somewhat 

 difficult to distinguish between Letter-winged and Black- 

 shouldered Kites when at rest, when on the wing it is quite a simple 

 matter. 



Mr. Chubb called attention to the fact that the immature 

 Kites were marked as to their sex, and said that in very 

 young birds he had found it impossible to ascertain the sex. He 

 wondered how Mr. Jackson had accomplished the feat. Other 

 members testified as to the same difficulty with young birds. 



Extracts were read from South Australian newspapers by the 

 chairman, in which it was stated that Mr. Mathews's collection of 

 bird skins was under offer to the South Australian Museum, and 

 that to enable it to be purchased another £6,000 would have to 

 be found. Several members expressed painful surprise that after 

 the various State Governments had given permission for Mr. 

 Mathews to procure skins of our birds to enable him to produce 

 his work, and also that, as so many valuable skins had been 

 presented to Mr. Mathews by Australian ornithologists, it should 

 be necessary for Australia to buy this collection back again. It 

 seemed possible also that if the money could not be raised 

 the collection would be offered elsewhere. The types, at 

 any rate, of Australian birds should certainly be Australian 

 property, or at least lodged in Australia ; yet it seemed 

 possible that, as in the case of the Gouldian collection, they might 

 be lost to us. 



It was arranged that Mr. F. E. Wilson should furnish an account 

 of the monthly conversaziones for The Emu. 



Review. 



" JUNGLE PEACE." 



[" Jungle Peace," b}' William Beebe, Curator of Birds, New York Zoological 

 Park, and Director of Tropical Research Station. Illustrated from photo- 

 graphs. New York : Henry Holt and Co. Price, 1.75 dols. net.] 



" Of making many books there is no end," but no book made 

 is like Mr. Beebe's " Jungle Peace." Mr. Beebe is known to 

 Australians as an eminent ornithologist, and his society subscribes 

 to The Emu, but they may not know that he had been an aviator 

 in the Great World War, or that he has such an artistic and 

 convincing way of writing his knowledge and observations gained 

 in the field. Facts, especially nature facts, are often stranger 

 than fiction, and it has not been overstated when a reviewer says 

 Mr. Beebe's style " has a magic which transforms fact." So it is 

 with his field observations in the jungles of British Guiana. The 



16 



