2'>4 Campbell, Additions to " H. L. White Collection." [isfA^rii 



Further Notes on Additions to the ** H. L. White 

 Collection.'^ 



By A. J. Campbell, C.M.B.O.U., Melbourne. 



(Continued from Emu, ante, p. 2.) 



There is no abatement of Mr. H. L. White's enterprise to foster 

 ornithological exploration. Last year he again commissioned Mr. 

 F. Lawson Whitlock to visit the Dampier Archipelago, North- 

 West Australia, and on the return journey to touch at Shark 

 Bay district, including the historic island of Dirk Hartog. 



The bird-skins collected are now in the " H. L. White Collection," 

 National Museum, Melbourne, where, most fortunately, they can 

 be examined by students. The specimens include a particularly 

 fine series — indeed, the best extant — of the Black-and-Wliite 

 Malurus, from both Barrow and Dirk Hartog Islands — the only 

 known habitats of these birds. 



Mr. Whitlock's own account of the Dampier Archipelago 

 appears in another part of this issue (pp. 240-253), while, regarding 

 Dirk Hartog Island, he writes under date 16/11/18 : — " I could 

 not, for several reasons, remain on Dirk Hartog for any length 

 of time, lack of communication with the mainland being one. 

 I did not wish to be stranded there and miss the monthly boat 

 going south. I was really too late for the best work when I landed 

 on the island. The breeding season evidently commences there 

 early — I should say about the end of June * in normal seasons. 



" Dirk Hartog is clothed with innumerable bushes of many 

 species. There is just room to walk around each clump, so you 

 will easily realize it is a country requiring close and systematic 

 search to do the thing thoroughly. Birds, for the most part, 

 were in moult ; they skulk under such circumstances. 



" I saw one pair only of Amytornis, but, despite much time 

 devoted, I could not get a shot. The strong winds are a difficulty 

 in Shark Bay. They keep the climate wonderfully cool, but, 

 once a bird takes to a big bush when the wind blows it is im- 

 possible to follow a bird with the eye. 



" I worked the Peron Peninsula for three weeks, and secured 

 Malurus cyanotns, two species of Acanthiza, &c., and fired at a 

 venture at what I thought was an Amytornis just as it was 

 disappearing into a bush, and was delighted to pick up a fine 

 female. . . Shark Bay requires a whole season to work the 

 district thoroughly, the areas to be examined are so extensive." 



Mr. Thomas Carter, M.B.O.U., contributed a valuable article 

 to The Ibis for October, 1917, on " The Birds of Dirk Hartog 

 Island and Peron Peninsula, Shark Bay, Western Australia,"! 

 the result of two trips — April and May, and from October, 1916, 



* When Mr. Otto Lipfert visited Beinier and Dorre Islands, 1910, he found that 

 the breeding season for the smaller birds had finished about the end of May. — Vide 

 Emu, xii., p. 287. 



t Briefly noticed in Emu, ante, p. 60. 



