2 5 Bryant, Notes on Some Limicoline Birds. [ist "July 



bird, whose every attitude speaks of quickness and speed, from 

 the long, slender tarsi to the long and pointed primaries crossing 

 over the tail. 



Of all the Dottrels this one is the tamest, for it will allow one 

 near enough to observe the brilliant scarlet ring round the eye, 

 and even when induced to take flight will alight again within a 

 very short distance. Irides dark brown and eyelids bright red. 



Knot [Tringa canutus). — The Knot is a very rare bird in this 

 State. One obtained by me at the big swamp at Altona has 

 under neck and breast light buff on a white ground ; under tail 

 is white, with patches of buff and black ; under wing coverts are 

 white, barred with black and slaty-black, not unlike the Snipe 

 feathers in the same position. The back of head is slaty-grey, 

 and the back and upper surface of the wings are a light slate with 

 splashes of black, and some of the feathers have white margins. 

 Upper surface of tail is white, with spots of black and a little buff, 

 and some of the feathers are margined with black. The legs are 

 black, and the bill, which is about |- inch in length, is also black. 



South Australian Ornithological Association, 



The April-May meeting of this Association was held at the 

 residence of Dr. A. M. Morgan, Adelaide, on the 12th May, 

 when Mr. F. R. Zietz presided. Mr. J. W. Mellor drew 

 attention to the reports and letters in the daily press concerning 

 the destruction of Magpies for the purpose of poisoning their car- 

 casses as baits for foxes. Mr. M. Symonds Clark reported that he 

 had, in his capacity of honorary secretary of the Native Fauna 

 and Flora Protection Committee of the Field Naturalists' Section 

 of the Royal Society, brought the matter before the authorities, 

 and that steps had been taken to prevent further depredations 

 in respect to the birds. 



The chief business of the evening was the further examination of 

 the Strepcra family, and a large number of skins from different parts 

 of Australia, notably South Australia, was compared. Several 

 skins recently collected by Mr. E. Ashby on Kangaroo Island were 

 of particular interest ; he had seen a large number of the birds 

 there, and had identified them as the Black-winged Crow-Shrike 

 {Slrepera melanoptera), there being no trace of white in the wing, 

 and a specimen shown tallied exactly with one from the Forrest 

 Ranges in South Australia and one from Port Augusta in the north. 

 Upon further examination of skins it was found that a young male 

 from the Mt. Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide, was of a lighter colour 

 than the Flinders Range and Kangaroo Island specimens. Birds 

 from Yorke's Peninsula and Eyre's Peninsula in South Australia 

 were found to be of a darker brown, with a very great amount of 

 white on the wing, and it was considered that these birds were not 

 Strepcra melanoptera nor yet Strepera plumhca, and it was suggested 



