coloured Parrakeets {Psi-pholiis multicolor), a pair each ol the 

 Painted {Einblema picta), Yellow-rumped \Munia fliivipryiniia), and 

 Crimson {Ncochmia^ phaeton) Finches, and a Gaml)oge-headed 

 Gouldian Grass-Finch {Pocphila goiildice). The Yellow-rumped 

 Finches were quite new to Mr. Astley, so he gave a full description 

 of them. An editorial note mentions that eleven of these rare 

 Finches had just reached a London dealer, of which four had ulti- 

 mately gone to the Zoo. It is to be hoped Mr. Astley's birds do 

 well. They will not find themselves alone as captives in the strange 

 land, for in another paper in the same number Mr. Astley, describing 

 one of his outdoor aviaries, mentions as among its occupants 

 " Ruficauda " Finches, Blue- winged Grass-Parrakeets, Diamond 

 Sparrows, Bronze- wings, and Diamond and Peaceful Doves. Mr. 

 Astley has much to tell of the Doves, evidently his favourites. " A 

 pair of Diamond Doves in perfect condition, sitting cooing and 

 preening their feathers in an orange tree, with the golden fruit 

 hanging over their small grey heads, and the brilliant blue of the 

 Mediterranean in the background, is worth seemg." One wonders 

 if the tiny strangers are ever homesick for the south. Probably 

 nostalgia is a human ill that birds know nothing of, and yet — it is 

 a far cry from the Riverina to the Riviera. 

 * * * 



Oreoscopus (Sericornis) gutturalis. — In The Proc. Roy. Soc, 

 Queensland, vol. vi., p. 244 (1889), Mr. C. W. De Vis described a 

 new bird from North-Eastern Queensland as Sericornis gutturalis. 

 On the discovery of its nest and eggs recently, and a further exam- 

 ination of skins, Mr. A. J. North, Ornithologist Australian Museum, 

 has assigned the species a new genera — namely, Oreoscopus — and 

 the very distinctive vernacular name "Fern-Wren." The Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum received two nests with sets of eggs of 

 this bird taken by Mr. H. Elgner, the eggs being widely different 

 from those of the true Sericornis. A description of the nests and 

 ■eggs appears in The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales, March 

 (1905), p. 247. The covered nest (of which a photo, is given) 

 appears very beautiful, composed of fresh green mosses, while the 

 eggs are pure white entirely in one set, but in the other there were 

 numerous faint purplish-red dots and spots on the surfaces. Mr. 

 North extracts the following from Mr. Elgner's interesting field 

 notes : — 



" The first nest of Scyiroruis guUurnlis I lourul was in Novcnil)cr, 

 1903. In the following month I found another, built in the side of a 

 gully, near the Upper Russell River, with an egg in it. The following 

 day I flushed the bird from the nest, but only caught a glimpse of it 

 as it rapidly passed over the fallen leaves lying on the ground. The 

 nest now contained two eggs. The nest was visited on four occasions 

 during the two succeeding days, and then it began to rain, continuing 

 without a break for two more days. On visiting it the following morn- 

 ing, as I anticipated, part of the nest had been washed away with the 

 water, and the eggs were lying broken on the clay below. On the loth 

 August, 1904, when on Black Mountain, I found another nest, con- 



