1'^. ■] Frovi Magazines, &€. 89 



From MagazineSt &c. 



Australian Finches. — Mr. J. Ji. Huusdcn, of Brooklyn, Cator- 

 road, Sydenham (England), informs us that he has flying in his 

 aviaries twelve hundred Australian Finches, consisting chiefly of 

 Red- and Black-headed Gouldians, Star-Finches {Bathilda ruficauda). 

 Long-tailed, Pectoral, Masked, and Bicheno. — AvicuUural Magazine 

 (July, 1905), p. 293. 



sH 5{i ^ 



The Great Auk. — The Auk, in its July number, has a photo, 

 of a specimen of the extinct species from which the paper takes 

 its name, and another of two of the eggs. Bird and eggs were 

 recently acquired by Mr. John E. Thayer, who describes them, at 

 prices which are not stated ; we are told, however, that the eggs 

 formed part of a lot of ten sold in London in 1865 at prices varying 

 from /29 to £_^^ each. The bird belonged to Gould as long ago as 



1838.'^ 



* * * 



The discovery of the eggs of the Knot (Triiiga caiiutits), which 

 is a summer visitor to Australia, is reported in the Ornitholo- 

 gisches Jahrbuch (Jan. -April, 1905). The clutch of four eggs was 

 taken 17th June, 1898, on an island called Hrisey, to the north 

 of Iceland. In coloration the eggs resemble those of the common 

 European species [T. alpina), but they are larger than the latter. 

 The collector who made the find had looked for the eggs of this 

 species for more than twenty years in vain. 



The same issue has a note on the occurrence of Richardson 

 Skua {Stercorarius crepidatus) in Hungary. This is another species 

 that comes to us in summer, when it may be seen following in the 

 wake of steamers in Port Phillip Bay. It is easily identifiable by 

 its central pair of tail feathers, which stick out jirominently beyond 

 the rest and run to a sharp point. 



* * * 



The Alexandra Parrakeet. — Mr. G. A. Keartland has con- 

 tributed some interesting details on the "range" of this beautiful 

 Parrakeet in The Victorian Naturalist, vol. xxii.. No. 5 (September), 

 from the time it was first discovered, over 40 years ago, at Howell's 

 Ponds, in the far North, till recently, when it was found breeding in 

 South Australia proper, within 80 miles of Oodnadatta. The 

 extension of the range to Western Australia was recorded in The 

 Emu, vol. iii., p. 115 (1903). In this instance, two or three 

 young birds were brought alive to Melbourne from the West by 

 Mr. Hunter. One has developed into a handsome male, and has 

 easily taken the prize in its class at all the recent shows. Mr. Hunter 

 has liberated his Alexandra Parrakeets in a roomy aviary, in the 

 hope that they will breed. Mr. Keartland has, inadvertently, no 

 doubt, given North instead of Gould for the authority of the species 

 Polytelis (Spathopterus) alexandrite. But the former naturalist has 

 attempted to change the original generic name into Spathopterus 

 on account of the notch at the end of the third ]:)rimaries of the wings. 



