232 '^^oies and Notices. [ 2nd April 



" I have addressed the Secretary of the Agricultural Society, 

 requesting him to memorialize Government in order to get them 

 protected, I spoke to him privately on the subject the other 

 day ; and I have no doubt the Government will comply, as the 

 insects and grubs in this island are a fearful pest. If it is 

 decided that they prove beneficial, I hope the Government itself 

 will take in hand to import a lot more. 



" There is one great advantage in Nuwara Eliya. During 

 the S.W. monsoon they have only to fly about 4 miles in one 

 direction, and during the N.E. 4 miles in another, to get 

 into dry country. So that they can choose their climate. In 

 both these cases, too, they will find themselves below the frost- 

 level. They will therefore have every opportunity to multiply. 

 I fancy they are big and fierce enough to defend their nests 

 against wild-cats." 



At the June (1905) meeting of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales (according to The Proceedings) Mr. North sent for 

 exhibition — (i) An adult female Cuculus tntennedius received 

 by Mr. J. H. Thorpe from James Yardley, who procured it on 

 Dun>j;ay Creek, Tweed River, N.S.W., in August, 1902 ; a 

 specimen was procured in 1904 by Dr. Hamilton Kenny near 

 Gympie, Queensland. (2) An adult male of Ptilotis plumula, 

 obtained in July, 1883, by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at 

 Moolah, western New South Wales. And (3) the following 

 sets of eggs : — (a) From Mr. A. E. Ivatt's collection, an ^^^ of 

 the Warty-faced Honey-eater, taken by him at Glanmire, near 

 Bathurst, on 12th November, 1894, and with it in the same nest 

 an iigs^ of the Pallid Cuckoo ; {b) from Mr. Leslie N. Moore's 

 collection, an q^q^ of the Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater, and one 

 of the Pallid Cuckoo, taken by him in the nest of the former at 

 Loftus, on 3rd November, 1900, and three eggs of the Yellow- 

 throated Miner, and one egg of the Pallid Cuckoo, received by 

 him from New Angledool, and taken together from the same 

 nest, September, 1901. 



At the September (1905) meeting of the same society (as 

 recorded in its Proceedings) Mr. A. J. North exhibited a skin and 

 set of two eggs of Melithreptiis albigidaris. They were obtained at 

 Copmanhurst, on the Clarence River, New South Wales, by Mr. 

 George Savidge, who also forwarded a nest he had procured on 

 the 22nd instant. Altogether three birds in the flesh had been 

 received. Previously this species had not been recorded from 

 further south than Wide Bay, Queensland. In the " Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum " (vol. ix.). Dr. H. Gadow 

 regards M. albigidaris as only sub-specifically distinct from M. 

 lumdatus. There is, however, no intergradation between these 

 two birds, and in addition to the olive-yellow upper part and 

 white chin of M. albigulans, it is furthermore distinguished by 



