Vol. VII, 



1907 



1 From Magazines, &c. 107 



Alexandra District, Northern Territory of South Australia." 

 Alexandra is a station about 200 miles inland from the Gulf 

 In the }-ear 1905, with commendable enterprise, Sir William 

 Ingram (father of Mr. Collingvvood Ingram) arrranged that Mr. 

 W. Stalker, an experienced naturalist, should visit the locality, 

 with a view of making an extensive collection of its birds and 

 mammals. The mammals were presented to the British 

 Museum,* while a fine series of birds was handed over to Mr. 

 Collingwood Ingram to work out. After giving Mr. Stalker's 

 general description of the country — timber chiefly coolibar, 

 gedgea, mulga, &c., in other parts white gum and bloodwood — 

 Mr. Ingram enumerates 91 species, 5 of which he has separated 

 as " distinct geographical races " — namely, Aftanms gracilis, 

 A. fiorenci(B, A. phcuus, PtHotis forresti, Mirafra rufescens. In 

 reviewing the Alexandra collection as a whole Mr. Ingram was 

 struck b}-the exceptionally pale and greyish colouration (due, no 

 doubt, to the arid climate) of many of the forms, and its 

 resemblance to the avifauna of North-West Australia. In 

 addition to the above-mentioned new species, the following are 

 recorded for the first time for the Northern Territory, namely : 

 — Petnxca goodenovii, Rhipidura albiscapa, and EphtJiianura 

 mirifrons. Regarding Acafitlioc/uvr'a {Acanthogenys) rnfigiiiaris, 

 and Entomophila rnfigularis, there seems to be some little 

 confusion in Mr Ingram's record about these two species. Does 

 he wish it to be inferred that both were found at Alexandra .'' 



Lyre-Birds. — Mr. A. H. Mitchell, of Queen's College, says : 

 — "In Friday's issue of The Argits ' Pycnoptilus ' incidentally 

 makes a statement re the Lyre-Bird which I think is inaccurate, 

 viz., ' The Menura is only known to frequent gullies where the 

 hazel grows, as their food consists of certain grubs that live at 

 the roots of this tree.' 



" My observations of the Lyre-Bird extend over a wide area, 

 including the district around Drouin, Warragul, Poowong, &c., 

 Bruthen, Buchan, Lake Tyers, Orbost, the bulk of the Timbarra 

 and Gelantipy districts, with the whole of Croajingolong and 

 Omeo, Glen Wills, and surrounding country. 



" I have not been able to associate the Lyre-Bird with any 

 particular tree or scrub, the hazel least of all. In the above- 

 mentioned areas, only in the South Gippsland portion (Poowong, 

 &c.) does the hazel occur plentifully ; in all the other parts it is 

 rare, and sometimes absent. In 1904 I took an &%^ from a nest 

 at an altitude of more than 5,000 feet, on the northern slope of 

 Mount Wills, where the timber was almost wholly snow gum — 

 certainly no hazel occurred there. On the lower slopes of the 



* Vidt P.Z.S., 1906, p. 536. 



