^"'■"^^I-l Notes and Notices. TIQ 



T907 J '-^^ 



cabinets were not acquired for the National collections when it 

 became necessary-for the original owners to part with them. 



Great Brown Kingfisher {Dacelo gigas) in Tasmania. — 

 Miss J. A. Fletcher, Cleveland, Tasmania, writes: — "It is with 

 feelings of greatest pleasure that I record that several pairs of 

 the above birds are quite at home in this district, and are 

 evidently the progeny of a pair that was liberated at Belle Vue 

 (the home of the late Mr. Gibson). I first heard their hearty 

 laugh one evening last February, but, as it seemed some distance 

 off, I wondered if my ears had deceived me. However, since 

 then eyesight has proved the existence of the birds. One pair 

 evidently have their quarters between here and Conara, 3 miles 

 to the south." 



New Publications. — British Birds, edited by Messrs. H. F. 

 Witherby, F.L.S., and W. P. Pycroft, A.L.S., is a new popular 

 monthly magazine devoted to the study of the birds on the 

 British list. It is well illustrated. All students and bird-lovers 

 are invited to support the magazine, which is not a commercial 

 venture, by becoming annual subscribers. The subscription, 

 which is IDS. 6d. (post free), should be made payable to Messrs, 

 Witherby and Co., 326 High Holborn, London. 



Sketches of South African Bird-Life, by Messrs. Alwin 

 Haagner, F.Z.S., and Robt. H. Ivy. Illustrated by the camera. 

 Subscription, 15s., payable to Mr. R. H. Porter, 7 Princes-street, 

 Cavendish-square, London, W. 



Notes on the Birds of Kent, bv Rev. C. W. Shepherd, M.A., 

 F.Z.S., and Messrs. R. J. Balston.F.Z.S., and E. Bartlett, F.Z.S. 

 The subscription (i6s.) may be forwarded to Mr. R. H. Porter, 7 

 Princes-street, Cavendish-square, London, W. 



Traffic in Mutton-Birds. — A boat accident occurred in 

 the eastern passage of Welshpool Bay between ii and 12 a.m. 

 on Sunday, 21st of April. Mr. C. Martin and Mr. J. Carew were 

 returning to San Remo from Cape Woolamai in Messrs. Bergin 

 and Co.'s 14-foot sailing boat with a load of 600 Mutton-Birds 

 [Puffinus tejiiiirostris). The weather being threatening, Mr. 

 Radford, in a much larger craft, also laden with Mutton-Birds, 

 undertook to tow the smaller boat. A violent storm coming on, 

 the larger boat dragged the smaller one under water, and the 

 rope parted. An attempt to fix the line again having failed, the 

 two boats parted company, and the smaller one was left drifting 

 gunwale awash. P'our days afterwards Messrs. Bergin and Co. 

 were lucky enough to recover their boat near the mouth of the 

 Bass River, where she was fast in the sand under the mangroves. 

 Had she not stuck in the sand she would have gone out to sea 

 with the returning tide. The boat is uninjured, but Mr. Martin 

 has lost his cargo of Mutton-Birds. — Loch and Poozvong Express, 



