1917-] Recently published Ornithological Works. 447 



Rchb. is entirely rejected and Prosopeia revived for the 

 species personata. The subspecies minor and neglectus of 

 A. scapiUaris are upheld. 



North on the Birds of Noi'th-West Neiv South Wales. 



[The Birds of Coolabah and Brewarrina, north-western New South 

 Wales. By Alfred J. North, C.M.B.O.U. Records Australian Mas. 

 xi. pt. 6, 1916, pp. 121-162, 5 pis.] 



Mr. North, of the Australian Museum at Sydney, spent 

 his annual vacation in 1915 at Coolabah and Brewarrina 

 in the dry interior of New South Wales. The first-named 

 place is about 430, the second-named 518 miles from Sydney 

 in a north-westerly direction. At Coolabah the country 

 was suli'ering from a drouglit, and birds were not par- 

 ticularly abundant; but at Brewarrina, which is situated 

 on the upper waters of the Darling River, things were 

 better and more satisfactory results were obtained. A list 

 of some sixty species noticed and procured is given with 

 a number of interesting field-notes. We observe that 

 Mr. North pointedly eschews the use of trinomials and 

 that his nomenclature foUovvs in most cases the ' Catalogue 

 of Birds in the Britisii Museum.^ Several pages of the 

 introduction are devoted to a description and discussion 

 of the curious aboriginal fish-traps made of lines of stones 

 enclosing a number of pools in the Darling River, into 

 which the fishes are driven by the natives and so secured. 

 Most of the photographs are also devoted to illustrating 

 this very interesting native method of securing a supply 

 of fish. 



Palmer's Biographical Index. 



[Biog-raphical Index to ' The Auk,' 1876-1914. Prepared by T. S. 

 Palmer, with the assistance of the Index Committee, 1915 : extr. from 

 the ' Ten Year Index of the Auk," pp. vi-xxv.] 



This is a most useful index to the names of all persons 

 of whom biographical notices have been published in the 

 'Auk' and its predecessor, the 'Bulletin of the Nuttall 

 Ornithologfical Club.' It also includes the names of all 



