Vol. XV. 1 From Bush to Museum. 75 



R.A.O.U. Council Meetings. 



At the inceliiig ol the Council ol the Ivoyal Australasian Orni- 

 thologists' Union on /Ih May, at the rooms ot Col. Chas. Ryan, 

 CoUins-strect, Melbourne, .Mr. A. 11. E. Mattingley presided. Other 

 members present were Messrs. Z. Ciray, A. C. Stone, D. Le Souef, L. G. 

 Chandler, Chas. Barrett, and G. Finlay. Mr. Le Souef read the report of 

 the sub-committee appointed to consider the question of preparing 

 a second edition of the " Official Check-list of the Birds of Australia," 

 and it was decided that the recommendations made be published in 

 The Emu. It was resolved that brief reports of proceedings at the 

 Council meetings should be published in The Emu in future. 



At the meeting of the Council held on nth June, Mr. D. Le Souef 

 presiding, arrangements for the annual session at Brisbane in 

 October, and the working camp-out farther north, were considered 

 A sul)-committee was appointed to deal with camp rules and so forth. 

 Mr. Charles Barrett urged that some restriction should be placed on 

 collecting at the Union's camps-out. Specimens of birds and eggs 

 were necessary for public museums, and a limited number was 

 required by ornithologists who were doing scientific work, but general 

 collecting should be discouraged. Mr. ^A. C. Stone defended the 

 policy of collecting In view of the fact that a large number of type 

 specimens of birds was not in Australia, it was necessary that further 

 specimens should be secured, so that the Check-list Committee, 

 when it began work on a second edition of the list, might not be 

 hampered. But for the collector, little would be known of our birds. 

 Messrs. A. J. Campbell, D. Le Souef, .\. H. E. ^^lattingley, and others 

 spoke on the subject. It was reported that the sub-committee 

 appointed to deal with the ring-marking of migratory birds was 

 making satisfactory progress with preliminary work, and the scheme 

 would be in full swing shortly. 



From Bush to Museum. 



Mr. J. A. Kershaw, F.E.S., Curator of the National Museum, 

 Melbourne, describing his experiences in Northern Queensland, in 

 The Victorian Naturalist, April, 1915, gives some pleasant glimpses 

 of bird life. A good specimen of a bower was obtained. 



" Close to our camp was discovered an old and deserted bower of 

 the Fawn-breasted Bower-Bird [Chlamydera cerviniventris), and on 

 the following day a fresh one was found, built in the shelter of 

 some thick scrub. The sides of the bower were formed of small 

 twigs, closely and securely packed, about 15 inches long and 12 

 inches high, sej^arated at the top, the base, of similar material, 

 extending at either end a little distance from the upright sides. 

 Both entrances were decorated with numbers of brightly-coloured 

 berries about half an inch long, some bright green, others dark 

 blue, while others were placed here and there among the tops of 

 the upright twigs forming the sides of the bower. A couple of 

 feet from either entrance was a small heap of the faded and dis- 

 carded berries. This bower was carefully removed, intact, and 

 is now in the Melbourne Museum." 



Plate I. was engraved by Patterson, Shugg and Co. Pty. Ltd.. Mell:iourne 

 and Sydney, and printed by D. W. Paterson Co. Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. 



