^°';,,f' •] Review. 267 



Review. 



" Scientific Notes on an Expedition into the North-Western 

 Regions of South Austraha," by S. A. White, M.B.O.U., and 

 others, re{)rinted from " Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 South Austraha," vol. xxxix., 1915, will be welcomed by all 

 interested in the ''Dead Heart" of Australia. It is fortunate for 

 scientific research in general, and ornithology in particular, that 

 the lure of this romantic region has so drawn our President, 

 Captain S. A. White, that he has completed another big trip into 

 this vast area. The present party visited the unexplored Everard 

 Ranges, where a tribe of aborigines unknown to white men was 

 met with. Captain White was able to make friends with the chief 

 of the tribe, with valuable results. The fine series of photographs 

 reveals a people of splendid physique, and of great interest to 

 anthropologists. Varied collections were made by Captain White 

 in different branches of zoology and botany. These have been 

 dealt with by Messrs. Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S. (Mammalia and 

 Ophidia), Lacertilia (F. R. Zietz), Mollusca (A. R. Riddle), 

 Arachnida (W. J. Rainbow), Coleoptera (A. M. Lea, F.E.S.), 

 Lepidoptera (A. jefferies Turner. M.D., F.E.S.), Hymenoptera 

 (Professor W. M. Wheeler), Botany (J. M. Black), and Language 

 of the Everard Range Tribe (J. M. Black), while Captain White 

 himself has supplied the interesting "Narrative" of the expedi- 

 tion, the valuable account of the " Aborigines of the Everard 

 Range," and the section treating of " Aves " (Birds). 



Captain White, with Mr. J. P. Rogers, well known as a field 

 ornithologist and collector, accompanied a Government geological 

 expedition into the unknown North- West from Oodnadatta. John 

 Gould's long-lost Chestnut-breasted Whiteface {Aphelocephala 

 pedoralis) was re-discovered, and two sub-species of birds new to 

 science were discovered. 



Captain White, the "explorer ornithologist," has earned the 

 gratitude of Australian nature students by his zealous and self- 

 denying labours and by his faithful scientific treatment of the 

 material collected on these arduous journeys into the vast solitudes 

 of those central deserts. 



Obituary Notice. 



Mr. Henry Eeles Dresser, the author of a number of important 

 ornithological works, died suddenly on 26th November, 1915, at 

 Cannes, France, at the age of yj years. For the past seven years 

 he had been in failing health. The cause of death was heart 

 failure. The late Mr. Dresser's collection of Pahearctic birds' 

 skins and eggs, the material on which his monograph was based, 

 together with his library of ornithological works, are in the 

 possession of the Manchester Museum, England. 



