134 Reviews. I 



Emu 



the late Mr. Neville Cayley, who was also responsible for hand- 

 colouring the plates of eggs in the coloured copies. The eggs of 

 the different species of the order Psittaci all being white, no plate 

 of birds' eggs is issued with the part. As was mentioned by the 

 reviewers when criticising previous parts, no fault can be found 

 with Mr. North's work except for its " omissions." These 

 omissions are serious stumbling-blocks to students. For instance, 

 no work on the family Psittacida^ could be complete with the omis- 

 sion of such important Parrots as Porphyrocephahis spiirius (Red- 

 capped Parrakeet), Psephotus chrysopterygiiis (Golden-shouldered 

 Parrakeet), and Geopsittacus occidentalis (Night-Parrakeet). Eggs 

 were described of the first-named by Gould long ago, and 

 more recently (1909) that Parrot was known to breed in captivity 

 in England, and the owner, Mr. Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., received 

 the Avicultural Society's medal for same.* Mr. Astley has con- 

 tributed an article on the Red-capped Parrakeet to the Avicultural 

 Magazine (August, 1911), which has a fine coloured plate of a 

 handsome pair of birds. There are also field notes in The Emu 

 (vol. X., pp. 313, 314), by Mr. F. L. Whitlock. of nests taken in the 

 open in Western Australia. And yet Mr. North has remained 

 silent on this splendid species. 



["The Birds of .\ustralia " by A. H. S. Lucas, M.A. (Oxon. and Melb.), 

 B.Sc. (Lond.). &c., and W. H. Dudley Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., M.B.O.U., &c., 

 joint authors of "The Animals of Australia." Little Collins-street, 

 Melbourne; Christchurch, Wellington, and Dunedin, N.Z. ; Addle Hill, 

 Carter-lane, London : Whitcombe and Tombs Limited. 191 1] 



An ancient wrote, " Of making many books there is no end." and 

 in these latter days the cry is. " Still they come." 



Australia has been fortunate in early colonial days in possessing 

 the great pictorial folios of " The Birds of Australia," by John 

 Gould, with " Handbooks " thereto, and the Commonwealth, in 

 recent years, has been particularly blessed with bird books. A 

 conspicuous trio has just been published — one in course of pub- 

 lication — (i) " An Australian Bird Book," by Mr. J. A. Leach, 

 which was noticed in The Emu, p. 348 ; (2) " The Birds of Aus- 

 tralia " (the volume at present under review), by Messrs. A. H. S. 

 Lucas and Dudley Le Souef ; and (3) Mr. Gregory Mathews' 

 classical undertaking, " The Coloured Figures of the Birds of 

 Australia," of which three parts of vol. i. have been delivered to 

 subscribers. These three works in no way clash, but form a 

 distinct and natural sequence of inestimable value to a nation 

 of bird-lovers, such as Australians — the rising generation, at all 

 events — are becoming. 



Regarding " The Birds of Australia," the joint authors, Messrs. 

 Lucas and Le Souef, have put a coping-stone on their work and 



* Avic. Mag., ser. 2, vol. vii., p. 291. 



