1^6 Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. Tisflan 



the Navy — though not strictly scientific — but the great bulk of 

 detailed ornithological research has been performed and published 

 privately, Gould's great pictorial volumes eclipsing all. Ever 

 since Gouldian days, excepting the works of Ramsay and A. J. 

 North, of the Australian Museum, all publications on Australian 

 ornithology have been done privately — Diggles, Campbell, 

 Broinowski, Robert Hall, Leach, Littler, Lucas and Le Souef, 

 and now we have Gregory Mathews in the throes of a stupendous 

 work — a coloured figure for every Australian bird — undoubtedly 

 a national undertaking, which should not have been left to private 

 enterprise. Were it not for such patriots as Gould, Mathews, and 

 others, to think of what would become of Australian Natural 

 History is to contemplate the possibility of an everlasting disgrace 

 overtaking our nation for its neglectfulness. The same applies 

 to field collectors. How little has been done by State museums 

 compared with private individuals or collectors privately sub- 

 sidized ! 



Now, however, the Commonwealth Government is setting an 

 excellent example since it has acquired the great Northern 

 Territory. One important expedition at present in the field has 

 attached to it a collecting ornithologist (by the way, a member 

 of the R.A.O.U.) It is hoped that State museums will send out 

 zoological collectors to little-known corners of the Common- 

 wealth for material before it becomes scarce, or altogether dis- 

 appears (better even than sending an expensive expedition to 

 Antarctica, costing thousands of pounds), and not leave the 

 national collections to be acquired piecemeal from private 

 persons ; and, as to material which has already been acquired or 

 donated, let Governments be hberal enough to subsidize their 

 museums, so that specimens may be properly displayed, and not 

 procured to be stowed away in vaults, labelled in obsolete nomen- 

 clature. 



Not alone have private persons outstripped Governments at 

 collecting, but collectors from foreign institutions, attracted by 

 the wealth and novelty of the Australian region, have touched 

 our shores at various places, and have carried off rare ornitho- 

 logical booty — to wit, the Swedish expedition to the North- West, 

 under the capable leadership of Dr. Eric Mjoberg, which has just 

 departed with over 800 specimens in ornithology alone, besides 

 numerous birds' nests and eggs. No blame to such eminent 

 visitors or institutions : all nations are equal in the race 

 for science. Yet the Commonwealth Government should 

 control these collections, if even for scientific reasons, such 

 as regarding types. Unless we possess types it is difficult, or 

 sometimes impossible, to determine whether a specimen is new 

 or belongs to a species already described. Last year Professor 

 Alfred J. Ewart, of the Melbourne University, in an article on 

 " Scientific Explorations," in the public press mentioned this 

 point regarding botany. It equally applies to ornithology, and 

 zoology in general. 



