^^{i^'] Reviews. 157 



(5) A new inquiry as the starlinj; becomes reduced in numbers, in 

 order to graug'e accurately its food habits under new conditions. 



Failing: some such action as indicated above, the agriculturist and 

 fruit grower will be left faced with a growing enemy which is devas- 

 tating their crops, and inimical to their interests, and the country 

 with a portentous factor which is adding to the scarcity of home-grown 

 food. In short, the starling has become a plague in the land and a 

 source of great national loss. 



Reviews 



["Results of Dr. E. Mjoberg's Swedish Expeditions to Australia, 

 1910-1913," xviii. Studies of the Birds in North-West Australia, by 

 Rudolf Soderberg, with 5 plates and 25 text figures. Stockholm, 1918.] 



After many delays, due, at least partly, to the Great War, 

 the interesting and valuable report of the detailed painstaking 

 investigations of Dr. Rudolf Soderberg in the fascinating North- 

 West has reached us. 



In a brief preface. Dr. Soderberg acknowledges assistance 

 rendered by the Perth Museum, and gives the welcome informa- 

 tion that the birds collected by the expedition are now in that 

 museum. Unfortunately, this wise procedure was not followed 

 by other authors of works on Australian birds, and compara- 

 tively few Australian types are now available to Australian 

 ornithologists. Reference to the work of Messrs. A. T. Camj)- 

 bell, Tom Carter, Bowyer-Boyer, Rogers, E. T. Hill," R. Hall 

 and J. S. Timmey is also made, and a bibliography of works 

 containing reference to the avifauna of the North-West is 

 given. 



A good map of Western Australia shows the faunal regions, 

 and the localities where the expedition worked in the far N.W., 

 near Broome and Derb\-. 



The geographical conditions, including climate, the Savanna 

 landscape and the rains and their effects on animal life are in- 

 telligently discussed. The presence of many tree-climbing 

 lizards is shown to be responsible for the placing of nests well 

 out on the periphery of the trees, where, although apparently 

 conspicuous to enemies "from without," they are really well 

 protected from the greater enemies "from within" the tree. 

 The camouflage of the beautifully-constructed nests of the Tree 

 Runner, the Scarlet-breasted and Yellow-breasted Robins, is well 

 shown in photographs. The remarkable mimicry by a young 

 Stone Plover of a lizard is illustrated. 



The birds of each order are treated in the arrangement of 

 Sharpe's Hand-list of Birds, as shown in Mathews' Hand-list 

 Sujjplement of The Emu, 1908. It is explained that as the 

 species were identified in 1912 according to that list, before the 

 issue of Mathews' later lists, the nomenclature of the 1908 

 Hand-list has, for the most part, been adopted. Notes on the 



