Vol. XIX. "I Econnmic Section. 2"^ I 



1921) I ^' 



for tlioin !) sinoki', lu-at. and liamc icadi tliosf wliosf rrsort may 

 l)c even tlu" tive-tops themselves. True, tlu' Inisli-fires account 

 for the reduction of ' vermin and rubbish ' (aUusion is not made 

 heri' to burning olf faUen serul)), and they create the opi)ortunity 

 for nuich succuk-nt heiba.i^c to slioot up ; but there is reason to 

 conchide that man\- of the liner grasses succumb to the repeated 

 action of the hre-stiek, whilst the bush-fires aid in destroying 

 mucli of tlie surface' humus so difficult in a semi-tropical country 

 to restore -on which the growth of pasturage generally of the 

 better kind is dependent. This general conclusion, however, may 

 be gainsaid : but the destruction of birds in this way is a fact that 

 any close observation will substantiate." 



Correspondence. 



To the Editors of " The Iiniii." 

 Sirs,— Referring to Mr. A. J. Campbell's paragraph in The 

 Emu for April, 1919, p. 256, respecting Chalcococcyx basalts 

 (Narrow-billed Bronze-Cuckoo), he says: — "For Dirk Hartog 

 Carter records plagosus " (referring to my paper in The Ibis, Octo- 

 ber, ic^y, on " The Birds of Dirk Hartog Island and Peron Penin- 

 sula.") Mr. Campbell is quite correct, but / made a mistake in 

 saying " plagosus " instead of " basalts," which I failed to notice 

 in correcting the proofs of my Ibis paper. With the exception 

 of a few of the Wrens that I sent to England in IQ16 by registered 

 letter post, the collections made on my 1916 trip were left in the 

 care of the Perth (W.A.) Museum on account of the marine war 

 risks then prevailing, and I received them here only last week, 

 and upon checking them over found (as T had suspected some 

 time ago) that the two skins of Chalcococcyx obtained by me on 

 Dirk Hartog are both labelled as Chalcococcyx basalis on their 

 original labels. I have already written to the editor of The Ibis 

 to have the correction made in the next issue of that journal, and 

 shall be much obliged if you will have this letter printed in the 

 next number of The Emu. — Thanking you in anticipation, 

 yours, &c., TOM CARTER. 



" Wensleydale," Mulgrave-road, Sutton, Surrey (Eng.), 17/11/19. 



COLLECTING AND COLLECTORS. 



To the Editors of " The Emu." 

 Sirs, — It seems desirable that attention should be called, 

 through the journal of the R.A.O.U., to a matter directly affecting 

 the birds of Australia in general and those of Queensland in 

 particular. 



Some three years ago I had a letter from an American collector 

 of eggs, soliciting assistance in adding to his cabinets. The 

 figures he gave to bear out his " bona fides " were startling, 

 indicating as they did that among the many thousands of eggs 



