I l8 Stray Feathers. L 



Emu 

 st Oct. 



in March. There are a few of the former here still, though the 

 latter have all gone. The Robins (Flame-breasted) were a month 

 later in coming ; it was the second week in April before I saw 

 one, and I saw the first Thrush the same day. There was a 

 speckled Ground-Thrush in the garden this winter, the only 

 one I ever remember to have seen here. One day in the middle 

 of March a great number of Spine-tailed Swifts (Chcetura C(i/i<l<i- 

 cuta) passed, flying very low and in a southerly direction. Since 

 the heavy rains in June I have noticed more Black Swans 

 than I have seen for years, but they are moving about a 

 great deal. In captivity we have several pairs of Cape Barren 

 Geese, which bred on the place. They usually begin to lay about 

 the end of May or early in June, though one began as early as 

 27th April one year. If they lay early in the season they will 

 sometimes lay a second time, but not as a rule. — G. L. Dennis. 



Eeyeuk, 4/7/03. 



* * * 



The North American Check-List. — On the 20th anniversary 

 of the appointment of " the Committee on the Classification and 

 Nomenclature of North American Birds," it was shown in a paper 

 by Dr. J. A. Allen that the additions made since its appointment 

 embraced 3 sub-families, 7 genera, 3 sub-genera, 54 species, and 

 181 sub-species, representing an increase as regards the con- 

 stituents of North American avifauna of 24.7 per cent. The 

 changes in nomenclature were 169. The list published in July, 

 1902, contained 1,186 forms, representing 822 species and 364 

 sub-species, and the opinion is expressed that " probably very 

 few, if any, bona fide species remain to be discovered within our 

 Check-List limits." It is urged, however, that research should 

 not be confined within these bounds. Dr. Allen concludes his 

 paper with a passage which may be worth the consideration of 

 the framers of an Australian Check-List, whenever that -work is 

 undertaken : — " Plainly, not every degree of differentiation that 

 can be recognized by the trained expert needs recognition by 

 name, and not every slightly differentiated form that can be 

 distinguished readily on comparison of large series of specimens 

 should be considered as entitled to a place in a list of North 

 American birds. The trinomial system, unfortunately, lends 

 itself readily to abuse, and can easily be made to bring the whole 

 system of naming sub-species into disrepute. Whether or not 

 the differentiation is so readily distinguishable as to warrant its 

 recognition in nomenclature is a question that may very fittingly 

 be left to a committee of experts, whose combined opinion is 

 more likely to be right than that of a single authority, however 



cautious and experienced." 



* * * 



Launceston Notes. — The winter we have just turned our back 

 on has been on the whole fairly mild, notwithstanding that it 

 has been the wettest experienced for some ten years. About the 

 20th July, while on an excursion some 12 miles down the Tamar, 



