I 3 6 Reviews. [JH 



of fighting ; family responsibilities rested heavily upon him. Poor fellow, 

 he was really to be pitied, he had to work so hard to satisfy the insatiable 

 appetites of the family. Thousands and thousands of ' bread-winners ' went 

 fishing each day in the lanes of open water ; when filled with Crustacea they 

 return and disgorge into the open mouth of the youngster. This method 

 of feeding the young was interesting. The baby places its head into the 

 open mouth of the parent and devours the food forced up into the throat. 

 By 1 8th January nearly all the young birds had discarded their downy coat, 

 and been seduced to the water's edge and taught how to swim by their ever- 

 attentive parents. Strange to say, all the young birds, unlike the older, 

 had white throats ; evidently they do not acquire the dark throat until 

 the first or second vear." 



" NESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS FOUND BREEDING IN AUSTRALIA AND 



TASMANIA." 



THE section of the Special Catalogue of the Australian Museum 

 (Sydney) devoted to avi-fauna has reached Part III., which 

 includes some of the family Muscicapidm. Criticisms already 

 published on Parts I. and II. (Emu, vol. i., p. 28, and vol. ii., 

 p. 118) apply generally to the part at present under notice. In 

 this instance the half-tone blocks are particularly good, whilst 

 a decided and pleasing novelty is introduced in the shape of 

 excellent pictures, from life, of fledglings — those of the Brown 

 Flycatcher (Micrceca fascinans) and White-shafted Fantail 

 (Rhipidura albiscapa), the youngsters having been removed 

 from the nest in the bush to the shades of the Australian Museum, 

 where they were photographed, being afterwards returned to 

 their solicitous parents. " Nine days after " (says Mr. North) 

 " I saw one of them (White-shafted Fantail) being fed ; it had 

 grown almost as large as the parent." 



Sins of omission have again to be pointed out. They seem the 

 characteristic of the work so far as issued, but it is with great 

 reluctance that the reviewers refer to them. For instance, it 

 would have greatly increased the value of the work had the author 

 given the history, in addition to his descriptions, of the interesting 

 and remarkable nests of the Fly-catchers — Kaup's (Arses kaupi), 

 White-lored (A. lorealis), and Boat-billed (M achczrorhynchus flavi- 

 venter), which he states are in the National Museum, Melbourne. 

 Surely the author knows that the two last were figured in The 

 Ibis (1897, p. 398, and 1898, p. 53, respectively), and were the 

 type nests. The nest and eggs of the Broad-billed Fly-catcher 

 (Myiagra latirostris) are not mentioned at all, although authen- 

 ticated examples were found at Cape York, 20th December, 

 1896, and by so reliable a field collector as Mr. Harry Barnard. 

 Vide Ibis (1898, p. 53). Again, a good description is 

 furnished of the White-bellied Robin (Eopsaltria georgiana), 

 but there is no mention of its nest and eggs ; hence an impression 

 is conveyed that they were still undiscovered. Authenticated 

 examples of these are recorded and figured in the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Society of Victoria, vol. iii., p. 3 (1890), while one 



