I46 Australasian Ornithologists Union. I 7th'7ati 



will be more fully explored as time goes on. It is certain that 

 the change from adolescent to mature plumage is in many 

 genera differently brought about to that from non-breeding 

 to nuptial dress. 



Many years ago I pointed out in the "Birds of Ceylon " that 

 the Golden Plover of Asia and Polynesia got its black breast 

 by a change of colour in the feathers as well as by a moult 

 (page 935, " Birds of Ceylon.") This is, doubtless, the case 

 with other Limicoline birds having a marked change of dress 

 and which migrate long distances to palaearctic nesting-quarters, 

 and may be a provision of nature to hasten on the change before 

 migration, during which the constitution is weakened. 



Many Laridce — Sterna in particular — appear to acquire this 

 nuptial dress by a change of feather. On the other hand, young 

 Raptorial birds, certain species of which the writer used to keep 

 in Ceylon for observation purposes, moult in acquiring the 

 gradual changes to maturity. 



In Part 4, vol. ii., Mr. A. J. Campbell again adds a new bird — 

 an Acanthiza — to our lists, its habitat being Tasmanian territory — 

 King Island. This Tit, A. magnirostris, under the test of the 

 examination of a large series of skins may perhaps rank as a 

 sub-species only. Some Acanthizce , like the Western Australian 

 representatives of Eastern forms, evidently run very close to 

 each other, merely as local varieties or sub-species, the various 

 forms of which require examining among a very large series of 

 specimens before one can pronounce confidently on their dis- 

 tinctness. Mr. Campbell deals exhaustively in the last part 

 of vol. ii. with the close seasons in the respective States of the 

 Commonwealth in connection with the protection of native 

 birds, a good cause which he has so much at heart. These must 

 naturally vary to suit the different climates of the States, but 

 no doubt an improvement in bringing them more into line can 

 be made. In this State the close seasons have been changed, 

 one might say, backwards and forwards, on the motion of members 

 of Parliament who know next to nothing of the economy of birds, 

 and act upon the information of sportsmen who have not carried 

 out careful investigations and who take the occurrence of a 

 particularly and abnormally early brood, or a second, or may be 

 a third brood, as depicting the normal time of breeding. Hence 

 we get unsound legislation, which does more harm than good. 



Mr. T. Carter has again been well to the fore as regards that 

 interesting " district," Western Australia. Reference has been 

 made before to the valuable work done by him in connection 

 with the Limicola?, the coast of the far North- West being the 

 point of arrival of these migrants from the North. He has now 

 taken in hand a list of the birds in the vicinity of North-West 

 Cape, the result of 1 3 years of the closest observation, which is 

 his strong point. In the present volume, Part 1, 40 species are 

 dealt with, commencing with Raptores, very interesting notes 

 on which are given. The wild, almost uninhabited, areas of the 



