I 50 Australasian Ornithologists' Union. Nth Jan 



and north-western districts is an important desideratum. This 

 point has been incidentally referred to above. 



Mr. A. G. Campbell, the ornithological scion of our worthy 

 co-editor, has contributed an important addition to the orni- 

 thology of Tasmania and its dependencies by his paper detailing 

 his diligent work in King Island. This appears in the last part 

 of vol. ii. Some 86 species are noticed as having been observed 

 in the island and its littoral, and a new breeding-place for Thalas- 

 sogeron cautus (White-capped Albatross) announced, which is the 

 most interesting fact concerning our pelagic birds that has been 

 made known for many years. 



Notes and description of the sub-species Malurus clizabethce , 

 Campbell, are given, and, as the writer had the good fortune to 

 get a number of specimens, he had full opportunity of verifying 

 the validity of this new bird. We learn likewise that the recently 

 discovered Acanthiza inhabits the low scrub away from water- 

 courses. It will no doubt be found in the forests on further 

 exploration, as we have in Tasmania one species, Acanthiza 

 ewingi, (.?)* which is a denizen of the scrub. It is noted, also, that 

 the Green Parrakeet of the island is very large, which is probably 

 due to the effect of isolation and climatic conditions, which, as 

 above observed, are likely to affect structurally, either one way 

 or the other, species which are deprived of all commingling with 

 their fellows, thereby developing a fixed local type. As the Gang- 

 Gang Cockatoo (C alio cep halo n galeatum) is an inhabitant of 

 this island, it accounts for its occurrence occasionally on the 

 north-west coast of Tasmania, the only locality, as far as I am 

 aware, in which it has been noticed. The most interesting species 

 from a distribution point of view in King Island is Cisticola 

 exilis. This Grass- Warbler, like Cisticola cisticola, has a very 

 wide range, extending over Australia, through the Austro- and 

 Indo-Malayan sub-region, to Formosa, and westwards to the 

 Malay Peninsula and Eastern Bengal. The puzzling summer and 

 winter plumages of the little members of this genus have led 

 to a splitting up of the present form into several species, which 

 Dr. Sharpe, in the British Museum Catalogue, has united under 

 C. exilis. It is much to be hoped that, some day, it will, under 

 the pressure of northerly winds, extend its range to Tasmania 

 from King Island, which has the distinction, if one may so style 

 it, of being the southern geographical limit of this interesting 

 little Warbler. 



We now pass again to the far North, but this time towards 

 the east, to notice Mr. Berney's valuable paper on migratory 

 birds in the Flinders River district, which is admirably situated 



* Australian naturalists have, perhaps, been led to the conclusion that, as this 

 species is expunged from the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., it is synonymous with A. 

 diemenensis. Only three species were examined by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, which no 

 doubt were all of the latter and much commoner form, from the open country 

 districts. The forest bird had not at that time, in all probability, reached the British 

 Museum. 



