232 HALL, Description of a N ew Sub-species of Mirafra. [ 2 „d April 



Milligan received his type,* the ground is very rufous, and so 

 red and friable that Mr. Rogers has seen a cloud of it above the 

 river when he was fifty miles away from it. As the colour of 

 the ground is so is the colour of the Mirafra. Accordingly a 

 knowledge of the large areas of varying soils and the Mirafra 

 associating upon them should, in my opinion, give us a complete 

 and proper list of this genus, with all but the type ranking 

 sub-specifically. 



The light-coloured specimens, which I shall refer to as M. 

 hor s field i pall id us, are from Roebuck Bay Plains, N.-W. Aus- 

 tralia. Six are males, two females; collected between 25th and 

 30th October, 1902. Soft parts. — Bill — upper mandible deep 

 brown, lower pale yellowish, the tip being as upper mandible ; 

 legs and feet pale brown ; irides brown. 



[This is another case which the committee appointed at the last 

 annual meeting of the Union to inquire into the vernacular 

 naming of our birds, and the necessity of a revision of our 

 tentative Check-List, should investigate. " As the ground is so 

 is the colour of the Mirafra," says Mr. Hall ; also that " certain 

 desert birds distinctly guard themselves in the matter of 

 colouration by agreement with their surroundings." Without 

 for one moment throwing doubt on Mr. Hall's right to class the 

 bird he describes as a new sub-species — it would be presumptuous 

 on my part to do so — may one not ask whether in a case where 

 colouration depends upon environment, and where also this 

 abnormal colouration is largely (not altogether) relied upon as 

 a basis for a new type, the matter should remain in abeyance 

 until further evidence be available ? An instance cited by Mr. 

 A. W. Milligan in the present issue of The Emu {re Drymaa?dus 

 brunneopygius), wherein he admits that he " cannot detect any 

 differences between Eastern and Western forms," confirms one 

 in his doubt whether ornithologists have not been running to 

 extremes in giving new names to sub-species of birds. In 

 America they have been abolishing many sub-species which on 

 further inquiry would not justify their existence. We should 

 do so here. — H.K.] 



Little Penguins. — It might interest you to know that a pair 

 of Penguins nested this spring on the shore in front of my house. 

 The main coast road at this point runs within a few feet of the 

 beach, and the nest was in the embankment of the road. The 

 birds were there for upwards of two months, in spite of the fact 

 that the average traffic on the road amounts to at least 40 vehicles 

 per day, practically passing over their heads ; besides which on 

 more than one occasion they were pulled out of their hole to 

 be exhibited for the curiosity of visitors. — C. ROSS MACKENZIE. 

 Somerset (Tas.), 10/ 1/04. 



* A/, wooihoardi (Rufous Bush-Lark), Vict. Aat., vol. xviii., No. 2, p. 25. 



