36 From Magazines, &^c. [J'f:^,^ 



Mr. Hall relates observations in a popular manner on the 

 " feathered friends " that came under his notice during an 

 ornithological trip undertaken at the end of 1899 in the great 

 western territory, including a brief stay on the historical shoals, 

 Houtman's Abrolhos. When he penned his interesting observa- 

 tions, descriptions of the birds and their habits, he was evidently 

 in his best vein. Mr. Hall, writing apparently only from second- 

 hand information, mentions a small island at the entrance of 

 Denmark River, about 40 miles from King George's Sound, 

 where the Wedge-tailed Petrels {^Puffimis ddororhyncJius) had 

 prepared their burrows for laying in November. Possibly the 

 species of Petrel is the Fleshy-footed (P. carneipes), which is 

 known to breed on Breaksea Island, at the entrance of the 

 Sound. The Wedge-tailed Petrel has hitherto never been 

 found breeding further south on the western coast than Rottnest 

 Island, off Fremantle. 



Although the field naturalist always walks abroad on the 

 tip-toe of expectation, the unexpected frequently turns up. 

 Who would have thought of finding on the coral shoals of the 

 Abrolhos a Green -backed White-eye nesting in the pigface 

 weed .'' A solitary Red-capped Robin was also noticed out there. 

 No wonder it " looked disconsolate." 



The more critical and technical notes of Mr. Hall's work on 

 this Western trip are appearing in The Ibis, and will be duly 



noticed when concluded. 



* * * 



. Agricultural Gazette of Netv South Wales. — Part 4 of vol. 

 xiii. (April, 1902) contains a coloured plate of Chalcococcyx 

 plagosus (Lath.), the Bronze Cuckoo, as an accompaniment 

 to Mr. A. J. North's fifth paper on " The Insectivorous 

 Birds of New South Wales." Notes on this bird are given, as 

 also on the Black-eared and " Rufous-tailed " Cuckoos. The 

 Channel-bill and Koel are also alluded to. These papers are 

 published as contributions from the Australian Museum, and 

 this is possibly the reason why, as a sort of appendix, Mr. North 

 gives a lengthy description (illustrated) of the ^<g^ of the Fawn- 

 breasted Bower-bird {Chlauiydodera cerviniventris), which had 

 been previously described by him in 1886. He also describes 

 something far newer — two eggs of the Varied Lorikeet {Ptilosclera 

 versicolor), received by Mr. G. A. Keartland from the junction of 

 the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers (collected 6/5/01). " The nest- 

 ing-place was in the spout of a gum-tree, about 30 feet from the 

 ground, and the eggs, which were quite fresh, were deposited on 

 the dry, decayed wood, about 18 inches from the entrance. 

 The eggs are swollen ellipse in form, pure white, the shell 

 being close-grained, dull, and lustreless. Length : — (a) .91 x .y6 

 inch ; {b) .93 X .73 inch." Up till quite recently these eggs 

 were classed as " undescribed." 



