160 the victorian naturalist. [vol. xxiv. 



"Across the Baw Baw Mountains and Past the Yarra 

 Falls." — Such is the title of the first tourist's handbook issued 

 by the Lands Department of Victoria. It gives briefly, without 

 much detail, a general idea of what is to be seen when following 

 the newly opened up track between Warburton and Walhalla. It 

 contains several interesting illustrations, notably one of the 

 magnificent forest country between Mt. Erica and Walhalla, 

 while of a totally different type is a glimpse of the beech forest 

 at the heads of the Yarra and Thomson Rivers. Its chief value, 

 however, consists in ihe map issued with it, which gives such full 

 details that no tourist need be afraid to venture into that forty 

 miles of uninhabited country, provided he has the map in his 

 pocket. Besides a general map of the track, smaller inset maps 

 on a larger scale are given of the vicinity of the Yarra Falls and 

 about filteen miles of the Baw Baw plateau. The guide is issued 

 at the nominal price of sixpence. 



" Handlist of the Birds of Australasia." — The Aus- 

 tralasian Ornithologists' Union has just issued as a supplement 

 to the Emu for January, 1908, a "Handlist of the Birds of 

 Australasia " complied by Mr. Gregory M. Mathews, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., M.B.O.U., &c.,who, though an Australian by birih, is now 

 a resident of the mother country. The list is based on the 

 " Handlist of Birds," by Dr. Bbwdler Sharpe, issued by the 

 British Museum. The author states that it is his intention to 

 publish a set of hand-coloured plates of the birds of Australasia, 

 and he puts forward the list '• to invoke the criticism and co-0|iera- 

 tion of ornithologists, in order to enhance the value of my larger 

 undertaking." Full references are made to the writings of Gould, 

 Ramsay, North, Campbell, and .Hall, but, being based on the 

 British Museum list, the sequence, and in fact names of the 

 orders, vary very much from those to which we have been 

 accustomed — for instance, the new list starts with the Emus, and 

 concludes with the Crows, while the intermediate orders are 

 grouped in quite new relationships. In view of the radical 

 alterations introduced, it is to be legretted that the list is not 

 indexed in any way. If an index of the genera was too large an 

 undertaking, surely a systematic index of the orders and sub- 

 orders might have been given, and so give at a glance a key to 

 the arrangement, thus saving the reader wishing to consult it 

 much needless search. Altogether 883 species are listed, a few 

 of which are now extinct, and a broad definition of the locality 

 where they occur is given. Seeing that the list extends to rather 

 more than a hundred closely printed pages, the Union is to be 

 congratulated on its enterprise, and we trust the sale of copies at 

 two shillings and sixpence each will, to some extent, recoup the 

 outlay. 



