132 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



Professor Allman. — The death is announced, at the age of 

 eighty-six, of Professor George J. Allman, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 well known for his works — " A Monograph of the Freshwater 

 Polyzoa" and "A Monograph of the Gymnoblastic Hydroids." 

 He was a native of Cork, Ireland, and commenced to study for 

 the bar, but the love of natural science caused him to abandon 

 law for medicine, and he graduated in arts and medicine in the 

 University of Dublin in 1844. In the same year he was appointed 

 Regius Professor of Botany in the University, and gave up all 

 idea of practising medicine as a profession. Ten years later he 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1855 became 

 Professor of Natural History and Keeper of the Natural History 

 Museum in the University of Edinburgh, which post he held 

 until 1870. He was President of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science in 1879, and of the Linnean Society of 

 London in 1882. The large collection of Hydroida made during 

 the exploring vovage of the Challenger were assigned to him for 

 determination and description. He was the recipient of numerous 

 medals and academic honours. His later days were spent at 

 Parkstone, Dorset, in the South of England, where his garden 

 contained a large collection of rare plants, and for a neighbour he 

 had Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, the well-known naturalist. 



Blood-stained Cockatoo. — There are two species of Blood- 

 stained Cockatoos, the naked patch of skin round the eye 

 being bluish in one variety (Cacatua sanguinea ) and lohitish in 

 the other (C. gymnopis). The eggs from Cooper's Creek I 

 described before this Club in 1893 as the Blood-stained 

 Cockatoo pertained to the latter bird, and were inadvertently 

 named G. sangvinea instead of C. gymnoms, or, as it now 

 appears on the vernacular list, the Bare-eyed Cockatoo. The 

 eggs of the proper Blood-stained Cockatoo may be thus 

 described : — Roundish oval in form, more or less pointed at one 

 end ; texture of shell irregular, being comparatively fine in some 

 specimens, in others coarse ; surface glossy ; colour, white. 

 Dimensions in inches of two examples from the Ciulf of Car- 

 pentaria country: — (i) 1.6 x 1.14; (2) 1.45 x 1.09 (Dr. N. 

 Macgillivray's collection). — A. J. Campbell. 



The Australian Roller-bird. — When in my garden, at 

 Ascot Vale, on i8th November, my attention was attracted by 

 some sparrows chasing a strange bird, which, flying towards me, 

 alighted in a pine tree some twenty yards away, when I at once 

 saw it was a specimen of the Australian Roller or Dollar-bird, 

 Eurystomus Australis. Mr. A. J. Campbell informs me that the 

 bird has only been recorded three times previously in Victoria, 

 and never so near Melbourne. Mr. C. French, jun., states that 

 the bird has been seen at Warrandyte. — H. J. Coles. 



