76 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



RECENT PUBLICATIONS. 



Nests and Eggs of Birds found Breeding in Australia 

 AND Tasmania. — In the fourth part of this work, recently issued 

 by the Trustees of the Australian Museum, Sydney, the author, 

 Mr. A. J. North, C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist to the Museum, 

 describes the nests and eggs of some eighty species of our smaller 

 birds belonging to the Muscicapidae, Turdidre, Sylviidae, and 

 Timeliidge. At the same time seventy-six species of eggs are 

 figured. These, however, do not correspond with the birds and 

 nests mentioned, as, on account of their reproduction by photo- 

 graphic processes, it is necessary for the eggs for each plate to 

 be of a somewhat similar colouration. It may be mentioned 

 that this part shows many changes in classification and in 

 nomenclature, the latter both in the scientific and vernacular 

 names, from that adopted in the A. A. A. List {1898) — thus the 

 Maluri are called " Warblers " instead of " Wrens," the Acanthizje 

 are " Thorn-bills " instead of " Tits," and the EphthianurK are 

 " Nuns '' instead of " Chats," while the Pomatorhinus (Babbler) 

 is now Pomatostomus (Chatterer). It seems a pity that some 

 finality in naming cannot be arrived at even with our common 

 birds. Four large plates of nests are given, which are excellent 

 reproductions from photographs. 



Report of Trustees of Public Library, Museums, and 

 National Gallery for 1903. — In the portions of this report 

 dealing with the National Musieum, the hon. director. Prof W. 

 Baldwin Spencer, F.R.S., refers to the want of proper accommo- 

 dation, both for the collections and the officers. However, since 

 the date of the report, work has been resumed on the new wing, 

 and it is hoped that portion of it will be available in a few 

 months. The curator of the zoological collections, Mr. Jas. A. 

 Kershaw, gives a detailed report of the work done during the 

 year, mentioning the more important additions, such as the case 

 of nearly two hundred specimens of humming-birds, though most 

 of these had been many years in possession of the Museum. 

 Among the list of donors of specimens it is pleasing to note the 

 names of many members of the Field Naturalists' Club. 



Journal of the West Australian Natural History 

 Society. — The first number (May, 1904) of this new jjublication 

 contains no report of the society's proceedings, the entire fifty- 

 five pages being taken up by four papers on botanical subjects. 

 Two of these, by Mr. W. V. Fitzgerald and Mr. C. R. P. Andrews, 

 are devoted to recording additions to the Western Australian 

 flora. These writers between them add no less than twenty-four 

 new species of acacias to the already large number recorded for 

 that State. 



