Oct., 1909.] THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. t I 



to the whole-hearted manner which characterized Mr. Poulton in 

 his efforts to make our trip a success. Although exceptionally 

 busy at the time shearing, and shifting stock on account of the 

 scarcity of water, yet he and his son gave us the services of men, 

 buggy, and horses, and also housed and fed us all the time of 

 our stay. While, not content with supplying our wants during the 

 day, they gave us phonograph concerts in the evening, for Camba- 

 Canya and Pine Plains are connected by private telephone, and, 

 though 30 miles apart, we were able to hear the records quite 

 distinctly. 



I am indebted to Mr. St. Eloy D'Alton, of Dimboola, and Dr. 

 Sutton for many items of botanical information, and to Mr. 

 A. H. Kenyon for the loan of lantern slides of the vegetation, &c., 

 of the district. 



[The paper was illustrated with a fine series of lantern slides.— 

 Ed. Vict. Nat.] 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The Animals of Australia : Mammals, Reptiles, and 

 Amphibians. By A. H. S. Lucas, M.A., B.Sc, and 

 W. H. Dudley Le Souef, C.M.Z.S., M.B.O.U. Mel- 

 bourne : Whitcombe and Tombs Limited. 327 + xi. pp., 

 with 173 plates and figures. 15s. 



This book is designed as a companion volume to " The 

 Animals of New Zealand," by the same publishers, and is written 

 in such a manner as to provide matter of interest for the general 

 reader, as well as information of a more scientific character. 

 Owing to the extent of the subject the birds will be dealt with in 

 a separate volume. The publishers are to be congratulated on 

 having secured such excellent authorities as Messrs. Lucas and 

 Le Souiif as the co-authors of the work. Advantage has been 

 taken of various publications, &c., so as to bring the information 

 up to date, and a fine series of illustrations is included, which 

 will render the identification of species by, the non-scientist much 

 easier. The descriptive part of the work is divided into three 

 parts — the Mammals, the Reptiles, and the Amphibia, with the 

 Dipnoi (or Lung Fish), the respective numbers of species being 

 214, 509, and 62 — lizards, numbering 390, being the largest group. 

 Attention is called to the terrible depletion in numbers caused by 

 the hunting of marsupials for their skins, no less than 1,526,000 

 skins having been sold in the Sydney markets in 1908. Indexes 

 of common names, scientific names, and a systematic table of the 

 orders, families, genera, and species complete a volume which, we 

 trust, will be found of great value as the first attempt to place a 

 portion of our natural history in a systematic manner before the 

 naturalists of the world and the students of our own continent. 



