20 M'Gkkgou, The Use of Scicitlific Bird Nantes. r,sr'"iul ' 



cation. Necessarily, these have had to be passed by, since 

 vernacular names are unavailable for citation. 



" It may be urged that vernacular names are citable as well 

 as scientific names. While this is in one sense true, neverthe- 

 less it is impracticable, unless the compiler is willing to double 

 his labour and add unnecessarily to the bulk of his book. In 

 other words, since scientific names must, for various paramount 

 reasons, be cited, the addition of vernacular names would but 

 increase the labour of the compiler and still further complicate 

 the topography of the synonymy. 



" Personally, 1 am in favour of the use of vernacular names ; 

 but by all means let us have the scientific names also " {Condor, 

 ii., p. 41). 



Stray Feathers. 



Incubation .vfter Removal from the Nest. — During the 

 breeding season of 1903 a nest of the Hoary-headed Grebe 

 {Podicipcs poliocephalus) was found by some friends of mine 

 about 20 miles from Casterton. It contained one egg, and was 

 taken to be sent on to me. The specimen was not blown, and 

 after it had laid in the house for a couple of days a chick within 

 was heard chipping. The egg was kept warm until hatched, 

 and the young replaced in the nest. Soon afterwards the chick 

 was seen, accompanied by its proud mother, swimming about the 

 swamp. Miss Carmichael, who informed me of this, said it was 

 hot weather at the time, but that no special attention was paid 

 to the egg in order to facilitate its incubation. — (Dr.) E. A. 

 D'Ombrain. Casterton (V.), 18/4/04. 

 -* * * 



Yellow-RUMPED Finch {Mimia flavipvymnd). — A pair of 



these bright little birds are in the Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 



and are just at present busily constructing a bulky dome-shaped 



nest of grass. The male is of a richer hue than the female ; 



his breast is pale chestnut, back and wings rich dark chestnut, 



especially on the shoulders ; his rump is reddish-yellow, and the 



tail feathers dark chestnut, with the outer edge of a much lighter 



hue, the two central feathers have a dark centre and light on 



each side ; all the tail feathers are pointed ; top of head and 



neck greyish-fawn, the centre of each feather slightly darkened, 



and only indistinctly discernible ; just over and below the eye 



a much lighter shade, almost white ; vent white ; bill and legs 



blue. They are altogether very neat and trim little birds in 



appearance, and seem fairly hardy. This pair came from 



North-Western Australia, inland from Cossack. — D. Le Souef. 



1 1/3/04. 



* * * 



Swifts and Swallows. — This autumn has been remarkable 

 for the number of times the Spine-tailed Swift {Chcetura cauda- 



