28 From Magazines, &c. \ .^"i", 



* ' L i^t July 



weather. "Red Rosellas, Mealy Rosellas, Crimson Wings and 

 Barnard's I have found equally hardy ; all took their bath 

 summer and winter alike with no sign of either distress or dis- 

 comfort." Blue Mountain Lories have proved quite hardy with 

 Mr. Sergeant, who gives them "the ordinary seed diet with two 

 or three times a week a tablespoonful of honey and some sponge 

 cake." This number also contains the announcement of the 

 resignation by Mr. Phillipps of his position as business secretary 

 of the Avicultural Society. Mr. T. H. Newman succeeds him. 



* * -;!:• 



The Zoologist, No. 754 (April, 1904) contains an article which 

 under the heading " Biological Suggestions " opens up some 

 tields of thought which are worth further study — even amongst 

 ourselves. The article is but the first of a series, and has for 

 sub-heading "Rivers as Factors in Animal Distribution." Al- 

 ready some of our own observers (such as Mr. Lane, of Alexandra) 

 have noted the effect of riparian influence on some phases of 

 bird life, and the writer only emphasizes how much there is to 

 be learned, not only as to course of migration, but also as to 

 difterentiation of species, when he says : — " As far as his know- 

 ledge extends, in a general way rivers do not qualify the dis- 

 tribution of genera and species, but in a much more limited 

 sense they do.''' Another noteworthy paper is that in which 

 Mr. G. H. Paddock controverts the theory of Professor Coues 

 ("Field and General Ornithology"), who holds that "the egg 

 traverses the passage small end foremost, like a round wedge, 

 with obvious reference to ease of parturition." Mr. Paddock's 

 experiments prove that the egg was delivered " invariably ' blunt ' 

 end first." Reargues that this is only natural ; "mammalian 

 births, when normal, are head ones, and the large end of the 

 egg contains the head of the chick." Mutton-Bird-eggers on 

 the islands of Bass Strait who occasionally deliver a female 

 Mutton-Bird (Petrel) of her egg will uphold Mr. Paddock's con- 

 tention. 



* * » 



The Ibis (January, 1904) contains the " Ornithological Journal 

 of a Voyage round the World in the Valhalla (November, 1902, 

 to August, 190^)." By invitation from the Earl of Crawford, 

 F.R.S., Mr. M. J. Nicoll, M.B.O.U., the author, accompanied 

 him as naturalist, during a cruise through the Straits of 

 Magellan to the South Pacific, thence through Torres Strait 

 and the Austro-Malayan Archipelago, returning to England 

 by the Red Sea route. Besides oceanic birds noticed in the 

 southern seas, the most interesting parts of the journal to 

 Australians are probably the accounts of how the yacht 

 touched at Pitcairn Island (a coloured figure of a remarkable 

 little bird — Tatarc vanghani — known to the islanders as a 

 " Sparrow " is given), Tahiti, Upolu, and Fiji. Australia was 

 touched in Torres Strait at Thursday Island and Prince of 



