""^'J-] Big Bags of Game. 35 



protected. A license must be taken out to shoot game ; the 

 number of each bag is limited, and a return of the number and 

 sex of each species killed must be furnished. Theoretically, 

 even Africa is in advance of Australia. It would be most in- 

 teresting to know how many birds in the Victorian " big bags " 

 so gloried in were " females or immature males." Is not such 

 heartlessness a menace to any species ? In America, as pre- 

 viously pointed out in The Emu, not only the shooter of illicit 

 game (over-large bags included), but what the law terms a 

 " common carrier," and the railway authorities who convey such 

 freight by train, are liable to penalties: From India, as well as 

 South Africa, the export of certain forms of game, as well as 

 their products (plumes, &c.), is forbidden, save by special license, 

 and ruthless shooting is thus discouraged. 



Corrections, 



TURNIX TAXKI. — Air. D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., points out that in 

 a reference to an article of his on this bird the range of the species 

 was given not as he intended it to be read (see Enni, vol. iii., 

 p. 195). The editors regret that Australia was inadvertenth' 

 given for the species instead of for the genera. 



The Varied Lorikeet. — Mr. Reginald Phillipps, in a letter 

 to the editors of The Emu, desires them to correct a statement 

 on p. 195 (vol. iii.) His male bird of this species, he says, "had 

 not the red crown when first received, because it was immature, 

 not because it was a male. . . . It was the owner of the 

 birds who was trying to pass them off as true pairs, the mature 

 specimens as niales, the immature as females." It is regrettable 

 that this misreading occurred, and the editors apologize. 



Notes and Notices. 



The fourth annual session of the Aust. O.U. will be held in 

 Sydney on the 28th, 29th, and 30th November next. From 

 preliminary arrangements already afoot the function promises 

 to be the most successful yet held. 



The following appeared in the Melbourne Age under " Sporting 

 Notes " : — " Mount Gambier. — The annual Parrot match was well 

 competed for, and was won by Dr. F. D. Jermyn from H. E. F. 

 Sturm with 15 birds, first miss out conditions. H. Hammer 

 won two sweepstakes afterwards." Why do not the many 

 bird protection societies of South Australia protest against this 

 cruel destruction of indigenous birds? If the Gambier Gun 

 Club must have such sport (?) there is plenty of vermin, and to 

 spare — to wit. Starlings — to shoot. 



