^°905^ J Legge, Birds Observed at the Great Lake. \ og 



frightening or shooting will induce it to do more than flap along the 

 water, when it does not resort to immersing itself to escape pursuit. The 

 problem gains added interest from the freezing of the Great Lake, par- 

 ticularly as the smaller lakes in its vicinity to the north and north-west 

 are frozen over harder than it. The Musk-Duck is to be found on all 

 the brackish lagoons and inlets and also fresh waters at the back of dunes 

 along the East Coast, being, of course, less numerous now than formerly 

 in water near which settlement has occurred. 



.? Genus ? species. — An undetermined species, belonging, perhaps, to the 

 sub-family Erisniaturince, is not uncommon on the shallower parts of 

 the Great Lake — East Bay and North Lake — where food conditions are 

 very favourable for diving birds. Its extreme shyness and extraordinary 

 quickness in diving have probably prevented any specimens from being 

 as yet procured. Unfortunately our boat nearly always came upon this 

 bird when we were engaged in sounding operations, and it was consequently 

 very difficult to get even the quickest glance at it with the binoculars. 

 On one occasion an example came to the surface not far from the boat, 

 and gave the opportunity for a hasty view through the " glass " before 

 firing, with the usual fruitless result attending a shot at an expert 

 " diver." The bird is somewhat larger than a Black Coot {Fulica), and 

 seemed to have a pointed bill, high at the base. The plumage is uniform 

 dark brown or blackish, but the most interesting feature about the species 

 is its short, stiff, and fan-shaped tail, carried erect and inclined forward 

 over the back. This characteristic has given the bird the name of 

 " Cocktail " among the few possessors of boats on the lake, who are the only 

 folk who have probably ever seen it. It is not unreasonable to assume 

 that it is possible for a new species to exist on this remote lake, round whose 

 shores the only permanent inhabitants are the shepherds on the cattle 

 and sheep runs. The northern divisions, too, were, as already mentioned, 

 until the past six or eight years almost unknown, no boats being in 

 existence there ; and diving birds, therefore, frequenting the open water, 

 would entirely escape discovery. 



Some Comparisons of Victorian and Tasmanian 



Birds. 



By \. G. Campbell, Melbourne. 



{Read before the Anst. O.U., Sydney Congress, ^oth November, 1904.) 



Tasmanl\ possesses an avifauna of no small interest, inasmuch 

 as it shows a distinct relation to that of the mainland of south- 

 eastern x-^ustralia, although a strait of at least 100 miles in 

 breadth nou^ exists to prevent any connection or interchange 

 between the two. At the same time are illustrated one or two 

 general principles which obtain when animals or land birds 

 are isolated from their parent stock on a smaller and more 

 restricted area, or when they are forced, by reason of geological 

 change, to a habitation to the southward or in higher latitude 

 than that of their original domain. 



It is admitted that Tasmania was once joined to Australia ; 

 and at no very distant period, geologically, after the existing 



