125 



List of Birds Collected by the Calvert 

 Exploring Expedition in Western 

 Australia. 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist to the AustraUan 

 Museum, Sydney. With Field Notes by G. A. Keartland, 

 Naturalist to the Expedition. 



[Read October 4, 1898.] 



I have received from the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 

 for examination, an interesting collection of North- West Aus- 

 tralian bird skins, prepared by Mr. G. A. Keartland. The collec- 

 tion was formed chielly during the time Mr. Keartland had 

 charge of the camp at the junction of the Fitzroy River and 

 Margaret River, about forty-five miles from Derby, and while 

 the leader, Mr. L. Wells, was absent in search of the missing 

 members of his staff — Mr. C. F. Wells and Mr. G. Jones. Owing 

 to the intense heat, and scarcity of water and feed for the camels, 

 over 300 bird skins obtained prior to the main party leaving 

 Separation Well, together with guns, tools, and clothing, had to 

 be abandoned in the desert. 



Unfortunately for science, the attempts of late years to wrest 

 Nature's secrets from the arid inland regions of North- West 

 Australia have been more or less attended with disaster. In 

 1886 Mr. E. J. Cairn, who was collecting natural history speci- 

 mens on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum about 

 100 miles inland from Derby, narrowly escaped losing his life. 

 In the broad daylight his party was suddenly attacked by the 

 natives, who were concealed behind some rocks, and the head of 

 a spear passed through the fleshy part of one of Mr. Cairn's arms. 

 Although suffering no further injury from the natives, misfortune 

 still pursued him, for after weary months of toil, portion of his 

 collection, consisting of many bird-skins, nests, and eggs, was lost 

 in transit to the Museum, and was never recovered. 



Early in the same year the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower left 

 Sydney for Derby with a taxidermist, who had accompanied him 

 from London. This gentleman and his assistant succeeded in 

 forming a splendid collection, although part of it was destroyed 

 during their absence one day from the camp through the grass 

 catching fire, and burning one of their tents and everything in it. 

 After spending nearly twelve months in the district, shortly 

 before Mr. Bowyer-Bower left Derby, he contracted a malignant 



