126 



fever, which, to the deep regret of all who knew him, terminated 

 fatally a few days after his arrival at Port Darwin. These 

 calamities are now overshadowed by the sad fate of the lost 

 explorers of the Calvert Expedition, who peri.^hed from thirst in 

 the desert. The indomitable perseverance, however, of the leader, 

 Mr. L. Wells, in his heroic attempts to rescue his late com- 

 panions, forms a bright page in the recently-added chapter to the 

 history of Australian exploration. 



Dr. E. P. Ramsay, in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales,* has enumerated the species contained in 

 Mr. Cairn's and the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower's collections. 

 The former, which consisted only of the recovered portion of the 

 collection, contained examples of 66 species, and numbered among 

 them were specimens of Malurus coronatus and Emblema picta, 

 recorded, probably, for the first time since the types were described 

 by Mr. Gould. 



Although the extent of the late Mr. Bowyer-Bower's collection 

 had been materially reduced by a disastrous tire, it was the 

 largest ever obtained in North- West Australia, numbering 152 

 species. It was formed within a radius of 25 miles of Derby, 

 and included in it a number of migratory and littoral species not 

 represented in the present collection. 



The abandonment near Johanna Springs of the first collection 

 made by the Calvert Expedition is a most serious loss, especially 

 to my indefatigable friend, Mr. Keartland, who joined the party 

 purely for the love of the ornithological results it would yield. 

 It is, however, a matter for congratulation that he was able to 

 save his field notes. 



The collection brought back by Mr. Keartland was formed 

 between December 22, 1896, and May 1 of the following year, 

 and numbers, exclusive of the nests and eggs, 167 specimens, 

 referable to 59 species. 



I had the pleasure of examining Mr. Cairn's and the late Mr. 

 Bowyer-Bower's collections, and note that man}'- beautiful forms 

 ■contained therein are absent from the present collection. One 

 misses the lovely little Malurtts coronatus, Ej-hthianura crocea, 

 and Poephila mirabilis, and also the duller-plumaged, but rarer, 

 Astur cruentus. 



On the other hand, several remarkable species, not included in 

 either of the above collections, are now recorded for the first time 

 from North-West Australia, notably the chastely- coloured 

 Spathopterus alexandrce, obtained near Johanna Springs, and 

 Ptilotis keartlandi, procured near Derby. The latter species was 

 one of the novelties discovered by Mr. Keartland during the 



* Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., vol. I., Second Series, p. 1,085 

 <1886) ; id., op. ciL, vol. II., Second Series, p. 165 (1887). 



