^"'i^il" 1 Correspondence. ^59 



paper, I might state that it is possible to have sub-species of 

 migratory birds, and in my " Birds of AustraUa " I will give 

 details of an extraordinary case with regard to Micropus pacificus, 

 for the benefit of Australian workers. Under Merops, in that 

 work, I will also fully discuss the above particular item, and I 

 would refer those interested to that place. In justice to myself, 

 I would remark that some of the items Messrs. Campbell and 

 Barnard refer to have been already dealt with in my larger under- 

 taking, and these authors have not considered my latest and most 

 particular studies. 



As above stated, I have no wish to belittle the valuable paper 

 presented by Messrs. Campbell and Barnard, but I would have been 

 more pleased had they confined themselves to the field work, in 

 which they were past masters, rather than dabble in a study so 

 foreign to their efforts and so unknown in its usages. I have 

 continually bemoaned the lack of full field observations, and now 

 complain of an apparently lost opportunity, while they have 

 added little to the nomenclatural side, though fully confirming 

 the majority of the sub-specific distinctions bestowed upon the 

 birds of the district they collect in. Many more " collecting and 

 observing excursions to the region " are still necessary, and the 

 " last judge " will not appear for centuries, so that we need not 

 think yet of the " best judge." It only is necessary for each of 

 us to add his iota to the best of his ability to our congenial study. 

 — Yours, &c., 



GREGORY M. MATHEWS. 



Foulis Court, Fair Oak, Hants, England. 



The H. L. White Collection. 



Mr. H. L. White, as a boy, when at Goulburn, New South Wales, 

 possessed a small egg collection of side-blown specimens. Some 

 seventeen years ago he set about forming a scientific collection 

 of eggs and nesting information pertaining to every known Aus- 

 tralian bird. Some of the results and successes of the enterprise 

 are mentioned in The Emit, vol. xiii., pp. 65-74 (with three 

 coloured plates), under the title " A Commonwealth Collection." 

 It was easy enough, with the assistance of enthusiastic friends, 

 to procure the commoner kinds, but to obtain the rarer sorts, 

 and to discover the eggs of birds specimens of which were still 

 desiderata, Mr. White spared neither pains nor expense ; con- 

 sequently, he had such reliable collectors in the field and forest 

 as Messrs. S. W. Jackson (New South Wales), H. G. Barnard 

 (Queensland), L. G. Chandler (Victoria), F. L. Whitlock (Western 

 Australia), G. F. Hill (North-West Australia), W. M'Lennan 

 (Northern Territory), and others. 



When the egg-collecting was proceeding apace, and nearly all 

 species were represented, Mr. White determined to utilize his col- 

 lectors at the birds themselves. Since the inception of the R.A.O.U. 



