Vol.XUI 

 "9'3 



] From Magazines, 6-c. ^3 



Passenger Pigeon should act as a warning to us in Australasia ; 

 many of our birds are threatened with a similar fate, notably 

 the fine New Zealand Pigeon and the Nutmeg Pigeon of 

 Queensland. 



Astonishing accounts of the multitudes (beyond computation) 

 of these wild Pigeons, and of scenes in bygone days, from the 

 original writings of Peter Kahn (1759) and John James Audubon 

 (1831) are reprinted in "The Smithsonian Report for 1911," 

 pp. 407-424, which may be found in the chief public libraries of 

 the metropoli of the Commonwealth, as well as in the library of 

 the R.A.O.U. 



" Austral Avian Record." — This little publication (a 24-page 

 journal, demy 8vo) has reached issue " No. 8," which completes 

 volume i. 



The journal is " devoted primarily to the study of Australian 

 avifauna," and Mr. Gregory M. Mathews, F.R.S. (Edin.), &c., is 

 the editor and chief contributor. Such a journal should interest 

 Australian students much. In looking through its pages one 

 finds chiefly "Notes, Additions, and Corrections " by the author 

 for reference, anticipating his greater work on " The Birds of 

 Australia." However, Nos. 6 and 7 (combined issue) are of 

 great historic interest to Australians on account of an article by 

 Mr. Gregory M. Mathews and Dr. Witmer Stone, of America, as 

 collaborators, entitled "A List of the Species of Australian Birds 

 described by John Gould, with the Location of the Type- 

 Specimens." 



The writers state that details of the sale of Gould's collection of 

 Australian birds to Dr. Wilson, of Philadelphia, are mentioned in 

 the late Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's " Analytical Index to the Works of 

 John Gould," Dr. Wilson being at the time president of the 

 Academy of National Sciences of Philadelphia, and his entire 

 ornithological collection, consisting of many thousands of specimens, 

 was presented to that institution. 



Negotiations for the purchase of the Gouldian collection was 

 entrusted to one of Dr. Wilson's brothers, then resident in 

 England, and were completed in 1847. The skins were sent to 

 Verreaux Brothers, Paris, to be mounted, and reached America in 

 1849. There were in all 1,858 specimens. Verreaux prepared a 

 manuscript catalogue of the collection, based on an original 

 catalogue of Gould's, which apparently was never sent to 

 America. The information contained in this catalogue is 

 transcribed on the bottoms of the stands, and consists of number, 

 name, sex, and locality of each specimen, with the addition : " Type, 

 Gould, ' Birds of Australia ' " — every bird being so marked 

 whether it was the type of the species or not. 



When Dr. Stone took charge of the ornitholgical collections in the 

 Academy, about 25 years ago, one of his first acts was to have 

 the type specimens unmounted, and placed in metal cabinets. 



