^°'iS"'j American View of the R.A.O.U ." Check-list." 99 



Tasmanian Swamp-Quail is altogether a larger and more handsome 

 species than Synoecus australis. Both species are found in 

 Tasmania, sometimes frequenting the same locality, but S. 

 diemenensis is not found in Austraha. 



"Typically the eggs of this species can be distinguished from 

 those of SyncBciis aiistralis, which in Tasmania may be found 

 breeding in the same district, by their larger size, the prevailing 

 yellowish-olive hue of their ground colour, and their more 

 distinct markings." 



Colonel W. V. Legge, C.M.B.O.U., &c., author of "The Birds of 

 Ceylon," and for many years a resident in Tasmania, can confirm 

 Mr, North's statement. It is therefore evident that S. diemenensis 

 is more than a "race." This demonstrates the mischief that can 

 be done by a " cabinet " man abroad intermeddling with the home 

 work of Australians, where local field knowledge is so indispensable. 



''The Birds of Australia/' 



As Mr. G. M. Mathews has apparently some invincible objection 

 to sending his work (save two odd parts of vol. ii.) to The Emu for 

 review — a journal probably more interested in Australian orni- 

 thology than any other — the following notice from The Field, 31st 

 May, 1913, may be taken as a fair and unbiased criticism on the 

 progress of Mr. Mathews' important work : — 



" Since our last notice of this finely illustrated work {Field, ist February), 

 three more parts have appeared. Part 5 of vol. ii. includes a continuation 

 of the Gulls and Skuas, and contains also the title page of the volume and 

 index. The first part of vol. iii. includes the Plovers, amongst which are 

 some very remarkable forms which are peculiar to Australia. Amongst 

 them is the Red-kneed Dottrel {Erythrogonys cinctus, Gould). The 

 account given of it by Mr. Mathews is very meagre compared with that 

 published by Gould forty-eight years ago in his ' Handbook to the Birds of 

 Australia.' Mr. Mathews describes it from Parry's Creek, North-West 

 Australia, and gives its distribution as 'West Australia, Northern Territory,' 

 mentioning no other localities in which it has been found, not even those 

 recorded by Gould. It has a much wider range than he supposes. We 

 happen to know this little bird very well, and have received specimens froin 

 Queensland, North-East Australia, and seen others which were sent from 

 the Gomm Station on the Murray River, South Australia. The name which 

 he gives it in his text, Erytlirogonys cincttts mixtus — which does not corre- 

 spond with the lettering of his plate, a fault frequently noticed in this work- 

 suggests that he considers the north-western example which he describes to 

 difter in some way from the type. But as he does not indicate in what respect 

 it differs, and the plate gives a good representation of the bird described 

 by Gould, we fail to see why any change of name is necessary. Similarly, 

 the so-called Eastern Turnstone is separated from the well-known species 

 which is commonly to be met with on our own coasts, and its geographical 

 distribution — stated to be ' Eastern Siberia to Alaska, wandering to Australia 

 in the non-breeding season' — is very much wider than this. The Turn- 

 stone, in fact, is well-nigh cosmopolitan, as may be seen by looking at the 

 list of localities given by Sharpe in his ' Catalogue ' of the Limicolce in the 

 British Museum (pp. 99-103), the only other species of Turnstone recognized 

 by him and other authorities being the Black-headed Turnstone {S. 



