Vol. IX. 

 igio 



I • Correspondence. ^77 



that we are on the track of a very pecuHar connection of the 

 Tasmanians with the outside world. All those students who 

 have carefully gone into the subject of the origin of the 

 Tasmanian race agree that they came from the north — that is to 

 say, from Australia, which they inhabited previous to the 

 advent of the present Australian aborigines. We may also 

 take it as certain that the Tasmanians were not an autoch- 

 thonous race, but migrated to Australia from somewhere else. 

 Where from is a problem for the present, but it may be quite 

 probable that the name, Teng-wynne, of that peculiar wingless 

 bird lingered in the language of other tribes that followed the 

 Tasmanian race in their old homes. If it could be conclusively 

 proved that the word Pingum was used for the Great Auk 

 before 1595 — -that is to say, before the Dutch came in contact 

 with the Penguins of Agua or Sam Bras — and that the name of 

 this peculiar wingless bird is an indigenous one of the northern 

 hemisphere, the result would be of the greatest importance. 



In conclusion, I wish to point out another very peculiar fact. 

 According to Milligan, the southern tribes called the large Owl 

 {Strix castanops) Kokatah or Rrukah, while of those birds which 

 we now call Cockatoo the white was named Weeanoo-bryna or 

 Oiynoo-bryna by the southern and 'Nghara or Oorah by the 

 eastern tribes ; the black was called Menuggana by the eastern 

 and 'Nghayrumma or Nearipah by the southern tribes. It 

 would therefore appear that the word Cockatoo is of Tasmanian 

 origin, and that, by one of those peculiar changes that frequently 

 take place when a foreign word is adopted by another language, 

 it denotes now a bird quite different from the one it originally 

 meant. — I am, &c., 



FRITZ NOETLING, M.A., Ph.D. 



Hobart, 26/11/09. 



A STANDARD COLOUR-CHART. 



To the Editors of " The Emu." 



Dear Sirs, — It affords me great pleasure to be able to announce 

 that the urgent " need for a universal and uniform method of 

 describing the colour of birds' plumage and soft parts and their 

 eggs," to which Mr. Mattingley calls attention in the July 

 number of The Emu, is soon to be supplied. Such a work, 

 upon which the writer has been intermittently engaged for the 

 past 20 years, is completed, and the plates are now being 

 reproduced by a method which guarantees absolute uniformity 

 throughout an edition of any number of copies. 



The work in question (" Standards and Nomenclature of 

 Colours ") will embody all the special features described by Mr, 

 Mattingley, besides others. My own experience of more than 

 40 years as an ornithologist has been seriously handicapped by 



