2TA Publications Received. \ ',m\"oci 



Didier. This pamphlet is a supplement to No. 82, and contains 



much information about this bird. 



Bidletin of the National Acclirnatization Society of France, 1914, 



1915- 

 The Ibis (tenth series), vol. iv.. Xos. 2. 3. 



No. 2 contains a valuable article by our member, Launcelot 

 Harrison, on bird parasites and bird phylogeny. Also, among 

 other articles, notes " On Some New Guinea Bird Names," by 

 G. M. Mathews, and a reply thereto by W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. In 

 No. 3 C. P. Conigrave gives an account of the bird-life on 

 Houtman's Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia. 



The Zoologist (fourth series), vol. xx., Nos. 231-234. 



Many interesting notes on European birds are in these numbers. 

 British Birds, vol. x.. Nos. i, 2. 



An especially interesting and well-illustrated article on "The 

 Habits of the Sparrow-Hawk" is in both these numbers. 

 The Journal of the South African Ornithologists' Union, vol. xi., 

 No. I. ■ 



A most interesting article by C. and M. Swynnerton, entitled 

 " Birds in Relation to Their Prey," appears in this number. 



Correspondence. 



To the Editor of " The Emu.' 



Sir,- — For some years I have been corresponding with a station- 

 owner on the Lachlan River. Upon this station I knew there was 

 a lake which in a good season was a wonderful place for water- 

 fowl, many kinds breeding there in hundreds. In one of my 

 letters I asked for any information of the breeding of the Blue- 

 billed Duck (Erismaiura australis), bixt received no notes upon 

 it till March last, when the owner wrote informing me that, owing 

 to a flood in the Lachlan last year, the lake became full, and that 

 all sorts of water-birds bred there in hundreds. He found twenty 

 nests of the Blue -billed Duck, some of which were placed in lignum 

 bushes, and were composed of sticks and grass ; others were placed 

 in long grass upon islands. The nests contained from eight to 

 fifteen eggs — mostly twelve. I thought he must have made some 

 mistake in the identification of the bird, in spite of his having 

 stated that he watched one nest for three hours until the owner 

 returned and sat on the eggs. When the eggs reached me there 

 was no further room for any doubt about their being authentic. 

 This is another case in which that wonderful early-days orni- 

 thologist, John Gould, made a statement which many years after 

 proved to be correct. 



THOS. P. AUSTIN. 

 Cobbora (N.S.W.), 8th July, 1916. 



