44 " The Austral Avian Record." [isf^iui 



five parts (the last issued eight months ago) published of his 

 "Australian Birds" has been sent to the Union for review. Does 

 he object to have his work judged from an Australian standpoint ? 

 There are no persons more interested in the birds of their own 

 continent than Australians themselves. 



The reviewers of this Record regret having occasion to use such 

 direct criticism, but in the common interests of Australian 

 ornithology they feel impelled to do so, and in doing so have the 

 entire approval of their Council. 



However, Mr. Mathews has recorded for the first time for the 

 Commonweath a bird of much interest to Australians — namely, the 

 Broad-billed Sandpiper {Limicola sibirica. Dresser). There is in 

 the Tring Museum a female collected by Mr. J. P. Rogers at 

 Broome, North-West Australia. According to Seebohm* this 

 Sandpiper is very local during the breeding season (breeding on 

 the Scandinavian mountains and other northern localities), but its 

 range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In the Austro- 

 Malayan region its farthest south has been Java. 



The Crows of Australia. 



The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, No. clxxvi., 

 contains the following critical statement by Mr. W. R. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, of the bird department, British Museum, which is of 

 especial interest to Australians : — 



" In a paper just published in the Novitates ZoologiccB, xviii., 

 pp. 442-3 (1912), Mr. G. M. Mathews has given a Reference List 

 to the Birds of Australia, in which he divides the Raven, Crow, 

 and Jackdaw into no less than ten different forms, seven of these 

 being named for the first time : thus adding to the confusion 

 which already existed. He, unfortunately, failed to recognize the 

 true specific differences between the Raven and the Crow, and 

 misapplied the name C. bennetti to smaller specimens of the latter. 

 I am glad to say that he now entirely agrees with me on all the 

 main points at issue concerning the Australian CorvidcB, and their 

 synonymy, as given below. 



"I. The Raven. Corvus coronoides, Vig. & Horsf. 



" ? Corvus australis, Gmel. S. N. i. p. 365 (1788) [ex Lath. Gen. 

 Syn. I. pt. i. p. 369 (1781)]. 



"Corvus coronoides, Vig. & Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 261 

 (1827) [Parramatta, New South Wales] ; Gould, Birds Aust. iv. pi. 

 xviii. (1848) [Tasmania] ; Ramsay, Ibis, 1865, p. 303 [part.] ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. M., iii. p. 20 (1877) [part.] 



" Corvus australis, Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. i. p. 475 (1865) 

 [part.] ; Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, 1909, p. 652 [Albany, S.W. Australia]. 



" Corone australis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. M. iii. p. 37 (1877); 



* "Geographical Distribution of the Charadriidae," p. 433. 



