"""hg^r'] Reviews. I79 



Mr. Belcher confesses " that the argument that we should study 

 and protect our native birds because of their economic utility " 

 leaves him rather cold. He admits that most species of native 

 birds, in obtaining their food, do greatly help the farmer, 

 orchardist^ and gardener, but finds " the most compelHng claim 

 of Australian birds upon our affections to lie not so much in 

 their money value as in the direct influence of beauty which they 

 will exert upon anyone who cares to open his eyes and ears to 

 the life that is all about him by green forest, open plain, or sounding 

 shore." One has to read only a few pages of the book to discover 

 that its author is a true naturalist, an observer, who delights in 

 all living birds, even the Cormorant, which " reveals a shining 

 lustre on his ebon wings which not art of modern silk-weaver 

 could hope to imitate." He is fortunate in his district, which 

 presents great diversity — plains, rivers, reedy swamps, lakes, 

 mud-fiats, and forest areas. He records no fewer than 244 species, 

 and has no doubt that further investigation would add from 

 20 to 50 more to the list. The Geelong, it is justly claimed, 

 is a thoroughly representative Victorian district. The author has 

 adopted, " as far as was applicable," the scientific nomenclature 

 of Mr. Gregoiy Mathews's " List of the Birds of Australia," pub- 

 lished in 1913 in connection with his monumental work, " The 

 Birds of Australia." 



While packed with accurate observations, the pages of Mr. 

 Belcher's book are brightened by many excellent bits of descrip- 

 tive writing. For example : — " I remember one June morning 

 at Inverleigh — a fine winter's morning, but white mists filled the 

 valley of the river, so that only here and there could you see the 

 tops of the red gums — and from these red gums there poured from 

 a hundred unseen throats of early-mating Magpies a chorale of 

 the joy of life unquestioned, which will never be equalled for me 

 by any carol of Thrush, or Nightingale's song of the northern 

 June in a Surrey copse." 



The fifty illustrations from photographs are mostly of a high 

 standard, and the volume is well produced. 



About Members, 



The editors have received the following communication from 

 Mr. A. J. Campbell: — -"After an absence of over three months, 

 I have returned from Northern Queensland. The trip was 

 pleasant and profitable — a continuous feast for a bird-lover. I 

 touched at Dunk Island, historical for some of Gould's types, 

 collected by Macgillivray, and now the well-known home of our 

 member and energetic writer, Mr. E. J. Banfield. I also visited 

 the Cardwell district, the " happy hunting grounds " of E. P. 

 Ramsay and the late Kendall Broadbent, not to mention my own 

 exploits there in 1885 with Messrs. Coles Bros, and A. Gulliver. 

 I brought back little material ; my work was chiefly observing 



