^8 From Magazines, S-c. [is^"juiy 



From Magazines, &c. 



Western Australian Birds. — Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant is 

 well known by repute to students of ornithology, and his first 

 critical notes on Australian birds are welcomed. 



These notes appear in T/ie Ibis (October, 1909) under the title 

 " On a Collection of Birds from Western Australia, with Field 

 Notes by Mr. G. C. Shortridge." The collection is representative, 

 having been made in the South-Western, Central, and Western 

 divisions of the State, and was presented to the British Museum 

 by Mr. W. E. Balston. Mr. Ogilvie-Grant has " discovered " 

 several novelties in the " Balston collection," which he has named 

 respectively Certliionyx occidentalism Zosterops sliortridgei, Z. 

 balsto7ii, Cliviacteris welisi, Mahirns hernieri, and Sericornis 

 balstoni, a beautiful coloured plate being devoted to the two last- 

 mentioned species. 



Some of Mr. Ogilvie-Grant's novelties — notably Certhionyx 

 and the two Zosterops — have passed through Australian hands, 

 but not sufficient difference was detected to warrant separation 

 from the accepted species. However, it is anticipated that Mr. 

 Gregory M. Mathews will carefully weigh all possible evidence 

 before he admits climatic or other variations in form as distinct 

 species into his new standard work on " The Coloured Figures 

 of the Birds of Australia." 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant has suggested an amalgamation himself 

 regarding a common species, one of the " Magpies " or Crow- 

 Shrikes. Mr. Shortridge's field note (p. 670) states that " The 

 Long-billed Magpie {^Gyriniorliina longtrostris, Milligan) is not 

 uncommon on the Gascoyne River, where it takes the place of 

 the G. dorsalis, Campbell, of the South-Western and Central 

 divisions." Mr. Ogilvie-Grant proceeds to treat the latter species 

 as synonymous with G. leuconota, Gray, of Eastern Australia, 

 notwithstanding his critical description of the Western skins does 

 not apply to those of the Eastern form. Mr. Ogilvie-Grant also 

 does not think it possible to distinguish the Eastern from 

 the Western form of the Scarlet-breasted Robins — Petro^caleggei 



and P. campbelli. 



* * * 



The Birds of Lord Howe and Norfolk Lslands.— 

 In The Proceedings of the Linnean Society of Neiv South Wales, 

 vol. xxxiv., part 4, 27th October, 1909, Mr. A. F. Basset Hull, 

 Sydney, has published an interesting and valuable treatise under 

 the foregoing sub-heading. 



There have been many fragments published of the birds of 

 Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, but nothing so completely 

 written as the treatise under review, which has the advantage of 

 being interwoven with the author's own observations. Mr. 

 Basset Hull visited Lord Howe Island from the 3rd to the 17th 



