Vol. X. 

 igio 



j, Sottth Australian Ornithological Association. 147 



£\o towards defraying the expenses. Financial support was also 

 forthcoming from Sir S. J. Way and Mr. Michael Hawker, in addition 

 to names previously mentioned. Dr. A. M. Morgan read a letter from 

 Dr. J. B. Cleland, of Sydney, with reference to parasites in and upon 

 birds, and requesting that specimens should be sent to him for examina- 

 tion and classification. Mr. M. Symonds Clark brought before the 

 members a copy of a letter received by the Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands from the secretary of the Victorian Gun Clubs Association, 

 asking that South Australia should come into line with the other States 

 in connection with the close season for Ducks and other game, which 

 does not end until the last day of January. It was resolved to support 

 the request. Captain S. A. White reported that the next congress of 

 the Australasian Ornithologists' Union would be held this year in 

 Brisbane, the delegates leaving this State on 29th September. Fol- 

 lowing the general business meetings, a working excursion was to be 

 conducted amongst some of the islands in the Great Barrier Reef in 

 the Government steamer Fitzroy. 



Save the Pelican. — The subject of the evening was the protection 

 of the Pelican, which has lately been placed on the unprotected list. 

 Captain White read a paper in support of the protection of this most 

 peculiar native bird, wliich, if not soon given a close season, may 

 become extinct. He pointed out a precedent in America, where they 

 erroneously thought that this bird was responsible for the decrease in 

 fish supplies, and when the birds were all but exterminated. Mr. 

 J. W. Mellor supported the protective policy, and gave evidence of the 

 large flocks of these birds seen on the Coorong and on Lakes Alex- 

 andrina and Albert in the seventies, and upon visiting these localities 

 about twenty years later they had been reduced to a few birds, and 

 were now getting more scarce in these localities. The hon. secretary 

 read a number of letters from experts in the other States who had sent 

 in notes upon the Pelicans, and the majority were in favour of pro- 

 tecting the bird, pointing out that, although it did eat fish, it was not 

 through this source that the scarcity arose. A weighty letter was 

 read from Mr. Frank Farnell, the chairman of the New South Wales 

 National Park Trust, who has made the breeding of fish a lifelong study, 

 and gone to great expense in hatching fish to supply the inland waters 

 with fresh inhabitants. He stated that the Pelican was totally pro- 

 tected in New South Wales for fear that the species would become 

 extinct, and in his opinion the destruction worked by the birds amongst 

 fish was infinitesimal compared with other sources of destruction. 



Notes and Notices. 



A New Australian Parrot. — Dr. Van Oort, in Notes Leyd. 

 Mils., xxxii., p. 71, has described a sub-species of Psephotiis chrysop- 

 terygius as P. blaanw from living birds in Mr. Blaauw's aviaries. 

 They were originally from Northern Australia. 



A Black Swan's Nest.— Mr. H. V. Edwards, Bega (N.S.W.), 

 found and photographed an autumnal Black Swan's nest in a salt 

 lake on loth May last. It was about 3 feet in diameter and about 

 18 inches above water, and contained seven eggs, fairly well in- 

 cubated. 



