"gii"^'] Ornithological Field Research: 3^1 



Ornithological Field Research. 



The Western Australian scientific expedition, under Mr. C. P. 

 Conigrave, F.R.G.S. (late of the Perth Museum, and a member of 

 the R.A.O.U.), is to spend six months exploring new country in the 

 Kimberley district, accompanied by Mr. Lachlan Burns, as naturalist. 

 Mr. Conigrave leaves Perth 27th March for Wyndham, where he 

 will add two white men and some native boys to the party, which 

 proceeds south from Wyndham, crosses the head of Cambridge Gulf, 

 goes west to Pentecost River, and then circles north into unexplored 

 tracts. The Government of Western Australia supplies scientific 

 instruments and part of the equipment. The expedition's journal 

 and botanical and geological collections will be handed to the 

 Survey Department. It is expected that zoological cohections will 

 reimburse expenses, and that Mr. Conigrave's field observations 

 on birds will be published in The Emu. Mr. Gregory M. Mathews 

 is to secure the bird-skins to aid him in his new work, " The Birds 

 of Australia." Members of the R.A.O.U. will therefore await the 

 result of Mr. Conigrave's adventurous expedition with unusual 

 interest. They will also commend the wisdom of the State Premier 

 (the Hon. Frank Wilson) for endorsing the recommendations of his 

 responsible officers in granting Mr. Conigrave monetary assistance, 

 thus placing the expedition on a sure footing. The expedition 

 will consist of six whites, incluaing an experienced police trooper 

 and Mr. Roy Collison, of Adelaide, who joins at the last moment, 

 which should be strong enough to cope with any " brush " from 

 hostile aborigines. 



Notes and Notices. 



Reed-Warblers in Tasmania. — Mr. Robert Legge writes to 

 state that this summer Reed- Warblers {Acrocephalns australis) 

 were visitors to the reed-beds on the river at Cullenswood — the 

 first time in that locality, so far as he is aware. 



Coloured Figure Fund. — Acknowledgment was uninten- 

 tionally omitted to be given to Mr. Gregory M. Mathews for his 

 goodness in defraying half the cost of the fine coloured plate (B) 

 in The Emu, vol. viii., p. 113. Mr. Mathews has also defrayed 

 half the cost of the coloured plate (C) in this present volume. 

 With the discovery recently of so many new Australian birds, 

 will other enthusiasts emulate Mr. Mathews' good example ? 



Egg Collecting. — At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' 

 Club held 19th October, 1910, the following resolution was carried 

 almost unanimously : — " That this meeting strongly disapproves 

 of the collecting and exhibiting of large series of clutches of eggs 

 of British-breeding birds, or of British-taken eggs of our rare 

 breeding species, except for the purpose of demonstrating some new 

 scientific fact." 



