388 Mr. C. Ingram on the Birds of 
to the British Museum ™*, while the fine series of birds was 
handed over to me to work out. 
In reviewing the collection in its entirety I was immediately 
struck by the exceptionally pale and grey coloration of many 
of the forms; in several instances this was so manifest that 
I have deemed it necessary to separate five of them as 
distinct geographical races (see Bull. B. O. C. xvi. p. 115). 
The bleached appearance of their plumage is doubtless due to 
the arid-desert-character of the environment, for similar 
effects are well known to be produced in many vertebrates 
inhabiting the desert-regions of the world. 
As might be expected from the similar nature of the two 
parts of the continent, examples from Alexandra most nearly 
resemble those from North-western Australia, and it is, to 
my mind, apparent that the avifaunas of these two districts 
are very intimately connected. 
In answer to my request for a description of the neigh- 
bourhood, Mr. Stalker writes to me as follows :— Leaving 
the Queensland border and travelling towards Alexandra, 
the principal river-beds crossed (see map, Plate IX.) are the 
James, Lorne Creek, Rankine, Buchanan, and Playford. 
In flood-time the first three empty themselves into the 
Georgina, but are, for the greater part of the year, merely 
a series of water-holes often many miles apart. The 
timber is principally Corlibar and Gedgea. Between the 
James and the Lorne Creek there is a sandy desert some 
sixteen to twenty miles in width covered with various Gums, 
Mulga timber, grass, and Spinifex. The Buchanan and 
Playford unite about twenty miles from Alexandra and, 
by means of a series of swamps, reach Lake Silvester. 
It is only in particular years, however, that the water 
extends so far: in 1905 and 1906 it did not reach the 
junction, Running parallel to the Buchanan, and distant 
about a mile and a half, is a ridge of desert sandstone (?) 
about a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet above the plain. 
The slopes and flats are, for an average width of three-quarters 
of a mile, covered with reddish sand, where several varieties 
* See Mr, Oldfield Thomas’s report on them, P. Z. 8. 1906, p. 536. 
