224 From Magazines, &c. \J^ 



April 



" A Descriptive List of the Birds Native to Victoria, 

 Australia." — This important publication has been issued as a 

 supplement to The Education Gazette and Teachers Aid, i6th 

 December, 1908, and is compiled by Mr. J. A. Leach, M.Sc, the 

 organizing inspector of Nature-study, Education Department, 

 Victoria. The " List " will surely be fruitful of much good, and 

 if it be all imbibed by the rising generation there will be little 

 need for Bird Protection Acts. The "List" is very plain and 

 concise. In parallel of columns — (i) there is the number of the 

 species found in Australia ; (2) number of the species in Victoria ; 

 (3) names — vernacular, local, and scientific ; (4) dimensions of 

 the birds in inches and parts thereof; (S.) occurrence south of 

 the Divide ; (N.) occurrence north of the Divide ; (5) kind of 

 country in which the species is usually seen ; (6) general descrip- 

 tion, &c., of the bird. Mr. Leach is to be congratulated on the 

 compilation of such an extremely well-thought-out and useful list. 

 The only item with which the reviewers are inclined to dis- 

 agree is the occurrence of too many local trivial names, such, for 

 instance, as " Tom Pudding " for the Hoary-headed Grebe, 

 " Painted Lady " for the Avocet, " Go-aways " for the Babbler, 

 &c. As the " List " is issued primarily for educational purposes, 

 why not insert the correct or accepted vernacular, and educate 

 the students up to it } 



Hybrid Wood-Swallow. — Mr. North remarked that in the 

 first edition of " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds " (p. 44, 

 1889) he had recorded that the late Mr. George Barnard, of 

 Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, had on one occasion 

 found the adult male of Artainus stiperciliosus paired with the 

 adult female of A. personatus. Mr. North then exhibited a 

 specimen of unusual interest, an hybrid adult male, Artainus 

 superciliosus x A. personatus, obtained by Mr. H. Greensill 

 Barnard, of Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, on the 9th September, 

 1908. Also, for comparison, adult males of y^. superciliosus and 

 A. personatus. Mr. Barnard came across a flock of A. 

 superciliosus nesting about five miles away from home, and 

 among them was the hybrid, which was mated with a female of 

 A. superciliosus engaged in building a nest. It resembles A, 

 superciliosus on the upper parts, has the forehead, lores, cheeks, 

 ear coverts, and throat black, passing into blackish-grey on the 

 fore-neck ; remainder of under surface ashy-grey with a slight 

 vinous wash ; under tail coverts pale ashy-grey ; over and 

 behind the eye a distinct white eyebrow, but not extending so 

 far on to the sides of the crown of the head as in .^. superciliosus. 

 Total length 7, wing 4.85 inches. — Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 

 xxxiii., p. 735. 



