NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 79 
Of the nidification of Australian birds we still know, com- 
paratively speaking, very little; for, although Gould described 
the eggs of a large number of species (about 262 according to 
Mr. Campbell out of the 670 mentioned in his ‘Birds of 
Australia,’) and Mr. E. P. Ramsay has since described between 
twenty and thirty more, this is but a very small proportion of 
the number of Australian birds whose breeding habits prior to 
the publication of Mr. Campbell’s work were unknown to 
naturalists in this country. 
In the work now before us, to quote the author’s own 
words (Introduction pp. iii-iv), “ Descriptions and dimensions are 
given of about 413, or nearly all the known, Australian eggs, 
262 being taken from Mr. Gould’s celebrated work on the Birds 
of Australia. The balance 151 were unknown to him or his 
collectors; of these 122 are described from authenticated 
specimens in my own collection, twenty-four from Mr. E. P. 
Ramsay’s papers, and five from other authors.” 
The book is illustrated with full-page photographs of eggs 
(ten to sixteen on a page), all presumably of the natural size, and 
useful therefore as showing their relative proportions and the 
character of their respective markings. 
It would be well, we think, if Mr. Campbell had confined 
his descriptions to the eggs of such birds as actually breed in 
Australia, omitting those which are only found there as accidental 
visitors. For instance, why describe the eggs of such well-known 
species as the Grey Plover, Ringed Dotterel, Common Sand- 
piper, and Greenshank, which are only stragglers to the Antipodes 
in winter, and whose eggs have already been described by other 
writers? We should like to know from what specimens (one or 
more) Mr. Campbell wrote down his description of the egg of the 
Curlew Sandpiper, T'’ringa subarquata, which species he notes as 
having occured in Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea. The 
egg marked as ‘previously undescribed,” is thus depicted :— 
* Somewhat pyriform in shape; ground colour of a dull yellowish 
olive, or buff stone, fairiy marked all over with round well-defined 
spots of umber of different shades, varying from very light to 
very dark. Length, 1 inch 23 lines; breadth, 11 lines.” 
The photograph of this egg (No. 523) gives the idea of its being 
somewhat too small for the bird, bearing in mind the size of that 
laid by its relative the Dunlin, Tringa alpina. No description of 
