92 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



NEW BOOK. 

 A Key to the Birds of Australia and Tasmania. By 



Robert Hall. Melbourne : Melville, Mullen and Slade. 

 This work, a preliminary notice of which appeared in the last 

 Naturalist, has now been issued from the press, and seems to 

 fulfil the expectation formed by a perusal of the proof-sheets. 

 In addition to the points previously mentioned, the author 

 introduces his work with a short preface of nearly four images, 

 which is almost entirely devoted to an explanation of the faunal 

 sub-regions adopted, and a comparison of the genera and species 

 occurring in these sub-regions. This portion, however, is some- 

 what statistical, which perhaps was unavoidable. A useful 

 tabular synopsis of the orders is followed by the main portion of 

 the work, extending to 109 pages. In this Mr. Hall enumerates 

 767 species, as compared with 761 in the recent Vernacular List 

 of the Australasian Association and 770 in Ramsay's Tabular 

 List. The arrangement differs slightly from that of the former 

 list, but doubtless the author has good reasons for the scheme 

 adopted. An index to the genera is followed by a vernacular 

 index, a most useful addition, and a glossary of technical terms 

 used, which, with the frontispiece, a diagramatic representation 

 of a quail, with tiie principal external features indicated, should 

 enable any intelligent reader to recognize the distinguishing 

 characters so tersely given, and render the work valuable alike to 

 the ordinary naturalist as to the systematic ornithologist. On 

 the whole Mr. Hall is to be congratulated on his book, which, 

 being issued at the moderate price of five shillings, is within 

 the reach of all. The printing of the work leaves nothing to 

 be desired, and is abundant proof that scientific letter-press 

 can be executed in Victoria. 



The Late Professor Sir F. M'Coy, F.R.S., &c.— An 

 appreciative memoir of the late professor appears in the Geological 

 Magazine for June, 1899. After giving the general details of 

 his life, an oudine of which has already been published in these 

 pages, a list is given of his smaller contributions to natural 

 science. These number sixty-nine, extending from 1838 to 

 1876, with a final communication in i88r. They cover a vast 

 range of subjects, and the greater number were published in the 

 Annals of Natural History Magazine. 



A New Saw-Fly. — Mr. W. W. Froggatt, Government Ento- 

 mologist of New South Wales, has recently described before the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales, as a new genus, a Saw-fly, 

 Phylacteophaga eucalypti, found by Mr. C. French, jun., which is 

 causing considerable damage to young trees of Eucalyptus 

 globulus around Melbourne. 



