THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



18^ /r" 



OOLOGY OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



We regret to see that in certain papers recently brought 

 before the Linnean Society of New South Wales, Dr. Ramsay 

 has entirely omitted to notice the work done by Mr. A. J. 

 Campbell in the matter of Australian oology. Mr. Campbell's 

 papers have all been read before the Field Naturalists' Club of 

 Victoria, and have subsequently been published in " Southern 

 Science Record," the " Victorian Naturalist," or " Oology of 

 Australian Birds." It is surely the business of anyone who is 

 working up the continental forms of any group to acquaint 

 himself, not merely with the records already made in his own 

 colony, but also with those made by workers in the sister 

 colonies. Either Dr. Ramsay has culpably neglected to do this, 

 or there is a gross unfairness in his disregard of observations 

 which must in some cases take precedence of his own. 



The eggs which Dr. Ramsay re-describes are those of the 

 following : — 



PycnopHlus floccosus, Gould, Proc. L.S. N.S.W., 29th Dec, 

 1886. The egg was previously described, and figured in Mr. 

 Campbell's "Oology of Australian Birds," 1883. The paper is 

 recorded in the Proceedings F.N.C. in " Southern Science 

 Record," June, 1882. 



Eurostopodus alhogularis, V. and H,, Proc. L.S. N.S.W,, 29th 

 December, 1886. The egg described and figured in "Oology 

 Australian Birds," 1883. 



Falcunculus frontatus, Lath, Proc. L.S. N.S.W., p. 1146, 

 29th December, 1886. Egg again described and figured by 

 Campbell, " Oology of Australian Birds," 1883. 



In Plate XIX. attached to the same paper figures are given of 

 the eggs of Chlmnydodei-a maculata and Piilonorhyncus vwlaceus, 

 which were also described and figured three years before in Mr, 

 Campbell's book. 



ICONOGRAPHY OF AUSTRALIAN SPECIES OF 

 ACACIA. 



Baron von Mueller is bringing out, for the Victorian 

 Government, decades of plates of the Australian acacias 

 hitherto unfigured. This work worthily continues the series of 

 illustrated descriptions of the eucalypts and Myoporinae, which 

 have been so well received by European botanists. 



The special objects of the work are to assist horticulturists 

 and others to identify the varieties cultivated for ornamental 

 and useful purposes, and indirectly to restore these quaint- 



