THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 93 



P. occidentalis and the present species. I agree with Gould, 

 however, that " such terms are objectionable when employed 

 generically," and prefer, for the slight differences in external 

 characters, not to separate these birds from Platycercus. Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater, in a " List of the Vertebrated Animals in the Gardens of 

 the Zoological Society of London," 9th edition, p. 363 (1896), 

 also retains the abovementioned species in the genus Platycercus. 

 Relative to P. barnardi, both Dr. Ramsay, in his " Tabular 

 List of Australian Birds," and Count Salvadori, in vol. xx. of the 

 " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," omit Queensland 

 from the geographical distribution of this species. I met with 

 P. barnardi nesting in the Coolibah trees near the Queensland 

 border in November, 1897, and saw young birds that were taken 

 from the nesting-place in the hole of a tree in Queensland. Mr. 

 Kendal Broadbent has also recorded it as common at Charleville, 

 on the Warrego River, 520 miles west of Brisbane, and obtained 

 a pair as far north as Barcaldine, in Central Queensland. 



ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CARTER'S DESERT-BIRD, 



EREMIORNIS CARTERI, North. 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., 



Ornithologist, Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Since the publication of my description of this species in the 

 last issue, page 79, I have received through Mr. Keartland the 

 skin of a male obtained by Mr. Carter on the 2nd July, 1899, at 

 North-west Cape, North-west Australia. It is apparently an 

 older bird than the female procured by Mr. Carter the previous 

 day in the same locality, and differs from the type by the absence 

 of the long upper tail coverts, although the abnormally long under 

 tail coverts are present as in the female. The upper parts are 

 more strongly shaded with rufous, all the tail feathers are washed 

 on their outer webs with rufous, and their tips are light rufous, 

 the tips increasing in size towards the outermost feather, and 

 gradually becoming paler; the centre of the lower breast and 

 abdomen is washed with ochraceous-buff. Total length of skin 

 5.65 inches, wing 2.1, central tail feathers 2.6, bill from forehead 

 0.48, depth and width of bill at nostril 0.15, tarsus 0.52, middle 

 toe 0.42, with claw 0.52, hind toe 0.25, with claw 0.42. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 

 To the Editor of the Victorian Naturalist. 

 Sir, — As I have for years taken a deep interest in the " dis- 

 tribution of Australian birds " and was unavoidably absent from 

 the meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club held 9th April, 1900, 



