Reviews. 343


quite able to leave the nest yet, is a hybrid whose parents are a

hen Princess of Wales' Parrakeet and a cock Rock Peplar, and I

hope soon to get some young Blue-banded Grass-Parrakeets.



REVIEWS.



PHOTOGRAPHS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS*

This little book contains some extremely good photographs

of Australian birds and their nests, accompanied by notes from

the pen of Mr. Robert Hall. It is intended to be quite popular,

and to create an interest for birds amongst those who do not

profess to have any knowledge of the subject : but this object

would not have been frustrated had the notes been a little fuller

and more precise and the scientific names of the species given.

Of the Blue Wren we are only told that he is " a friend of the

tiller of the soil," and eats eighty noxious grubs a day. If his

nesting habits and change of plumage had been described it

would surely have been to the advantage of all concerned.

The Varied Hemipode is photographed on its nest, but the

accompanying note merely tells the reader that it is the Painted

Quail and that it " lies quietly in its nest upon the ground and is

at once photographed."


We should have expected that so experienced an ornith-

ologist as Mr. Hall would have seen that a popular booklet of

this kind was made as instructive as possible.



FAMILIAR INDIAN BIRDS.f


This little book of about seventy pages consists of a series

of essays on various Indian birds, some of which have been

reprinted from "The Field," the "Zoologist," the "Journal of

the Bombay Natural History Society" and the "Avicultural

Magazine." It is intended to aid visitors to India in the

identification of the birds they are likely to meet with, and

those contemplating a visit to that country would do well to


* Glimpses of Aitstralia?i Bird- Life; thirty - one original photographs direct from

nature, with notes by Robert Hall, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S. Melbourne : T. C Lothian, 49,

Elizabeth Street. Price One shilling.


t Familiar Indian Birds, by Gordon Dalgliesh. Loudon: West, Newman & Co.,

54, Hattou Garden. Price Two shillings and Six pence,



