No. 7.] THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD 163 



College as a boarder, finishing at the former. He felt like a 

 bird in a cage, and during long vacations he undertook many 

 trips into the bush collecting and observing, and in 1887 at the 

 early age of seventeen he organised his first big trip, working 

 the Murray River from Morgan to Paringa, and making a 

 good collection. The following year he went further afield to 

 Western Australia, and after collecting round Perth for a few 

 weeks, organised an expedition into the interior. Through 

 lack of previous experience he picked unsuitable men, and the 

 whole party nearly lost their lives. After three months of 

 severe privation for a lad in his teens he returned to Perth, 

 much travel-worn and experienced, with a good collection of 

 skins. He had to do all the work as well as lead his party 

 into a then unknown country. He returned home in 1889, 

 and in the latter part of the year worked the Koppie Range 

 in Eyre's Peninsula, and many shorter trips were undertaken 

 in the south-east of South Australia and on the River Murray. 

 In 1891 he went to Queensland, and after collecting round 

 Brisbane, went up to Cooktown and collected there. Such 

 work marked the ornithologist as perhaps the foremost in 

 Australia ; but fate intervened, and for the next ten years no 

 ornithological work was done. In 1900 he joined the colours 

 as a Lieutenant and went to South Africa, and there his fear- 

 lessness brought him promotion on the field, a rapid achieve- 

 ment at that time. The war recalled him to his undoubted 

 study, and after acting as Administrator of No. 12 Area until 

 the cessation of hostilities he left for Central and East 

 Coast of Africa for big game shooting, and also made a big 

 collection of birds in the Central districts. Upon his return 

 to Australia in 1903 he began to take a prominent part in the 

 South Australian Ornithologists' Association. On April 19, 

 1906, he married Ethel Rosina Toms, who became her husband's 

 partner in his many future ornithological expeditions into the 

 interior, and who achieved the world's record trip for a woman, 

 i.e. sixteen hundred miles on camels through an almost water- 

 less district. From 1906-1916 the pair were inseparable, making 

 numerous expeditions into the interior with great success. 

 They attended the Australian Ornithologists' Union session 



