Notes on the Gold-field of Ballarat. 



409 



white ; the long upper coverts are reddish brown, banded 

 with brown, and broadly tipped with grey above, and the 

 long terminal ones are tipped with white. The under parts 

 of the body are brown, largely tipped with grey and white. 

 Feathers of the thighs are greyish ; feet and claws dark 

 brown. 



Length of w T ing from flexure, 12 inches. The bill is of a 

 light horn colour, especially at the sides and tip. 



The bird is probably an old female ; and the ovaries ap- 

 peared to be very small or atrophied. 



It was shot in the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, in the end 

 of March. 



Mr Small, bird-stuffer, George Street, has kindly sent along 

 with the bird fine specimens of the male and female for 

 comparison. 



The only other specimen of this variety which I have seen, 

 or heard of in this country, w T as one killed in the same neigh- 

 bourhood, and exhibited to the Society, in December 18(52. 

 It was not quite of such a length as the specimen now ex- 

 hibited ; which, I am glad to say, has been acquired for our 

 valuable Museum of Science and Art. 



Mr Yarrell copies a figure of this variety in his " British 

 Birds," as having been noticed in Scandinavia. 



3. There was also exhibited one of our regular and earliest 

 summer visitors — the SaxicoJa oenanthe, the wheat-ear. It 

 was taken about the middle of the month of March, on ship- 

 board out in the Atlantic, about 500 miles from our shores, 

 having been probably carried away by the easterly winds 

 when on its northern migration. 



VII. Notes on the Gold-fitld of Ballarat, Australia. By Adam Smith, 

 Esq., Ballarat. Communicated by Dr John Alex. Smith. (With 

 exhibition of specimens of rocks, maps, &c.) 



The following notes were written without any idea of their 

 being published, in reply to the queries of a relative, 

 asking for some information about the Ballarat gold-field. 

 They are simply extracts from a private letter which ap- 



vol. in. 3 g 



