The Emu. 
87 
Notes on a Collection of Bird-Skins from the Fitzroy 
River, North-Western Australia. 
By Robert Hall. 
With Field Notes by the Collector, J. P. Rogers. 
Part I. 
My correspondent, Mr. Rogers, commenced collecting specimens 
of birds in the Derby district in November, 1899. He is still 
doing so. In that period 405 well-preserved skins have been 
forwarded to me for identification and report. These now form 
part of my collection. Among them are many choice species 
new to the north-west of the continent, one entirely new to 
Australia, two species new to science, a large number of young 
birds not previously described, many new phases, and new nests 
and Gg^s. 
My wish to always secure young birds and birds of changing 
plumage has been agreeably responded to. And now it is my 
pleasure to place on record the decided interest of this young 
and new observer and collector in the field of natural science. 
We may safely take it that he has done well and formed a 
good beginning. One example of enthusiasm I gather from 
his letter of 15th March, 1901 : — "To-day I reached Derby 
after a rough and tiring time. My walk of 80 miles was 
without the company of even a horse. To carry a gun, 
collecting material, and my swag proper in a hot and steamy 
atmosphere was not an easy task." 
The latest collection* made in the North-West was by the 
Calvert expedition in 1897. The number of species brought 
back was 59 and specimens 167. The most important collec- 
tion made to the time of the present one was by Mr. T. H. 
Bowyer-Bower-|- in 1886. It numbered 152 species, and was 
gathered within a radius of 25 miles of Derby. It serves well 
as an enumeration of species. 
The collection under present review is being made between 
Brooking Crossing on the Fitzroy River (some 200 miles from 
Derby) and the township of Derby. The opportunity to make 
sub-species out of this material is indeed tempting. However, 
I justify myself with declaring them hitherto undescribed 
phases until a medium such as that of natural selection makes 
more pronounced the progress to warrant other rank. 
While it is not necessary at this stage to refer to absentees 
from the present list, it is pleasing to note some birds which, to 
the best of my knowledge, have not been previously recorded as 
found in North-Western Australia, viz. : — 
Rhipidura pJiasiana, De Vis, Pheasant Fan-tail. 
* Roy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. xxii., part ii. (1898), p. 125. 
t Ramsay, P.L.S. N.S.\V., vol. i,, 2nd Series, p. 1,085 (1886); id., op. cit., 
vol. ii., 2nd Series, p. 165 (1887). 
