Tlic Birds of Tasmania. 
more, as the admirable description of the country, which forms 
the context of the all too brief bird notes, is very vivid and 
realistic, and enables one to envisaj^'e the various birds in their 
native haunts. Many of the ])irds enumerated are well known 
to the readers of Bird Notes as inhabitants of their aviaries, 
and many of the rarer birds we have made the acquaintance of 
at the London Zoo, and in the aviaries of a few wealthy 
collectors. 
After describing' the " Eng"lish appearance " of the build- 
ings, gardens, and even landscape, in the portion of his book 
dealing with II ohart and the Midlands, principally owing to the 
sandstone and tiled houses, and the English flowers cultivated 
in the gardens, and the trees — oaks, poplars, elms, pines, haw- 
thorn hedges and the willows which adorn the banks of the 
rivers and streams; the. Author fully describes the fauna 
geology, etc., of the district. 
With this introduction I w'lW quote the Author in his first 
brief note of the bird-life of Hobart and the Midlands. 
" Tlif illusion that I was in Eng-Iand was very strong- one sunny 
" afternoon as I sat outside a village inn upon the Ilrown's river road. 
■' Lookint;- up and down the street one could sec nothing; but English 
" flowers and trees: sparrows pecked ;ilioiU on the ro;id and a flock of 
" starlings jiassed every now and .igain overhead, and a number of gold- 
" finches were busy looking for seed in an adjoining field. Some 
" swallow.s swept round the eaves of the house, not genuine English 
" swallows these, hut ' Welcome Swallows " all the same, which come to 
" Tasmania in the spring in the orthodox manner to nest, and go north 
■■ instead of south when winter comes; and once a whirring fight of swifts 
" swejit past, swifts which visit Tasmania for two months in the middle 
" of the Antarctic summer, and go north to Japan to breed 
■' but one must not exaggerate the English appearance of the landscape, 
■' which really does not extend beyond the immediate neighbourhood of 
" the villages. In the open country one soon recognises the character- 
" istic Australian vegetation, so utterly unlike the fresh green of Europe. 
' Evervwhere the dominant trees are Eucalypts of which there several 
■' lunnlred species The Howers of the Eucalypts, 
■■ which are verv sweet-.'^nu'lling, and attract by their honey swarms of 
■' insects and hoiiev-eating birds, form dense clusters of feathery spikes 
" in the form of bottle-brushes In the open lands and 
" cultivated districts of which ue are speaking, there are one or two 
" characteristic birds which will ,ii once strike the eye of a visitor. The 
" native Magjiie ( (i vniiiorliiiu! nrL^uiiiciini ), reallv a Crow Shrike, is a fine 
" black and white bii'd wilh a very melodious voice, but its song is more in 
