- EDITORIAL. 
|B; 1D} ih oar 
een 
A BIRD CENSUS. 
Some interesting. results have been obtained by Professor J. Burton 
Cleland, of the University of Adelaide, by recording and classifying, 
during walks or drives in the country, the various Australian birds 
met with during the outing. His records extend back to March, 1917, 
and cover visits to eleven districts in New South Wales, Queensland, 
and South Australia, and were commenced with the object of securing 
a crude idea of the actual and relative numbers of the individuals of 
various species of Australian birds, and ultimately, by the co-operation 
of other observers, of compiling a bird census of Australia. Describing 
his methods, Professor Cleland writes that he keeps a score, as one 
keeps the runs at cricket, on a sheet of paper or the back of an envelope, 
of the number of each species seen, so that eventually when sufficient 
ground has been covered, results of some value might be expected. For 
instance, during a motor run from Broken Hill, 84 individuals of eight — 
species were recorded over a distance of 15 miles traversed in one and 
a quarter hours. The country was mostly open saltbush plain, and 
the view for small birds was estimated at about 100 yards or less, and 
for large birds, about 400 yards. From the depth of the lateral view, 
' multiplied by the length of the journey, the average number of birds 
per square mile was reckoned. The type of vegetation necessarily 
affects the extent of the lateral view during a journey. In 1919, Pro- 
fessor Cleland explained his scheme at the annual Conference of the 
R.A.0.U., at Brisbane, and it met with acceptance. It was then pointed 
out that not only was a rough idea obtainable in this way as to the 
numbers of our birds, but, by recording results at the present time, 
and making the same journey again after twenty years’ interval, some 
idea might be obtained as to whether any species was decreasing 
materially in numbers, holding its own, or increasing. Professor 
Cleland has prepared his observations for publication, and their 
appearance will be looked forward, to by ornithologists. 
BACTERIAL RETTING OF FLAX. 
Some years ago attention was drawn to a method of retting flax in 
water inoculated with a pure bacterial culture. This method was 
described by Professor Giacomo Rossi, Director of the Institute of 
Agricultural Bacteriology in the Royal Higher School of Agriculture, 
Italy, in 1916; and a factory was erected at Bonnetable, in France, 
where flax is now retted on a large scale. The process depends upon 
the action of a special aerobic bacillus, and the cultures are supplied 
from Professor Rossi’s laboratory. Recently .a report by Mr. A. 
‘Renouard of the work at the factory was published in the weekly 
so x 517 
