Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/73

Rh have previously remarked on the value of private collections, especially when estimated by their ultimate reception in some public institution. We are glad to see there are collectors in Australia. From the last number of 'The Wombat,' published at Geelong, and just received, we read: "We have much pleasure in offering our congratulations to Mr. A.J. Campbell on the occasion of his collection having entered upon its sixth hundred species of Australian eggs, and upon the success of the entertainment which he gave to brother collectors in celebration of that event."

the 'Naturalist' for January, 1897, our old contributor, Mr. John Cordeaux, in his "Bird-Notes from the Humber District: Autumn of 1896," writing on the third recorded appearance, for the British Islands, of the Indian Houbara Bustard (Otis macqueeni), remarks:—"Much nonsense was written at the time, in both the London and local press, on the enormity of shooting this Bustard—ignorantly called by the writers the Great Bustard—a former inhabitant of the wolds of Yorkshire. The Indian Houbara Bustard comes from Central Asia, where it is abundant, and there was not the slightest chance of this far wanderer ever finding its way back, or becoming naturalised in this country. No doubt its fate would have been decided by the first prowling Fox that came that way, or by Stoat or Weasel." We are no advocate for the extermination of birds, even for museum purposes; but there can be little doubt that Mr. Cordeaux makes out his case in this instance.

the 'Field' for January 9th, 1897, Mr. George Hewlett, Surgeon, H.M.S. 'Barracouta,' gives the following account of an enormous stranding of Whales at Teal Inlet, East Falkland Island:—

"In the end of September, 1896, an enormous school of a species of Whale, called the Caaing Whale, ran ashore in Teal Inlet. Teal Inlet is a small creek, one and a half miles long, opening into Port Salvador, which in turn opens into the South Atlantic by a very narrow opening.

"One morning a whirlwind appeared to be approaching over the water in the bay of San Salvador, and soon this was made out to be an enormous school of Whales, so thick that they seemed to be jostling each other, nothing but fins and tails, and the water in foam all round; this was on a flowing tide, and they came on into the inlet itself, describing a sort of cycloidal curves, until the inshore part of the squadron took on a kelp reef, and then a sudden panic seemed to seize them all, and the unfortunate animals came up the inlet full speed ahead, with the sea boiling in front of them and a great wave coming after them, and they piled up in hundreds on the beach. Then, as there was a rising tide, they got off again, but only to charge the opposite beach, and so on till the falling tide and loss of strength left them high and dry all round the dreary bay; then could be