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Among the perching birds tiene is a great excess of the Insecrivora—Dodargi, Meliphagide, Maluride,
Gymnorhine, &c., of the Granivor®, such as various species of the Primgihde, and of the Psittacide. The
latter tribe of birds is more numerous in Australia than in any other part of the world, and forms four great
groups, viz. the Calyptorhynchi, which mainly procure their food from the Banksie@, Casuarine, and Eucalypti ;
re Cacatue, which feed upon the terrestrial Orchidee, &c. ; the Trichoglossi, which subsist upon the nectar
they extract from the flower-cups and blossoms of the Lwcalypti; and the ground and grass Parrakeets,
which feed almost exclusively on the seeds of the various grasses that abound on the plains; the united

groups amounting to nearly sixty species.

Of the Rasorial forms,—while the Pigeons and Hemipodes are numerous, the larger and typical
GaLLINace® are entirely wanting ; their only representatives being a few species of Coturnivy and Synoicus.
The Grallatorial birds are about equal in number to those of other countries ; and among the water
birds the true Ducks are but few, while the Procelaride which visit the coast are more abundant than
in any other part of the world. On a retrospect of the whole we find a greater number of nocturnal
birds than is comprised in the ornithology of any other section of the globe. I must not omit to mention
too the extraordinary fecundity which prevails in Australia, many of its smaller birds breeding three or four
times in a season; but laying fewer eggs in the early spring when insect life is less developed, and a greater
number later in the season when the supply of insect food has become more abundant. I have also some
reason to believe that the young of many species breed during the first season, for among others I frequently
found one section of the Honey-eaters (the MWelithrepti) sitting upon eggs while still clothed in the brown
dress of immaturity ; and we know that such is the case with the introduced GaLuinace®, three or four

generations of which have been often produced in the course of a year.

Another peculiar feature connected with the Australian ornithology is that of its comprising several
forms endowed with the power of sustaining and enjoying life without a supply of water, that element
without which most others languish and die; for instance, the Halcyons, which I found living and even
breeding on the parched plains of the interior during the severe drought of 1838-39, far removed from any

water ; the food of these birds being insects and lizards.

A considerable number of the older-known of the Australian birds have been described in the general
works of Vieillot, Latham, Shaw and others; but their descriptions are so vague, and the species them-
selves so frequently referred to genera widely different from those to which they really belong, that it has
been impossible to identify the whole of them; but wherever they could be identified with certainty their

names have been adopted, or quoted in the synonyms.

The “Birds of Europe” were arrane od ¢ ‘ding i 7 7 1
| ere arranged according to the views of the late Mr. Vigors; and in the
‘Birds of Australia” the arrang ee ae ; .
alte 1€ arrangement 1s mainly the same, with some modifications of my own which

appeared to me to be necessary.

I have been constrained, for the sake of uniformity in size, to divide the present work into seven
7 AQ e eC Pines ees ‘ pes ie n . . . ©
volumes; the first of which comprises the Raprorss, the small number of which will account for its being

Ss WwW a i ‘i » ay . O Y re a . e
omewhat thinner than the others; the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth volumes comprise the

Insessores, Rasores and GRALLATORES in one continuous series, and the seventh the NaTaTorEs.