ON TWO EARLY AUSTRALIAN ORNITHOLOGISTS. 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., Ornithologist. 



(Plate xxvii.). 



JOHN WILLIAM LEWIN. 



John William Lewiii was the author of the first work pub- 

 lished on Australian Birds. He arrived in New South Wales in 

 179iS by H.M.S. " Buffalo," and is thus referred to by the Duke 

 of Portland in a communication to Governor Hunter, under date 

 6th February, 1798. "Mr. Lewin is a jminter and drawer in 

 natural history, and being desirous of pursuing his studies in a 

 country which cannot fail to improve that brancli of knowledge, 

 you will allow him the usual Government rations during his resi- 

 dence in the settlement."^ In 1801 Lewin accompanied Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel Paterson, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, 

 and others in an exploring expedition up the Hunter and Paterson 

 Rivers, the latter previous to the visit being known as Cedar Arm 

 Surgeon Harris, writing from the Hunter River on 25tli June 

 1801, to Governor King remarks: "The Colonel says he has 

 found several new plants here, and Mr. Lewin also says he has 

 met with new birds. If so, they are above my comprehension, 

 as I see nothing new about them, one hawk excepted, and that 

 only in colour being red with a white head."^ 



In the same vessel which conveyed most of the party during 

 these explorations, the " Lady Nelson," a brig of six guns. Lieu- 

 tenant Murray, R.N., in February of the following year, discovered 

 and entered Port Phillip. 



Probably Lewin obtained the specimens from which his descrip- 

 tions and figures of the " Scarlet-back Warbler " were taken, 

 during his exploration of these rivers, for in the 1822 edition of 

 his work it is stated that this species " inhabits forests near the 

 banks of Patterson's River." Dr. R. B. Sharpe refers this figure 

 to the Northern and North-western Australian species Malurns 

 cruentatus, Gould, but it is unquestionably applical)le to the New 



Bladen— Hist. Ree. N. S. Wales, iii., 1895, p. 358. 

 Bladen — Loc. cit., p. 417. 



