INTRODUCTION. vii 



It may be also explained that the numerals on the riglit hand of llic 

 name of the species are referable to the numbers in Gould's " Handliook," 

 and that I have endeavoiu-ed to describe typical eggs only, as concisely as 

 possible without elaborated details ; while any descriptions of birds must 

 not be taken as strictly technical, but merely as a guide to the identity 

 of the species under notice, in case of a reader or beginner being in doubt. 



A retrospective glance will show the progress of Australian Oology. 

 What with the discovery of new birds and the amalgamation of old 

 forms, the total number of Australian birds remains at about 765 species. 

 Gould's " Handbook " contiiined 202 descriptions of eggs, my Manual 

 mentioned 413, while the present work bring.s the number up to con- 

 siderably over 600, or all the known eggs. 



Perhaps I cannot do better than here recite the names and deeds 

 (in brief) of those who have preceded me at field work. Head and 

 shoulders above all, of course, comes the giant Gould ; and in writing 

 the following remarks concerning him I have been guided by an excellent 

 " Biographical Memoir " by Dr. R. Bowdlcr Sharpe in his " Analytical 

 Index " to the works of tlie great author. 



John Gould was bom at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, England, 14th Sep- 

 tember, 1804, and, when quite an infant, his parents went to live at Stoke 

 Hill, neai" Guildford ; and it was in this beautiful neighbourhood that 

 the child fust imbibed his notions of the beauty of natural life. When 

 young Gould was 14 years of age, his father received a good appointment 

 ill the Royal Gardens at W'indsor, where the bov a.ssistod him in 

 gardening. By this time he had begun th(' study of birds, and made 

 his first acquaintance with many British species in the royal domains. 

 He was also reported to be a good taxidermist. 



In 1827, Gould obtained some kind of appointment at the Zoological 

 Society, then in its infancy. A year or two after receiving this appoint- 

 ment, he mariied Miss Coxen, daughter of Nicholas Coxen, a Kentish 

 gentleman, and to this lady (it often happens that the wife makes or 

 mars the man) is due much of the ultimate success of her husband's 

 career, for she was an accomplished artist, and painted no less than 600 

 of his bird pictures. 



In 1832 Gould's first work, the " Century of Birds from the Himalaya 

 Mountains," was published. Shortly aftenvards he left the service of 

 the Zoological Society. In 1837 appeared his first Australian work, the 

 " Synopsis of the Birds of Australia," wherein were figui-ed the heads of 

 most of the species of birds known to inhabit oiu- Island Continent up to 

 that time. 



