INTRODUCTION. xvii 



ornithology in Australia, and so prepare the way for a more permanent 

 and elaborate work My particular thanks are also due to the editor 

 of that paper, Mr. David Watterson, for his encouragement to me in 

 my work, and for his many kindly and unassuming hints as to shaping 

 my thoughts on paper, more especially for readers not naturalists. 



To Mr. C. C. Brittlebank my best thanks arc due for his unselfish 

 labours in figuring the original coloured drawings of the two hundred 

 typical or rare eggs needed for this work. It wa.s indeed fortunate for 

 me that Mr. Biittlcbank combined the tastes of a naturalist with his 

 artistic skill in the productions. Here let me say we decided not to 

 figure white eggs, which are mainly identified bj' the grain of the shell, 

 which it is impossible to reproduce in an illustration (except, perhaps, by 

 photography). To have given plates of white eggs would have been 

 to unnecessarily handicap the work. While on the subject of illustra- 

 tions, I venture to hope that the photographic ones will not be the least 

 attractive feature of this volume. To Mr. L. W. Hart, Working Men's 

 College, Melbourne, I shall be for ever indebted for his sound insti-uction 

 in the art. 



I have to thank Mr. Edward A. Pithorick, F.L.S., of London, 

 whose interest in Australian literature is well known, for his hearty 

 co-operation and invaluable assistance in the production of this work 

 in England ; and last, but by no means least, I here record my sincere 

 thanks to my svibscribers individually and collectively for having so 

 materially assisted the book by finding the honest hire for the printers, 

 Messrs. Pawson ct Brailsford, Sheffield, England. 



My doxology. No work should be complete without praise to God, 

 and perhaps more especially no Natural History Work, such as I am 

 now closing, and in the execution of which the lines have fallen to me 

 in so manv pleas.Tnt places. 



"© Xoi&. Dow inanifolO are 3^1)^ worfts! in wisCiom bast 

 tibou inaC>c tbcin all: tbc cartb is full of Ch\? licbcs" 



Melbourne, Dec, 1899. 



