Vlll PREFACE. 



reference to the date of my visit to the country. It may 

 be possible — and, indeed it is most likely — that flocks of 

 Parrakects no longer fly over the houses and chase each 

 other in the streets of Hobart Town and Adelaide, that 

 no longer does the noble Bustard stalk over the flats of 

 the Upper Hunter, nor the Emus feed and breed on 

 the Liverpool plains, as they did at that time ; and if this 

 be so, surely the Australians should at once bestir them- 

 selves to render protection to these and many other 

 native birds : otherwise very many of them, like the fine 

 Parrot {Nestor product us) of Norfolk Island, will soon 

 become extinct. 



The Australian birds at present known amount, in 

 round numbers, to about six hundred and sixty species. 



