INTRODUCTION. 6 



while Swifts, Swallows, Martins, and Flycatcliers perform the 

 same offices as with us ; the nocturnal group of Cajmmulj/idcs 

 are not w^anting where PhamiidcR and Cicadcs abound ; Petrels, 

 Gulls, Terns, and Penguins frequent her seas ; her rock-bound 

 shores have their Cormorants ; the sandy spits of her rivers 

 their Pelicans, Sandpipers, and Plovers ; and her swamps 

 and morasses are tenanted by Ducks, Grebes, Gallinules, and 

 Rails of the same types as those inhabiting her antipodes. 

 But these, in nearly every case, are distinct species : she pos- 

 sesses no true Anser ; but every one knows that she has that 

 " rara avis in terris," the Black Swan. It is, however, in the 

 interior of the country (adorned with the universally spread 

 Bucalj/pti, extensive belts of Banksia, forests of Xmithorrhcece, 

 MelahiccB, &c.), and in the heated brushes which clothe its 

 south-eastern portions (where stately palms spread their leaves 

 over the eccaleobion or hatching-mound of the Tcdegalla and 

 the theatreion or playing-bower of the Btilonorliynchis), that 

 we find an avifauna different from that of all other coun- 

 tries, and which presents us with such genera as jEgothe- 

 les, Falcunculus, CoUuricincla, Grallina, Cinclosoma, Memira, 

 Psophodes, Malurus, Sericornis, EpJdJiia7i2ira, Pardalotiis, 

 CUamyderay StnitJiidea, Licmetis, Calyptorhynchus, Plafy- 

 cercus, JEuphema, Climacteris, Scythrops, Myzantha, TaleyaUa, 

 Lcipjoa, Pedionomus, Cladorhynchus, Trihonyx, Cereopsis, 

 Anseranas, and Biziiira. 



Some few other genera, such as Graucahs, Artmims, and 

 Halcyon, are represented in the Indian Islands, on the peninsida 

 of India, and even in some portions of the continent of Asia ; 

 and many more genera, and in some instances the same 

 species, extend to New Guinea. The productions of this 

 latter country are, in fact, so similar to those of Australia, that, 

 zoologically speaking, they cannot be separated. In writing 

 thus I, of course, include the southern country of Tasmania, 

 but not New Zealand or its satellites. Lord Howe's, Norfolk, 

 and Phillip Islands, and other adjacent specks in the ocean, 



B 2 



