AN AUSTRALIAN BIRD BOOK. 119 



lovers have taken active steps to develop the movement in their 

 States. A Bird Day, by order of the Minister of Education, Hon. 

 A. A. Billson, and the Director, Mr. F. Tate, was observed in 

 Victorian schools in 1909 and 1910, with gratifying results. Bird- 

 nesting, for the collection of eggs, has practically wholly disap- 

 peared from our schools, while at most country schools native 

 birds can be seen nesting on the school grounds, the children 

 keeping observation notes of nesting and feeding habits of the 

 birds as part of their work in Nature-study. What study is of 

 greater economic importance to this wealthy, though occasionally 

 insect-troubled, land? 



Order XXI. — Perching-Birds — contains 11,500 species, more than 

 three-fifths of the world's 19,000 birds. As Perching-Birds 

 (Passeres) are still undergoing evolution, connecting links still 

 live, so that it is very difficult to divide the Perching Birds 

 into well-defined families. Sharpe has divided them into sixty- 

 one families, but, for several of these, no exact characters that 

 exclude other birds can be assigned, so that some of these, at least, 

 are "not worthy of family rank." However, Sharpe's classifi- 

 cation represents the latest thought of scientists on this difficult 

 matter, so it must be adopted here. 



This large order of birds is divided into two sub-orders: — 



1. Songless Perching-Birds, made up mainly of South Ameri- 

 can birds, though two families are included that are represented 

 in the Australian region — viz., Pittas (Pittidae) and New Zea- 

 land Wrens (Xenicidae) . 



2. Song-Birds. 



Birds of the second division are again divided into two: — A.: 

 Abnormal Song-Birds. B.: Normal Song-Birds. 



The first group. Abnormal Song-Birds, comprises only the two 

 remarkable Scrub-Birds (Atrichornithidae) of Australia. One 

 of these inhabits West Australian scrubs only, while the other 

 inhabits East Australian (Richmond River) scrubs only. 



The breast bone and the muscles of the voice apparatus are 

 unusual. These birds are about the size of a thrush, and form 

 "one of the most curious ornithological types of the many fur- 

 nished by that country" (Australia). 



So far, no female bird has been examined, and little is known 

 about these remarkable, noisy, scrub-haunting birds. 



The remaining forty-eight "families" of birds belong to the 

 Normal Song-Birds. It is interesting to note that Australia con- 

 tains representatives of twenty-nine families of Song-Birds. 

 Representatives of but nineteen families have been recorded from 

 Britain. The Indian Empire, including Burmah and Ceylon, 

 contains representatives of twenty-two families. North America, 

 also, of twenty-two families, while in South America twenty-three 

 families are represented in this highest division of birds. 



Again, while only 89 Song-Birds have been recorded as perma- 

 nent residents of, or regular visitors to, Britain, almost 500 species 

 of Song-Birds have, so far, been recorded from Australia and Tas- 

 mania. Of these, 157 have been recorded from Victoria, and are 



