122 "The Times" on John Gould. TisfocT 



prepared for the labour before him. In 1848 the work was 

 brought to a close, but the acquisition of several new species, 

 some of extraordinary beauty, will render it necessary to add 

 several supplementary plates and sheets of descriptive letter- 

 press. Of the.se we may here notice a new IMenura {Menura 

 Albertii), a new and most j^orj^eous species of Rifle liird (Ptiloris 

 Victoriae), and a new Taiiysiptera, as he'mg amoni^ the most 

 interesting. 



An idea of the importance of Mr. Gould's Birds of Australia 

 may be gained from the fact that 636 s])ecies, in various stages 

 of colouring, are described and figured, and their food, habits, 

 nidificalion, migration, and extent of geographical range, detailed 

 from his own observation, with the assistance he derived from 

 zealous friends and the natives. 



Of these 636 species, about 340 ( including those more re- 

 cently obtained, and of which the figures are now in progress 

 for laying before the world) are either new or were so vaguely 

 known as to render their extrication liom a maze of confusion 

 no easy task, and one not to be accomplished without the 

 possession of a vast series of actual specimens. When we con- 

 sider that Dr. Shaw, in his Zoology of New Holland, had devoted 

 only a few plates to the subject, from specimens collected by 

 Sir Josejih Banks during the first voyage of Captain Cook, that 

 Lewin's Birds of Nezv Holland comprise not more than 26 plates, 

 and that but a few figures and descri])tions were given in the 

 earlier voyages of I'hillii), White and Collins, and the more 

 recent one of King, we may judge how little aid Mr. Gould could 

 receive from the earlier describers. It is true that more recently 

 the late Mr. A'igors and Dr. Horsfield commenced a memoir on 

 the collection of Australian birds in the Linn?ean Society, but 

 they did not i)roceed far in their labours. To the works of 

 Latham, Cuvier, and Vieillot, as well as to several of the recent 

 voyages of discovery, reference may be made for figures and 

 descri])tions of isolated s])ecies more or less definite. Still, this 

 is only to glean where the harvest awaits the sickle — only to 

 obtain such a glimpse as ])roves the necessity of entering person- 

 ally into the field of exjjloraiion. Had not Mr. Gould acicd on 

 this conviction, how much lolative to the Zoology of Australia 

 would remain a .sealed-up book — how much that is strange, in- 

 teresting, and surprising would be unknown ! 



We cannot here enter into a dis(|uisition on the habits of par- 

 ticular .s])ecies, or the indulgence of a feeling to body forth a pic- 

 ture of the bower liirds, which construct arbours of courtship 

 decorated with shells and the brilliaiU feathers of i)arrots, might 

 lead us to follow Mr. Gould's admirable but unadorned narrative 

 till we found ourselves in the realms of ]>oesy. .^o. also, are we 

 tempted to enter ui)on the history of the mound makers, or. as 

 wc should rather say, constructors of hotbeds for incubation. 

 Rut, as we have said, we must generalise; for when selection is 

 difficult and space limited, a resume nuist content us. .\nd this 

 resume of the birds of Australia is given by Mr. Gould in a 



