Vol. IV. 

 '905 



Campbell, Victorian and Tasmanian Birds. 



I I I 



the scrub and forest similar on both mainland and island, but 

 the general physical contour of Mt. Wellington and its surround- 

 ings, which will serve as a type of the whole of the southern 

 area, is so like that of the Dandenong and Healesville Ranges 

 that a picture of the true home of the Lyre-Bird would surely 

 pass for a scene in Tasmania. The reason of this is deep-seated, 

 the soil, the mother of all, inheriting its wonderful richness in 

 both areas from similar igneous dacite rock. 



In comparing, then, the birds of Tasmania with those of the 

 parts of southern Victoria which are of similar geological and 

 botanical, and, it may be said, climatic nature, we find absences 

 on both sides, as well as inclusions in the mainland group, which 

 tend to prove several interesting points. 



Tasmania has 52 species of Passerine birds (to deal only with 

 the order which shows the greatest variation), and of these one 

 only — namely, Acanthorfiis magna — has no obvious progenitor on 

 the mainland, and this bird is the more unique from the position 

 it occupies as an apparent link between the genera Acanthiza 

 and Sericornis. Nineteen other birds, however, as will be seen 

 by the following table, which show more or less specific differ- 

 ences, are separated as distinct species to those of the main- 

 land : — 



Comparative Table of the Order Passeres. 



* Recorded as accidental in Handbook A. A. A. S. Tas., 1902. 



