I I A. Campbell, Victorian and Tasmanian Birds. [ah"'lan 



Sisura, Pt Honor hynchus, Sphcnura, Chthonicola, Pycnoptilus, 

 Psophodcs, Poniatorhinus, Cinder ham phus , Xcrophtla, Falcun- 

 culus, Eopsaltria, Climacteris, Sittella^ Meliphaga, Philemon, 

 Dicceum, Stagano pleura, Mgintha, Mirafra, and Menura ; and 

 of the order Passer es as a whole, only 52 species are found in 

 Tasmania against 97 which now live under practically similar 

 conditions on the mainland. 



What does the absence in Tasmania of nearly half the forms 

 of the sister region mean ? Surely not that they are now extinct 

 in the one area from some modification in their food supply, or 

 from the strength of their natural enemies, but rather that 

 they did not exist on the mainland at the time of Tasmania's 

 disunion. Their evolution or their advent to the south-eastern 

 point of Australia had not occurred when the sea first broke 

 through and separated Tasmania to an independent existence. 



The full quota of bird life in those early days was probably, 

 in number of species, identical with the present tally, and this 

 quota represented, at that time also, the bird life of what is now 

 the Victorian area. Included among these original birds was 

 also the Emu {DromcEus), which, however, was soon exterminated 

 in Tasmania by the white man, owing to the limited open 

 country to which it was restricted. Among the Tasmanian 

 avifauna of to-day, however (although a few species may have 

 immigrated at some intermediate period — Zosterops and 

 Artamus are possible ones), there are none, excepting Acanthornis, 

 that have not their relative species on the adjacent mainland, 

 for from no other quarter has the Tasmanian bird-life been 

 derived. Two species, however, may be considered somewhat 

 obscure in origin — Petroeca vittata and Parclalotus quadraginius. 

 The former, though the sexes are alike in colour, is perhaps the 

 insular form of P . bieolor, while the latter, through living ex- 

 clusively in the tree-tops in colder parts, has become difterentiated 

 from P. punetatus. 



It is, then, very interesting to note the digression of the in- 

 sular form from the common stock. The separation imposed 

 upon the species, in the first place, a more gloomy climate, with 

 the result that every bird became darker in plumage to suit the 

 tone of its surroundings ; and, in the second place, with the 

 harder and colder conditions, many species developed stronger 

 and more robust constitutions. So marked have these changes 

 been in some that new species were immediately made of them ; 

 but in others, where simply a change in tone or in size is noticed, 

 there is no strong reason for assigning them positions other 

 than as insular variations, especially as one or two others, now 

 grouped as such by certain authorities, show just as much 

 difference from the original stock as those separated as new 

 species. A third section there is which shows only a trifling 

 difference. 



To the first axiom — the darker colouring of insular forms — 

 there is no exception ; but to the second — the larger size of in- 



