INTRODUCriON. 



^~V^W\L present and third \ oluine contains descriptions of the Nests and Eggs of one hundred 

 and ten speciesof Australian and rasininian Itirds, and is partly based on the collections 

 in tlie Australian Museum, and tlie remainder chielly on pri\ate collections. The birds 

 enumerated form the concluding portion of tlie Order I'lCAiu.i;, consisting of the Family 

 Cucui.in.F, and the Families LnKiiD.K and Psittaciu.e, of the < )rder I'srr r\ci, the numerous 

 members of the Family F"alco\id.f. of the Order Accipitkus, and the sole representative of the 

 Sub-Order Pandiones, and tiie Families Buhonid.k and Stkigid.f, of tlie Order Striges. 

 Included in it are also the Families Phalacrocokacio.e, Sl'Lid.e, Fkegatid.k, Phaethoxtid.i{; 

 and Pi.i.ixAXiD.ii of the Order S ri-..jAXOPOUES. 



By the loan of specimens and the contribution of information, considerable assistance has 

 lieen received from many valued correspondents in different parts of Australia and Tasmania, 

 whose names appear in the work. With some few exceptions the nomenclature, as in the 

 preceding volumes, is similar to ihat of the authors of the " Catalogue of Birds in the British 

 Museum," and the late Dr. K. Bowdler Sharpe's "Hand-list ot IJirds," and to whom I here 

 acknowledge my indebtedness. 



The figures "f eggs, which are of the natural size, have been reproduced by the heliotype 

 process at the Government Printing Office, from pliotographs of the originals tak-en under the 

 direction of the Government Printer, Mr. \V. A. Gullick, and the personal supervision of Mr. 

 A. E. Dyer. 



The original drawings of birds, from wliich the figures have been reproduced, were made 

 by the late Mr. Neville Cayley, who also coloured the plates ot eggs in the coloured copies. The 

 photographs of nests, nesting-places and breeding haunts are the work of the Museum Photo- 

 grapher (.Mr. H. Barnes, Junr.), the late Mr. H. P. C. .Ashworth, Mr. T. P. Austin, .Mr. C. G. 

 Gibson, Dr. W. Macgillivray, Mr. P. R. Pedley, Mr. G. Savidge and myself. 



A.J.N. 



Svdn-ey, Scpicmhcr, Vlh>. 



