ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF ORNITHOLOGY. 189 



in a mutilated state from the savage inhabitants, and I believe the only zoolo- 

 gists who have seen the Birds of Paradise in a state of nature are M. Lesson, 

 who made some interesting observations upon them during the few days 

 which he spent in the forests of New Guinea, (' Voyage autour du Monde de 

 Duperrey,' and Lesson's ' Manuel d'Ornithologie,') and MM. Quoy and Gai- 

 raard, whose observations, recorded in the ' Voyage de 1' Astrolabe,' 1830-33, 

 were still more limited. 



Polynesia. — The ornithology of the innumerable islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean is as yet very imperfectly investigated. From the small size of most 

 of these islands they cannot individually be expected to abound in terrestrial 

 species, though in the aggregate they would doubtless furnish a considerable 

 number, while of aquatic species an interesting harvest might be collected. 

 At present much of our information is derived from no better source than the 

 incomplete descriptions made by Latham of species collected during Captain 

 Cook's voyage. Some of the birds collected by the Rev. A. Bloxani in the 

 Sandwich Islands are described in Lord Byron's 'Voyage ;' others were made 

 known by Lichtenstein in the 'Berlin Transactions,' 1838, and the 'Zoology of 

 the Voyage of the Sulphur,' now in course of publication, contains some fur- 

 ther materials which have been examined and described by Mr. Gould. A 

 few Polynesian birds are described by MM. Hombron and Jacquinot among 

 the scientific results of the Voyage of the Astrolabe and Zelee (Ann.Sc. Nat., 

 1841), and several ne-w species from the Philippine, Carolina and Marian Is- 

 lands, are characterized by M. Kittlitz in the ' Memoires de I'Acad. Imp. de 

 St. Petersbourg,' 1838. The recent American voyage of discovery will ex- 

 tend our knowledge of Polynesian zoology, and its researches will be made 

 known by Mr. Titian Peale, who is said to have discovered among other rari- 

 ties a new bird allied to the Dodo, which he proposes to name Didunculus. 



Australia Shaw's 'Zoology of New Holland,' 1794, was the first work 



devoted to the natural history of the Australian continent, but its publication 

 was soon discontinued. It was followed by the ' Voyages ' of Phillips and 

 W^hite, in which many of the birds of that country were figured and described. 

 The next additions were made by Latham, who in the second ' Supplement 

 to his Synopsis,' 1802, described and named many species on the authority of 

 a collection of drawings belonging to the late Mr. A. B. Lambert. These 

 drawings however were very rude performances, and being unaccompanied 

 by descriptions, it is no wonder that Latham was led by them into many 

 errors of classification and synonymy. Fortunately, however, they passed at 

 Mr. Lambert's death into the possession of the Earl of Derby, who liberally 

 entrusted them for examination to Mr. Gould, Mr. G. R. Gray, and myself. 

 By carefully studying these designs and comparing them with Australian spe- 

 cimens, we have been able to identify almost the whole of the species which 

 Latham founded upon them, and by this process many corrections have been 

 introduced into the synonymy of the Australian birds. (See Ann. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. xi.) 



It is to be regretted that Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield had not access to 

 this collection of drawings when they prepared their valuable paper on Au- 

 stralian birds in the ' Linngean Transactions,' vol. xv. They would there have 

 recognised several of the species which, from having failed to identify them 

 in the brief descriptions of Latham, they described as new. Their memoir 

 is notwithstanding a very important contribution to Australian ornithology, 

 especially on account of the many generic forms peculiar to that region which 

 they defined with logical precision. 



The above, together with the brief but original work of Lewin (Birds of 

 New South Wales) and a few species described by Quoy and Gaimard in the 



