ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OP ORNITHOLOGY. 191 



This publication has tended to create a taste for natural history in the 

 Australian colonies, which will advance the cause of morality and civiliza- 

 tion. Among recent proofs of an improved tone of mental cultivation, I 

 may mention the ' Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science,' commenced at 

 Hobart Town in 1842, and which is a publication highly creditable to the 

 southern hemisphere. One of its chief contributors is the Rev. T. J. Ewing, 

 who is ardently devoted to science, and who has already increased our know- 

 ledge of Australian ornithology. 



The tropical parts of the Australian continent exhibit, as might be ex- 

 pected, many new and beautiful forms. A few of these were made known 

 in Capt. King's ' Survey of Intertropical Australia,' 1827; and the labours 

 of Mr. Gould's collector, Mr. Gilbert, will now render the zoology of North- 

 ern and Western Australia as familiar to us as that of New South Wales. 



Neio Zealand. — The earliest information on the ornithology of New Zea- 

 land was obtained by Forster during the voyage of Capt. Cook, of which we 

 shall learn more particulars in Prof. Lichtenstein's forthcoming edition of 

 Forster's MSS. A few additional species are described in the Voyage of the 

 Coquille, 1826, and of the Astrolabe, 1830 ; but little was subsequently added 

 until 1842, when Dr. DiefFenbach submitted his collection to the examination 

 of Mr. G. R. Gray, and the result will be found in the interesting ' Travels 

 in New Zealand' of the former gentleman. As in most oceanic islands remote 

 from a continent, the terrestrial ornithology of New Zealand is somewhat 

 limited ; but some interesting representatives of the Australian fauna are there 

 found, and the extraordinary structures of those anomalous birds, the Apteryx 

 and Dinornis, atone in point of interest for the general paucity of species. 



The aquatic ornithology of the Southern Ocean and its isles has been 

 hitherto in a state of the greatest neglect and confusion ; but some valuable 

 materials for its elucidation will be supplied by the' Voyages of the Erebus 

 and Terror,' now in course of publication, as well as by many details intro- 

 duced in Gould's ' Birds of Australia.' 



Africa. — The zoology of Lower Egypt has received but few accessions 

 since the French expedition to Egypt ; but that of Nubia and Abyssinia, the 

 foundations of which were laid by Bruce and by the present Earl of Derby, 

 who added a valuable appendix to Salt's ' Voyage,' has been since greatly ex- 

 tended by the labours of Riippell and Ehrenberg. The ' Atlas zu der Reise 

 in Nordlichen Afrika,' and the ' Neue Wirbelthiere ' of the former author, are 

 especially valuable for the fulness and accuracy of the descriptions, and for 

 the critical remarks with which they are accompanied. The lithographic 

 plates, though rather coarsely executed, are sufficiently characteristic. The 

 author has made further additions to this subject in his ' Museum Sencken- 

 bergianum.' The ' Symbolse Physicas' of Messrs. Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 

 contain some accurate information on the ornithology of Abyssinia, Egypt 

 and Syria, and we may regret that this excellent work was never completed. 

 Besides much original matter, the authors have added many careful criti- 

 cisms on the works of other authors who have written on the zoology of 

 those countries. Some additions to Abyssinian ornithology have also been 

 made by M. Guerin-Meneville, 'Revue Zoologique,' 1843. 



No special work has been produced on the ornithology of Western Africa, 

 except the useful little book by Swainson, Avhich forms two volumes of Sir 

 W. Jardine's ' Naturalist's Library.' Many new species are there defined and 

 figured with care. 



The birds procured during the late unfortunate expedition to the Niger 

 are described in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' by Mr. Fraser, 

 who accompanied the party as naturalist. 



