VI PREFACE. 



In order to facilitate a reference to the larger work 

 whenever it may be required, the name under which 

 each species appears therein, together with the number 

 of the volume, and of the plate on which it is figured, 

 is indicated at the head of the respective descriptions, in 

 a bold and conspicuous type. 



Modern research having ascertained that many of the 

 species believed at the time I wrote to be new had 

 been previously described by Latham and others, the 

 specific names assigned to them by those authors have, 

 in obedience to the law of priority, been restored ; and 

 the generic terms formerly employed have been changed 

 wherever, in accordance with the advanced state of orni- 

 thological science, I have deemed it necessary. 



Should any of my Australian readers consider that too 

 many divisions have l3een made, and too many generic 

 terms employed, I would direct their attention to the 

 works recently published on the birds of other countries, 

 and to the divisions and genera which their authors have 

 deemed necessary, and they will at once perceive that I 

 have not gone further in this direction than my ornitho- 

 logical compeers ; I would also remind them that a true 

 judgment on the necessity of so many separations cannot 

 be formed from the perusal of a work on the birds of any 

 single country, but can only be clearly understood when 

 all the known birds of the world arc brought under 



