Mr. Swainson on New Australasian Birds. 46S 



Art. LX. On the Characters and Natural Affinities of 

 several New Birds from Australasia ; including some Ob- 

 servations on the Columbidai. By William Swainson^ 

 Esq. F.R. % L.S. M.W.S., Sfc. 



The vast Island of New Holland, or Australasia, presents to the 

 philosophic Naturalist a more interesting field for enquiry, than 

 any other division of the globe. Extending from Lat. 10 to 43 

 S., and spreading over 44 degrees of Longitude, this terra incog- 

 nita occupies a surface little inferior to the Continent of Europe. 

 Yet of this extensive tract, even the coasts are but imperfectly 

 known ; while the interior presents, in our best maps, an unlet- 

 tered blank. Of its natural productions we may be said, compara- 

 tively, to know nothing. It is true that such districts as are in the 

 vicinity of our settlements, have been partially explored, and that 

 their productions have excited the astonishment and enquiries of 

 European philosophers. But when we turn to the map, and see 

 what an insignificant proportion such districts bear to the whole of 

 New Holland, we are struck with our present ignorance, and lost 

 in conjectures on the unknown forms of animated beings which 

 may people the interior of this remote region. 



To the Linnean Society of London belongs the honor of having 

 formed the most extensive collection of the Zoological productions 

 of Australasia now in this country. A few liberal and enlightened 

 members of that learned body conceived it would be rendering an 

 important service to British Naturalists, to collect together for their 

 information and instruction the productions of the most extensive 

 Colony under our dominion. Such a project is surely worth 

 the attention of the Directors of our National Museum, for it is 

 in their power to extend and facilitate an undertaking of this na- 

 ture, infinitely more than can be expected from the exertions of a 

 few private individuals. The present Administration have always 

 evinced, in the most decided manner, a prompt desire to facili- 

 tate the advancement of Science, when the means have been sug- 

 gested to them. Australasia is entirely our own ; and, in all pro- 



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