I^ I^ E IF .^ C HI . 



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rpHE object of the present Edition is not so much to give a complete record of all the Australian 

 Birds at present known, as to give authentic information on the distriljution of the Species over 

 the Australian Continent and adjacent Islands. 



This list has been carefully worked up from note books kept during the last tliirty yeai's, in 

 fact since 1858, and advantage has been taken of recent ornithological publications and of a visit 

 to the European Museums, to correct the synonymy, and to give the oldest and most authentic 

 names, hence the necessity of a page being devoted to " Notes and References," which it is hoped 

 will prove useful. 



The opportunity has been taken to show by an asterisk in the third column those species 

 represented in the Collection of the Australian Museum ; while the fourth column gives the most 

 easily to be obtained reference to where an authentic description of each of the species may be 

 found. New localities for a great numljer of species have Ijeen recorded, and a few new species 

 added. 



A list of the birds found on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands has been appended, this is 

 necessarily very imperfect, but sliows all that have been recorded from these parts, as far as can at 

 present be ascertained, while one or two new species have been recently added. 



As it is intended to publish shortly a systematic index to the whole of the Australian 

 Avifauna, no particular classification has been employed, and the present Edition is mei'ely a fore- 

 runner of a work on the Birds of Australia by the same author, which is now being prepared 

 for the press. 



The accompanying sketcii map gives the boundaries of the Colonies as they at present stand, 

 and most of the localities mentioned througliout the List. 



Lastly, a new method of registration is employed, that of using numerals, Avhich renders tlie 



following out of the distribution of any species far more easy than the old, troublesome and 



inadequate vise of asterisks (*). 



Sydney, 1888. 



