74 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS.—SECTION D. 
between the epoch-making event of 1770 and the present time 
stands the memorable visit of John Gould and his coadjutor, 
Gilbert—a very notable landmark indeed in the history of a 
knowledge of the fauna. This enterprising naturalist left Eng- 
land in May, 1838. His visit to Australia, therefore, is almost 
synchronous with the commencement of the Victorian Era. At 
this time Australia had been colonised for slightly more than 
half a century, and a good deal had transpired which directly 
affected the well-being of the fauna, as well as the character 
and growth of knowledge respecting it. At this time, too, 
Caley, Fraser, and R. Cunningham had for some time finally 
rested from their labours. A. Cunningham was in ill-health, 
and he died in June of the year following. Robert Brown some 
time previously had completed his contributions to a knowledge 
of the Australian flora with the exception of the Botanical Ap- 
pendix to Sturt’s “ Expedition into Central Australia,” pub- 
lished in 1849. The first important chapter of Australian 
botanical history was approaching its close. From a British 
point of view the first really important chapter of zoological 
history might be said to be just about to commence. 
It is of interest to give Gould’s reasons for coming in his 
own words, thus :— ‘a ayn in the summer of 1837 brought 
my work on the ‘ Birds of Europe’ to a successful termination, 
I was naturally desirous of turning my attention to the Orni- 
thology of some other region; and a variety of opportune and 
concurring circumstances induced me to select that of Australia, 
the birds of which, although invested with the highest degree 
of interest, had been almost entirely neglected. . . . In 
the absence, then, of any general work on the Birds of Australia, 
the field was comparatively a new one, and of no ordinary 
degree of interest, from the circumstance of its being one of 
the finest possessions of the British Crown, and from its natural 
productions being as remarkable for the anomalous nature of 
their forms, as for their beauty, and the singularity of their 
habits. In the attempt to supply this desideratum I com- 
menced publishing from the materials then accessible, but soon 
found, from the paucity of information extant upon the subject, 
that it could not be executed in a manner that would be satis- 
factory to my own mind, or commensurate with the exigencies 
of science; I therefore determined to proceed to Australia, and 
personally investigate (so far as a stay of two years would 
allow) the habits and manners of its birds in a state of nature. 
I accordingly left England in May, 1838.” 
“But if the Birds of Australia had not received that degree 
of attention from the scientific ornithologist which their interest 
demanded, I can assert without fear of contradiction that its 
highly curious and interesting mammals had been still less 
investigated. It was not, however, until I arrived in the 
