,HE Avifauna of Australia is too ex- 

 tensive a theme to deal with com- 

 prehensively in a volume of the 

 present pretensions. The late Mr. John Gould's magnificent Monograph and his 

 smaller Manual upon this subject may, moreover, be appropriately recommended to all 

 those who desire to possess a fuller knowledge of the wealth of bird-life that is so 

 eminently distinctive of the Australasian Continent. In the present Chapter the writer 

 proposes to draw attention to a few special types only with which he made an 

 intimate friendship during his residence at the Antipodes. The recorded account of 

 these foregatherings will, he trusts, result in enlisting an increased share of public 

 interest in their favour. 



By concentrating attention upon some selected species and making its varied 

 aspects and habits a special study, one is astonished to find in the long run what a 

 different conception of the animal is arrived at from that where the acquaintanceship 



