PORT PHILLIP. 115 



CHAPTER IX. 



A CHAPTER ON THE OKNITHOLOGY OF POET PHILLIP. 



HAVING described those birds which, more particularly 

 belong to the sportsman, a slight glance at the other 

 species most commonly met with in the Melbourne dis- 

 trict will perhaps not be without interest to the general 

 reader. But I may as well at once state that I have 

 neither the intention nor ability of entering upon the 

 subject scientifically. The few remarks that I am about 

 to make are solely the result of my own observation, for 

 I had little or no assistance in my zoological researches 

 out here. I had no work on the ornithology of the 

 country to guide me, and no one who knew the birds to 

 help me. I know nothing of the Latin names of the 

 birds, nor to what class even many of them belong ; and 

 the English names which I use are those by which they 

 were known to us in the bush, and perhaps many of them 

 altogether wrong. My notices must necessarily be short 

 and very imperfect ; and, as I had not the slightest in- 

 tention of publishing when in the bush, I kept but few 

 notes, and nearly all that I have written is from memory. 

 I have, however, as far as I could, endeavoured to give 

 a description of such birds as I know ; and, short as they 

 are, I trust my notes will answer the purpose for which 

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