68 COLONIAL MUSEUM. 



merous. There are also several of the mammalia, 

 and reptiles of the colony in the collection. 



But, in a country where specimens could be 

 procured in the majority of instances in almost 

 any number, it would be of great interest to the 

 lover of science, as well as to the admirer of 

 nature, and also considerably increase the value 

 of the collection and the advancement of scien- 

 tific knowledge, if, besides among the birds, the 

 male and female specimens being preserved, any 

 showing the changes of plumage, which so fre- 

 quently occur in the feathered tribe from the 

 juvenile to the adult age ; the nest and eggs, 

 together with the skeletons, or any remark- 

 able anatomical peculiarity, should also be pre- 

 served. The same system may be adopted with 



mentioned by Captain Cook, but is a very rare species in tlie 

 present known parts of the colony, — (it is, more correctly, a 

 species of cockatoo, and which, I believe, Mr. Vigors has, or 

 intends, to place in a new genus,) — and has not been seen 

 even in those portions of the colony visited by Cook. The 

 specimen in the collection, is one among a few of this species 

 that was seen at Wellington Valley a few years since, during 

 a prevailing drought, and since that period they have not been 

 seen in that or any other known part of the colony. I heard 

 at Yas Plains, that it was not uncommon at some seasons of 

 the year to observe birds, before unknown to the colonists, 

 appear, and soon after again disappear, and are, perhaps, never 

 seen again until years after, and often not at all. 



