Information resjiecting Zoological Travellers. ". 117 



thologist and naturalist has hitherto been attended with the most 

 signal success ; and we have no doubt, if spared to complete his in- 

 tended voyage to New Zealand, that the information and collections 

 gained will be of the most important and valuable kind. His remarks 

 on the habits of Menura and Cinclosoma will be read with much in- 

 terest by the ornithologist. 



" Maitland, River Hunter, N. S. Wales, Sept. 28, 1839. 



" You may readily imagine the extreme gratification I feel in vi- 

 siting this fine country, teeming as it does with so many interesting 

 and beautiful productions. My success up to the present time 

 has been greater than I could have anticipated, both in obtain- 

 ing much information that is entirely new, and in bringing to- 

 gether one of the finest collections that has ever been formed, I 

 have as a matter of course made a point of attending to those parti- 

 culars which have hitherto been overlooked, not only by collecting 

 the birds in their various changes of plumage, but by preserving all 

 the principal forms for dissection, as well as by preparing skeletons 

 of the same in the country. I have also made the quadrupeds a par- 

 ticular object of my attention, and have extensive collections in this 

 department; and I hope to possess myself of suflicient information 

 before my return to enable me to clear up the confusion which exists 

 with regard to the kangaroos, &c. 



" Six months ago I sent a short summary of my proceedings to the 

 Zoological Society*, with the characters of some new species of 

 birds, since which I have visited South Australia, a part that has 

 aiForded me more novelties than any other. This journey has also 

 enabled me to draw some very important conclusions relative to the 

 range of a number of species ; the absence of those found on the sea 

 side of the great ranges in New South Wales being particularly stri- 

 king, while those which inhabit Liverpool plains are also found in 

 South Australia. Out of two and a half months' visit to this part, 

 I spent five weeks entirely in the bush in the interior, partly on the 

 ranges and partly on the belts of the Murray. To give you a de- 

 tailed account of all the new species I have discovered would occupy 

 too much time at this moment : some of the more interesting are as 

 follows : A new form of the gallinaceous birds nearly allied to Tin- 

 namus, but scarcely larger than an English sparrow or half the size 

 of a quail; it is in fact a diminutive bustard with a hind toe. A new 

 and beautiful Cinclosoma, which I intend calling castanotus from a 



* This will be found among the Proceedings of the Society in our pre- 

 sent Number, p. 139. 



