Bibliographical Notices. 367 
found are scarcely available to any but the professed naturalist ; and 
we know of no work professing to give a sketch of the ordi na- 
tural productions of Australia, for the use of the general reader, such 
as Dr. Bennett has furnished in the book before us. A residence of 
nearly thirty years in New South Wales, interspersed only with 
occasional voyages, principally in the Australasian Seas, during the 
whole of which he appears to have been constantly engaged in the 
acquisition of zoological and botanieal information, may be regarded 
as giving him some right to speak with authority upon the natural 
history of his adopted country; and the value of many observations 
upon the habits of birds and other animals, for which we are already 
indebted to our author, will confirm this right in the eyes of the scien- 
tific naturalist. In fact, several of the most valuable and important 
zoological chapters of the present work have already been communi- 
cated by the author to the Zoological Society : such are those on the 
Ornithorhynchus, the Mooruk, and the Australian Jabiru. 
Passing over Dr. Bennett’s account of marine animals observed on 
his voyage to Sydney, we find that the first actual step into the 
zoology of Australia is made by his observations upon that most 
anomalous of all vertebrate animals, the Ornithorhynchus. Indeed 
this seems to have been one of the first objects to which he directed 
his attention on his arrival in New South Wales, when we find him 
setting out in pursuit of the “ Mallangong”’ (as it is termed by the 
natives) with an energy which astonished those dusky gentry, who 
could not understand why the “white feller,” with plenty of cattle 
and sheep at his command, should take so much trouble to get an 
inferior article of food. Dr. Bennett’s account of the Ornithorhyn- 
chus, of which he had several specimens alive, forms one of the most 
interesting chapters in his book. 
The descriptions of the manners of the Australian Jabiru (Mye- 
teria australis) and of the Mooruk or Cassowary of New Britain in 
confinement, are likewise highly interesting. For the discovery of the 
latter bird we are indebted to Dr. Bennett; and his name has deservedly 
been handed down to posterity in its scientific denomination of Ca- 
suarius Bennetti. Besides these, we find brief notes on numerous 
other birds of Australia and the neighbouring islands, such as the 
Albatrosses, Tropic-Birds, Frigate-Birds, Petrels and Gulls of the 
coasts, and the King-fishers, Cuckoos, Lyre-Birds, Honey-eaters, 
Bower-Birds, Pigeons, and Parrots of the interior. And, in con- 
nexion with these, Dr. Bennett calls the attention of his fellow-colo- 
nists to the effects of the wanton or ignorant destruction of the 
feathered inhabitants of the countries in which they have taken up 
their abode, pointing out, as has frequently been done (we fear with 
very little effect) in this country, not only that many interesting 
birds are now nearly exterminated in regions where, not many years 
ago, they gave animation to the woods and fields, but that, by con- 
stantly shooting or driving away birds which we may suppose to 
be injurious to our possessions, we are in many cases actually de- 
stroying our best friends. Even in the case of those birds which 
are known to be most destructive to the produce of our fields and 
