II. — GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE MUSEUM. 13 



the left-hand side, and follows the cases round, tlie labels will 

 explain the specimens. It would not be easy to give an exact 

 description here, as this department will be subject to frequent 

 changes until it is removed to its permanent quarters in the old 

 wing. 



In the north wing of this floor is the collection of Australian 

 Birds in which about 700 species are represented. A passing 

 glance may be bestowed on a few of the most striking genera pecu- 

 liar to Australia. Some of the most remarkable are to be found 

 among the Bower-building birds (ScenoixeidceJ, including the 

 Cat-birds, Regent-bird, and Satin-birds, which are noted for their 

 peculiar habits of making playgrounds or bowers of sticks, and orna- 

 menting them with feathers, bones, shells, berries and other attrac- 

 tive objects ; the Scrub-birds {Atrichia) with their truly wonderful 

 powers of ventriloquism ; the L}' re-birds (Menura) noted for 

 their great power of mimicry ; the many and varied species of 

 Honey-eaters [Meliphagidce) ; and the gorgeously plumaged 

 Cockatoos, Parrots, and Lorikeets belonging to the family 

 Psittacidce. There are also the Mound-raising hirdi^ {Meg ajwdiidce) 

 which deposit their eggs in large tumuli of decaying vegetable 

 matter, and leave them to be hatched by the heat from the 

 fermentation of the mass ; this family includes the Wattled 

 Talegallus or Brush Turkey (Tcdegallus lathami)^ the Ocellated 

 Leipoa (Leijwa ocellata) better known to the colonists as the 

 Mallee-hen, and the Mound-raising Megapode {Megapodius tumu- 

 lus); the members of this last genus are not confined to Aus- 

 tralia, but are also found on the adjacent islands, and in New 

 Guinea. The family Struthionidm is represented by the well 

 known Emu, now being exterminated, and the Cassowary (Casio- 

 arius australis), a denizen of the dense and almost impenetrable 

 scrubs of North-eastern Queensland, which is also rapidly becom- 

 ing extinct. The peculiar Cape Barron Goose (Cereopsis novce- 

 hollandice) is worthy of attention, as it is the only species of 

 the genus, and with the Semipalmated Goose (Anse7'anas melano- 

 leuca), and the well-known Musk Duck (Biziicra lobafa), is 

 confined to Australia. The Cereopsis, is allied to a fossil form 

 (Cnemioi'nis calcitrans) found in the New Zealand Moa-beds. 

 The Sea Birds are well represented, from the gigantic Albatross, 



