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IX. A Description of ilie Australian Birds in the Collection of 

 the Linnean Society ; zcùth an Attempt at arranging them ac- 

 cording to their natural Affinities. By N. A. J'igors, Esq., 

 M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., and F.G.S.; and Thomas Horsfield, 

 M.D., F.L.S., and F.G.S. Communicated by the Zoological 

 Club of the Linnean Society. 



Read June 21, IS25 ; and January 17, 1826. 



In submitting to the Linnean Society the following observations 

 on the Ornithology of New Holland, which have been founded 

 upon an examination of the birds contained in their valuable 

 collection, we presume that little explanation, much less apology, 

 is necessary for the mode in which our researches have been 

 conducted. The mode, Ave need scarcely premise, accords with 

 those principles which have been introduced into zoology by 

 one of the most distinguished naturalists of this Society, and is 

 founded upon the affinities and analogies of the groups of the 

 animal world, with the view of ascertaining their station in 

 nature. 



In regulating our researches according to these principles, we 

 have found it necessary to make some partial alterations in the 

 nomenclature which has been generally adopted in this country, 

 until lately, for the groups of ornithology. And in introducing 

 this modification of the scientific terms of Linnaeus, we feel some 

 apprehensions that we may be supposed to deviate from those 

 principles of our great master, which the naturalists of this coun- 



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