AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE,— CONCHOLOGY, ETc. 119 
confined to Australia, and of which the P. gutturalis 
(fig. 54.), or black-crowned 
species, is the most beautiful : 
the body is yellow, the throat 
white, and the breast crossed by 
a black crescent. Yet, in other 
groups, we detect the distant 
ramifications which connect this 
province both with Africa and 
with Asia. The short-tailed and 
the long-tailed finches (Amadina 
and Estrelda Sw.), the Drongo 
shrikes (Edolius Cuv.), and the stonechats (Campicola 
Sw.), are groups belonging likewise to the two adjacent 
continents; while of the genus comprising the Ori- 
ental ant-thrushes (Pitta Tem.), two most lovely species 
have been found in New Holland: here, also, we find 
the Indian genus Ocypteryx, or the swallow shrikes, 
and the cassowary, representing the ostrich of Africa. 
(169.) The conchology of New Ireland and New Hol- 
land is so similar, that one half of the species found by 
M. Lesson on the coasts of the former island are no less 
abundant in New South Wales ; while a great propor- 
tion of the remainder occur in the Indian Ocean. On 
the coasts of New Holland are found many of the most 
beautiful and rare volute shells 
known to our cabinets; the 
snow-spotted volute (Cymbiola 
nivosa Sw.) * is one of the 
rarest (fig, 55.): it has two 
dark bands upon a flesh-co- 
loured ground, and the surface is entirely covered with 
white dots. 
(170.) The nature of the third division is but ob- 
scurely known, for the Pacitic Islands have never been 
visited, since the voyages of the celebrated Banks, by 
scientific naturalists. The quadrupeds are so few that 
54 
* Exotic Conchology, plate 5. 
I 
