9786 Notices of Books. 



press remains to us, with its miraculous power of reproducing the 

 effigies and charactei-s of those beings which have once been faithfully 

 portrayed. 



But let us hear Mr. Gould, on the birds. ~ 



" Although Australia is destitute of many of the great groups of birds 

 inhabiting India and its islands, she possesses many other equally sin- 

 gular forms especially adapted to find their existence among her very 

 remarkable flora, and her equally remarkable insects. Of these her 

 sixty species of parrots, scarcely one of which is found beyond her 

 limits, are unrivalled for size and beauty of plumage ; conspicuous also 

 are the extensive group of honey-eaters forming the family Meliphagidse, 

 the elegant Maluri, the forest-loving bower-birds, and the graceful 

 Menuras : all these, combined, furnish abundant illustration of the 

 remark with which I commenced. The absence of such birds as 

 hornbills from Australia is evidently due to the circumstance of her 

 flora not comprising any of the numerous large fruit-bearing trees which 

 occur in India and Africa, and which are so essential to the existence 

 of these birds ; in like manner she is destitute of woodpeckers, because 

 the baik of her trees is not adapted for the shelter of the insects upon 

 which they love to feed ; neither do her few berry-bearing shrubs offer 

 attractions to the Eurylaimi or the omnivorous barbets and Trigons, 

 No true wagtail trips over her hard-baked soil in pursuit of Aphides 

 and other minute insects, as in Britain; no Saxicola enlivens with its 

 sprightly actions her sterile wastes ; and feebly indeed, among her birds, 

 are represented the melodious notes which are freely poured forth by 

 many of the species inhabiting countries north of the equator, and 

 which render the spring such a joyous period in England. No mavis 

 has she to usher in the morning, and terminate the summer day, with 

 its vigorous note; no Philomel to break the stillness of night with its 

 joyous song: quietude, as regards the voice of birds, reigns supreme; 

 or if there be any exception to tl)is rule, it is the noisy screams of her 

 parrots, the monotonous though liquid notes of some of her honey- 

 eaters, the loud call of the Meuura, or the warbling of the reed- 

 birds. 



" Some parts of the avifauna of Australia are, however, very similar 

 to that of other countries ; eagles, hawks, harriers and owls play their 

 accustomed parts ; while swifts, swallows, martins, and flycatchers per- 

 form the same oflSces as with us ; the nocturnal group of Caprimulgidae 

 are not wanting where Phasmidae and Cicadas abound; petrels, gulls, 

 terns, and penguins frequent her seas; her rock-bound shores have 



