The Zoologist — February, 1866. 41 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



' Handbook of the Birds of Australia.'' By John Gould, F.R.S., &c. 

 In Two Volumes. Royal 8vo. Published by the Author, at 

 No. 20, Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury. 



(Second and concluding notice.) 



In my first notice of this valuable work I took occasion to mention 

 the great disadvantage under which both author and reviewer labour 

 in a review of an incomplete work : in the present instance that dis- 

 advantage exists uo longer, for Mr. Gould, with the most praiseworthy 

 industry and promptitude, has completed a work which may hence- 

 forward rank as a most serviceable contribution to our knowledge of 

 antipodean Zoology. 



Of Mr. Gould's more expensive works it may truly be said that they 

 are treasures only to be obtained by the affluent; into such hands as 

 mine and those of thousands of naturalists who, like myself, are 

 thirsting for information, they can never fall ; and thus, while they 

 adorn the rich man's table, and are duly admired, they do not impart 

 that instruction to the masses which ought to result from Mr. Gould's 

 never-ending labours. This ' Handbook of the Birds of Australia,' 

 now complete in two volumes, supplies this desideratum as far as 

 Australia itself is concerned, and is by far the most exhaustive 

 account of the known Avifauna of any country that has yet issued 

 from the press. The qualification "known" is advisedly introduced, 

 because our knowledge of the interior is still most imperfect, and 

 there is yet unexplored territory in which even the largest Struthi- 

 onidae may rove undetected and undreamed of by civilized man. And 

 if Struthionidae, how much more the various passerine families, of 

 which our entire knowledge is restricted to the observations of some 

 dozen travellers who have now and then touched the shores of this 

 sea-girt continent. 



Dr. Jerdon, as I have already shown, has ably performed this task 

 for a large portion of continental India, leaving, however, his great 

 work somewhat incomplete, by restricting his labour to rather 

 capricious geographical limits; and the Avifauna of North America 

 has found most able exponents in the illustrious Wilson, in Nuttall, 

 Audubon and Baird ; still, however, allowing abundant room for such 

 a handbook as Mr. Gould's. 



SECOND SERIES VOL. I. G 



