TRANSACTIONS 01'" THE SECTIONS. Ill 



of the trans-contineutal Telegraph, would bo an excellent station lor a collecting 

 naturalist, and one where many novelties, both zoological and botanical, would 

 certainly be met Avith. 



On the Snakes of Australia we have an excellent work, published in 18G9, by Mr. 

 Gerard Kreft't (8), one of the few really working Australian naturalists, who, how- 

 ever, it appears, is not appreciated by the Trustees of the Sydney Museum as he 

 deserves to be. Mr. Krent during his long residence in Sydney, has become well 

 acquainted with the Ophidians of the Colony and has devoted special attention to 

 them, 80 that he has the advantage of practical as well as scientific acquaintance 

 with his subject. The late Dr. Gray has written many papers on the Tortoises and 

 Lizards of Australia. Of the latter, we have to thank Dr. Giinther for a complete 

 monogi-aphic list just published in one of the newly issued numbers of the 'Voyage 

 of the Erebus and Tenor ' (9). Most of the plates of this work were also issued 

 in 1867 bv Dr. Gray in his Fasciculus of the Lizards of Australia and New 

 Zealand (10). 



For information on the Fishes of Australia reference must be made to the 

 Ichthyological portion of the ' Zoology of the Erebus and Terror,' by Sir John 

 Ilichardson (0), and to the same author's numerous papers oa Australian Fishes 

 iu the ' Annals of Natural History ' and ' Transactions ' and ' Proceedings ' of the 

 Zoological Society of London (11-15). The Count F. de Casteluau, who seems to 

 be almost the only working Ichthj-ologist in Australia, has recently published in 

 the ' Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatization Society of Victoria ' several 

 papers on the Fishes of the Melbourne Fish-market and of other parts of Australia, 

 which include a complete synopsis of the known Austi-alian species (16-24). 



2. Paptja and its Islands. 



I believe that my paper upon the Mammals and Birds of New Guinea, published 

 by the Linnean Society in 1858 (25), was the first attempt to put together the 

 scattered fragments of om- knowledge of this subject. In 1859 a British-Museum 

 Catalogue by Dr. J. E. and Mr. G. R. Gray (26), "gave a resume of the then known 

 members of the same two classes belonging to New Guinea and the Aru Islands, 

 and included notices of all Mr. Wallace's discoveries. In 1862 Mr. Wallace gave 

 descriptions of the now species discovered subsequently to his return by his 

 assistant, Mr. Allen (27). In 1865 Dr. Finsch published at Bremen an excellent 

 little essay called ' Neu-Guinea und seine Bewohner' (28), in which is given a 

 complete accoimt of om" then state of knowledge of the subject. But within these 

 last ten years still more serious efforts have been made by naturalists of several 

 nations to penetrate this terra incognita. Two emissaries of the Leyden Museum 

 (Bernstein and v. Rosenberg) have sent home full series of zoological spoils to 

 that establishment, and have discovered a host of novelties. Of these the Birds 

 have been described by Prof. Schlegel in his ' Observations Zoologiques' (29). An 

 intrepid Italian traveller, Signor L. M. d'Albertis, made a still further advance, 

 when in September 1872 he accomplished the first ascent of the Arfak mountains *, 

 and discovered the splendid Bird of Paradise and other new species which I described 

 in 1873 (.30). Quickly following on his footsteps Dr. A. B. Meyer penetrated still 

 further into the unknown interior, and reaped the abundant harvest of which he 

 has given us an account in six papers lately published at Vienna (31-.36). Dr. 

 Meyer has now become Director of the Museum of Dresden, and is no doubt 

 occupied in the further elaboration of his rich materials. In the meanwhile some 

 accomplished Italian naturalists are engaged on the collections of D'Albertis and 

 his quondam companion Beccari. Count Salvadori, who is at work on the birds, 

 will take the opportunity of preparing a complete account of the Ornithology of 

 Papua and its islands, similar to that of Borneo, of which I have already spoken. 

 The Marquis Giacomo Doria has already published one excellent paper on the 

 Reptiles of Amboina and the K^ Islands collected by his compatriot Beccari (37), 

 and is preparing other memoirs on the Mammals and Reptiles of New Guinea 

 and the Ai-oo Islands obtained by D'Albertis. 



Dr. Meyer has lately given an account of his Herpetological discoveries in New 



* See ' Nature,' vol. viii. p. 501. 



