SYSTEMATIC LIST 



OF 



TASMANIAN BIRDS: 



BY 



COL. W. V. LEGGE, R.A., F.Z.S., fee. 



NOTE.— In the following Systematic List, the Birds of Tasmania are 

 divided into 12 Orders. The object has been to supply workers in Ornithology 

 with an idea as to the proper classification of our birds, prior to the issue of a 

 systematic catalogue, which it is hoped will be published next year. By the 

 term " proper" must be understood a classification that will group together 

 such families as are manifestly allied to one another, and place them in that 

 sequence which is the natural outcome of the affinities of the genera of one 

 family with those of another. There are, it is true, gaps to be found in most 

 of the great recognised Orders which are difficult to bridge over ; but, as a rule, 

 members of one family (or sub-family) are found, by reason of their anatomy 

 or their habits, to grade into one another in such a manner as to enable the 

 systematist to group them in a natural sequence. 



So bug as the world lasts there will bo differences of opinion as to the 

 right classification of birds ; and therefore the best course to be followed by 

 the systematic student of the avifauna of a small "region" like that of 

 Tasmania is to adopt such a system as will work easily, provided the claims of 

 anatomy and external structure, combined with the affinities demonstrated by 

 habit, are not ignored. 



The system followed in this List is that adopted in the Birds of Ceylon 

 with some slight modifications. The Accipitres (Hawks) are placed first, and 

 the Hawks are followed by the Psittaci (Parrots) with their similarly hooked 



