AUSTRALIAN PROVINCE. CONCHOLOGY, ETC. 119 



54 



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 Ukewise 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 Pacific Islands have never been 

 visited, since the voyages of the celebrated Banks, by 

 scientific naturalists. The quadrupeds are so few that 



Exotic Conchology, plate 5. 



I 4 



