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ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



cially, we should recommend the points of inquiry 

 above alluded to. Let them read the pages of WiLon, 

 now within the means of purchase of almost every 

 one*, and in the same style, or at least with the same 

 watchfulness and attention, and the same regard to the 

 most minute and apparently trivial circumstances- — let 

 them become the biographers of the common birds 

 around them; — if they will do this, science will be 

 more benefited than by hundreds of stuffed skins sent 

 over without any information of the living animals 

 which they once covered. The natural history of the 

 shrike crows (to which belong the genera Barrita and 

 Vanga) would form one of the most interesting papers 

 imaginable ; for we feel persuaded they are truly 

 Corvidce, with many of the habits of the shrikes. The 

 history of the turkey vulture t, the menura, and even 

 of the common parakeets, would possess both novelty 

 and interest ; and the different groups of the honey- 

 suckers {Meliphagidce) must each possess peculiar man- 

 ners. We feel so much interest in the elucidation of 

 these subjects, that we take thfs opportunity of offering 

 our assistance to any naturalist who may be disposed to 

 investigate them on the spot, and we would take care that 

 his observations should be published in this country, 

 " with all honours/' and elucidated by those scientific 

 notes which require the use of a library and museum.^ 

 We can hardly expect that those who have so lately 

 gone to the Swan River and other new districts, have 

 yet become sufficiently settled for indulging in pursuits 

 of this nature; but it may be as well to remind them 

 that they are upon unexplored ground — that nearly 

 every animal may probably be new to European natu- 

 ralists, and that an early investigation, as leisure per- 

 mits, will secure to them the honour of being the 



* The edition in Constable's Miscellany, in four small volumes, costs 

 only 16s. 



f See Field's interesting volume, Memoirs of New South Wales. 



% Communications addressed to the publishers will be regularly for- 

 warded to the author. One or two specimens of each species should always 

 accompany the description of its manners, which is all that is necessary to 

 be written. 



