viii PREFACE. 
of science, in the advancement of which no one was more ardent, to induce him to join 
Dr. Leichardt in his overland journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. On this 
expedition, he, as usual, displayed his wonted zeal and activity until the 28th of June, when, 
the party being treacherously attacked by the natives, his valuable life was sacrificed, 1 lost 
a most able coadjutor, and science has to deplore one of her most devoted servants; 
fortunately, however, in despite of the many difficulties and dangers which beset the party 
during the remainder of their journey, his journals and notes, together with the specimens he 
had been able to procure, were preserved and transmitted to me by Dr. Leichardt, and proved 
of valuable assistance in determining the range of many of the species. 
My own researches commenced immediately after passing the Equator, from whence, 
throughout the entire route to Australia, I omitted no opportunity of studying the habits, and 
collecting the different species of the oceanic birds that came under my notice : these 
observations were again resumed on my return to England ; and as the outward passage 
was by the Cape of Good Hope, and the homeward one by Cape Horn, they extended 
round the globe, and, as will be seen in the course of the work, have led to some 
important results. And here I must acknowledge my obligations to the various captains 
with whom I sailed, namely Captain M'^Keliar of the " Parsee," which vessel conveyed me 
to Van Diemen's Land ; Captain Harding of the " Black Joke," in which I proceeded from 
Launceston to Adelaide ; Captain Fell of the " Catherine Stewart Forbes," in which I returned 
from Adelaide to Hobart Town ; Captain Gilchrist of the " Potentate," in which I sailed from 
Hobart Town to Sydney; and Lieutenant Mallard, R.N., of the " Kinnear," which brought me 
to England ; all of whom rendered me every assistance in their power, and the use of a boat 
and crew whenever the weather would admit of one being lowered, by which means I was 
enabled to obtain nearly forty species of Petrel, being the finest collection of the Procellaridce 
ever brought together. 
At the commencement of the work it was not expected that it would prove so extensive as 
it has become, since not more than about 300 species were then known, which number has now 
been increased, by the united efforts of myself and those who have so kindly aided my views, to 
upwards of 600 species, among which are comprised many forms remarkable for their novelty, 
the anomalous character of their structure, and the singularity of their habits, such as the Bower 
Birds {Ptilonorhynchi and Chlamyderce) and the Mound-raising Birds (Talegalla, Leipoa and 
