PEEFACE. 
O N the completion of this first volume little needs to be said, but as 
certain reviewers have pointed out supposed errors of omission and 
commission, I take this opportunity of explanation. 
My nomenclatural views I have fully detailed in the Novitates Zoolo- 
gic(E, Vol. XVII., pp. 492-503, 1910, and Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-22, 1911, and 
more especially for the benefit of Australian readers, in the Emu, 
Vol. X., pp. 317-326, and Vol. XI., pp. 52-58, 1911, and nothing further 
needs to be added. 
In some cases the meagre accounts of the life-history of species I 
have dealt with has been commented upon, but what I have written is all 
that is on record that can be trusted. My book therefore shows how 
little is known regarding the species already treated, and how much has 
yet to be learned. When searching the literature this has been especially 
impressed upon me, as I have found that many accounts printed in 
Australian books are made up of items relative to extra-Australian forms. 
The discrepancy between the names on the Plates and those used in 
the text has been also a source of remark. The explanation is that the 
Plates have to be prepared a long time in advance, and it is necessary 
that names be attached to the Plates. Some kind of consistent naming 
had to be attempted, and the names were therefore printed in accordance 
with the nomenclature accepted in my Handlist. But that nomenclature 
has proved inaccurate, as pointed out in the articles above quoted, 
and I have been engaged in correcting it ever since my Handlist was com- 
pleted. I have now finished my preliminary examination of the nomen- 
clature of Australian birds, and henceforth the Plates will be named 
according to my corrections. But already the Plates of Volume II., 
III. and part of IV. are finished, and these for the most part bear the 
names used in my Handlist. Though anxious that the names on the 
Plates and text should correspond, I cannot promise this throughout, as I 
purpose to give the result of my latest studies in the letterpress, what- 
ever name I may have used on the Plate. 
XI 
