THE BIRDS OP AUSTRALIA. 
never sent over to America. The information contained in this catalogue 
is transcribed on the bottom of the stands, and consists of the number, name, 
sex and locality of each specimen, with the addition of the legend : 4 Type, 
Gould, Birds of Australia ’ every bird being so marked regardless of whether 
it was the type of the species or not While most of Gould’s Australian 
types are in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy, it should be borne 
in mind that some species were described from material that was never in 
his possession ; a few other types were never sent over, better specimens, 
apparently, having been substituted ; while types of species described after 
the date of the Wilson purchase in 1847 are usually to be found in the British 
Museum, which secured Gould’s later Australian material.” 
In that essay, upon these premises. Stone fixed upon the most likely 
specimen existing in the Philadelphia collection as the type and this was so 
regarded. That such may not be correct is certain from the following account. 
In the Introduction to the List of the Specimens of Birds in the Collection 
of the British Museum, Second Edition, Part I., Accipitres, 1848, John Edward 
Gray wrote: “The British Museum is fortunate in having received a large 
portion of its species (either in presents, or by way of exchange or purchase) 
from the several authors both in this country and abroad by whom the species 
to which they belong were originally described, or from the collections in which 
they first received their names. Thus, among the collections which have 
been received as presents, those presented by : 
“ Capt. William Chambers, B.N., as the types of the species from North- 
west Australia, described in Mr. Gould’s ‘ Birds of Australia.’ 
“ The Earl of Derby, Lieut. -Colonel Sir Thomas Mitchell, His Excell. Capt. 
George Grey, Capt. Sturt, and Mr. Juices, as the types of species described by 
Mr. Gould in his 4 Birds of Australia.’ 
44 Amongst the specimens or collections which have been procured by 
purchase or exchange, the following may be specially indicated, viz., those 
from Mr. Gould’s Collection, as the originals of the species described by that 
author in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ and figured in the ‘Birds 
of Australia.’ ” 
Such definite statements demanded attention and it was quickly seen 
that these were true, as under the species frequently the specimens were 
recognisable from the data above given. Confirmation was obtained by 
reference to the written account of the History of the Collections in the British 
Museum (Natural History) compiled by Sharpe. Sharpe was unaware of or 
ignored the statements above quoted, for in Vol. II., p. 246, is written 
under the year date 1837 : “ John Gould presented 172 specimens of birds 
to the Museum and 111 more were purchased from him. They were from 
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