32 
Family PIPRID^S. 
Genus Pardalotus. 
This form is peculiar to Australia, in every portion of which great 
country, including Van Diemen’s Land, one or other of the species 
I have figured are to be found ; some of them associated in the same 
district, and even inhabiting the same trees, while in other parts 
only a single species exists ; for instance, the P. punctatus , P. 
quadragintus and P . qffinis inhabit Van Diemen’s Land ; on the 
whole of the southern coast of the continent from east to west P. 
punctatus and P. striatus are associated ; the north coast is the 
cradle of the species I have called uropygialis , and the east coast 
that of melanocephalus , from both of which countries the others are 
excluded ; the true habitat of the beautiful species I have figured 
and described as P. rubricatus is not yet known. 
The seven species of this little group are each individually very 
numerous, which, together with their general distribution, may en- 
able them to effect some important operation in the economy of 
nature ; their chief food consisting of the larvae of insects. 
76. Pardalotus punctatus 
. . Vol. II. PI. 35. 
77. Pardalotus rubricatus, Gould . . . 
. . Voh II. PI. 36. 
78. Pardalotus quadragintus, Gould . 
. . Vol. II. PI. 37. 
79. Pardalotus striatus 
. . Vol. II. PI. 38. 
80. Pardalotus affinis, Gould 
. . Vol. II. PI. 39. 
81. Pardalotus melanocephalus, Gould . . 
. . Vol. II. Pl. 40. 
82. Pardalotus uropygialis, Gould 
. . Vol. II. PI. 41. 
Family LANIA1LE. 
Genus Strepera. 
Prior to the commencement of the present work only two species 
of this form ( S. graculina and S. Anaphonensis) had been described, 
and these had been referred to a different genus by almost every 
author who had occasion to mention them ; the older writers assign- 
ing them to Corvus , Coracias and Gracula, and the more modern 
ones to Cracticus and Barita : finding that its structure did not 
agree with the character of either of those genera, I (in 1837) pro- 
posed to make the first-mentioned species type of a new genus 
( Coronica ), not being aware at the time that this had been done 
some years before by M. Lesson, whose name, from its priority, is 
necessarily the one adopted. 
My researches in Australia have enabled me to add four other 
species to the group, three possessing well-defined specific characters, 
and one, the distinctive markings of which are not so apparent, but 
which, in my opinion, is equally distinct ; the specific characters of 
some groups of birds are, in fact, so difficult to be determined, both 
from the similarity of the species and the want of a knowledge of 
