PREFACE. 
Having in the summer of 1837 brought my work on the “ Birds of 
Europe” to a successful termination, I was naturally desirous of turning 
my attention to the Ornithology of some other region ; and a variety 
of opportune and concurring circumstances induced me to select that 
of Australia, the birds of which, although invested with the highest 
degree of interest, had been almost entirely neglected. Dr. Shaw, in 
his “ Zoology of New Holland,” had devoted a few plates to the subject, 
from specimens collected by Sir Joseph Banks during the first voyage 
of Captain Cook ; the “ Birds of New Holland ” by Lewin comprised 
not more than twenty-six plates; and figures and descriptions of a few 
species were given in the earlier voyages of Phillip, White and Collins, 
and'the more recent one of King. At a subsequent period the late Mr. 
Vigors and Dr. Horsfield commenced an elaborate memoir on the Col- 
lection of Australian Birds in the possession of the Linnean Society ; 
but unfortunately, they did not proceed farther than the Melqihagidce, 
and the non-completion of their labours is the more to be regretted, 
inasmuch as the Linnean Society’s collection of Australian birds, at that 
time the finest extant, comprised many species collected by Mr. Brown 
during his voyage with the celebrated navigator Flinders, and was more- 
over enriched with some interesting notes by the late Mr. George Caley, 
by whom the collection was chiefly formed. Descriptions of many Au- 
stralian birds were also included in the works of Latham, Shaw, Cuvier and 
Vieillot, as well as in several of the recent French voyages of discovery ; 
still no general work on the subject had been undertaken, and nearly 
all that had been recorded by the various writers above enumerated, 
had reference almost exclusively to the productions of New South 
Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, these being almost the only explored 
portions of that great country. In the absence, then, of any general 
work on the Birds of Australia, the field was comparatively a new 
one, and of no ordinary degree of interest, from the circumstance of 
its being one of the finest possessions of the British Crown, and from 
its natural productions being as remarkable for the anomalous nature 
of their forms, as for their beauty, and the singularity of their habits. 
In the attempt to supply this desideratum I commenced publishing 
from the materials then accessible, but soon found, from the paucity 
of information extant upon the subject, that it could not be executed 
in a manner that would be satisfactory to my own mind, or commen- 
surate with the exigencies of science ; I therefore determined to 
proceed to Australia and personally investigate (so far as a stay of 
two years would allow) the habits and manners of its birds in a 
state of nature. I accordingly left England in May 1838, provided, 
by the liberality of Government, with letters from Lord Glenelg, 
at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies; Sir George Grey, 
Bart., and Gordon Gairdner, Esq., of the Colonial Office, recom- 
mending me to the countenance and protection of the various Governors, 
and requesting them to afford me such aid and assistance in furtherance 
of my objects as they might have it in their power to render ^ similar 
favours were also granted me by the authorities of the Admiralty, 
who, through their Secretary, Sir John Barrow, directed the captains 
and commanders of Her Majesty’s ships and vessels employed on the 
B 
