28 
years from its discovery but little was known respecting its 
habits and economy. Having only external structure to guide 
them, it was placed amongst the gallinaceous birds. Notwith¬ 
standing its great size and extraordinary form of tail, in every 
other point it differs from the gallinacece. It forms one of the 
insessores, or perching birds; and by one ornithologist, from its 
covered nest, it was placed among the wrens, but it is more 
correctly classed among the thrushes. The young are helpless 
and blind when hatched. To rear these birds it was recom¬ 
mended to place the eggs under a hen. Should this have been 
effected, judge of the surprise of the hen at her blind and feeble 
progeny. It will be necessary to presene these birds from 
extermination, especially the talegcdla and that family, for they 
are now becoming scarce, and, from the present wholesale 
destruction of the eggs and birds, they will soon be numbered 
with the extinct birds—as the Phillip Island parrot, the gigantic 
New Zealand rail (not orn is mantellii) and many others. It is 
probable but that few persons have had an opportunity of 
observing this interesting bird in this, its native country; while, 
thanks to the benefit resulting from acclimatisation, it can he 
seen daily in London, together with a number of the Australian 
mammals and birds, in an agreeable state of domestication. 
For the beautiful specimens of the male and female of these 
birds, and for the other preserved skins of the elegant birds on 
the table, I am indebted to the great kindness of Dr. William 
Houston, of Castlereagh-street, as without them I could not 
illustrate my subject, as no public institution in the colony was 
sufficiently liberal to permit a specimen to he removed from their 
collection for the illustration of the subject. 
Among the beautiful gallinaceous birds it would be desirable 
to introduce into this colony and acclimatise, the elegant Hima¬ 
layan pheasants, such as the Impeyan pheasant or monal, tlie 
cheer, tlie purple, white-crested, and black-backed kaleege, the 
tragopan or horn pheasant, and the Java and black-shouldered 
peacocks. All these valuable birds have been reared successfully 
in England, and could readily be acclimatised in Australia. 
Mr. Sclater, the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, 
in his report on the pheasants, observes that, at the commence¬ 
ment of the year 1860, the breeding stock of Himalayan 
pheasants consisted of three pairs of the black-backed, two pairs 
of the white-crested, and one pair of the purple kaleege, one pair 
of cheers, and three of Impeyans. These ten females produced 
altogether 141 eggs, being twenty-seven less than the same 
