336 
Gould's Birds 
The shells are very slightly water-worn, and are not in any 
degree cemented together. They seem to have been washed up 
by the sea ; and as they are six to nine feet above the usual high- 
water level, some violent storm must have thrown them up. 
Some unusual cause too must have operated to kill so many in¬ 
dividuals, within so limited a locality, about one time; as the 
shells are in the same state throughout the whole thickness of 
the beds, saving a slight decomposition on the surface exposed 
to the weather, and where numerous shrubs and plants, such as 
Fabricia , Leptospermum , Polygonum adpressum, &c., have taken 
root, and attained to considerable size; indicating a lapse of 
many years since the shells were deposited. During a walk of 
a mile along the beach on either side of the banks, I could find 
very few recent specimens of the same species of Pectunculus . 
The Van Diemen’s Land Company have removed some hun¬ 
dreds of tons of these shells, to their establishments at Circular 
Head and Woolnorth, to be burnt for lime; being the only de¬ 
scription used by them, and the banks are nearly gone. 
In the Instructions furnished to the Antarctic Expedition, by 
the Royal Society, occurs the following: 
“ On the shores of Storm Bay there are obscure appearances 
of a raised beach. Some miles east of Hobart Town there is 
said to be a great accumulation of oyster shells, which have been 
quarried for lime. Ascertain if all these shells are of recent 
species.” 
Some of the readers of the “ Tasmanian Journal” may be able 
to furnish the information here desired. 
Art. XV. Gould's Birds of Australia . 
Seventeen parts of this truly magnificent work have now been 
published, and we propose in a future number to devote some 
pages to a review of those parts which have appeared since we 
last noticed it at page 139 of our first volume. We shall content 
ourselves at present by giving, for the information of those who 
do not possess the work itself, a catalogue of the species already 
figured, together with their habitats. For this purpose we have 
