Family— P AR D AL 0 TID JE . 
Genus —P ARDALOTUS. 
Pardalotus Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., 
p. 31, April 14th, 1816. Type (by 
monotypy) .. .. .. .. Pipra punctata Shaw and Nodder. 
Spizites Illiger, Abhandl. der Acad. Berlin, 
1812-1813, p. 230, 1816. Type (by 
monotypy) .. .. .. .. Pipra punctata Shaw and Nodder. 
Pardalotes only occur in Australia and Tasmania and I consider they 
constitute a family apart. These are very small birds with short stumpy 
lulls, long wings, short tail and medium legs and small feet. 
The bill is very short, somewhat laterally compressed, deeper at the base 
than wide, the lower mandible almost as stout as the upper mandible. The 
culmen is strongly arched, keeled, the tip a little decurved, with a notable 
posterior notch succeeded by a straight edge; the nostrils appear as slits 
placed at the base of the bill and are operculate but half hidden by frontal 
feathering; the under mandible stout, the interramal space very small and 
fully feathered, the gonys distinctly upcurved; no rictal bristles. 
The wing has the first primary very minute so that it is entirely hidden 
by the coverts and is generally written of as absent, the real second being 
spoken of as the first; this is exceeded by the second and third which are 
subequal and longest, and the so-called fourth is a little less than the first, 
the rest regularly decreasing to the secondaries which are fairly long. 
The tail is very short and square, the tail-coverts, both upper and under, 
reaching almost to the end of the tail. 
The legs are comparatively long and slender, the tarsus booted in front 
and bilaminate posteriorly; the toes are slender and the claws sharp; the 
middle toe longest, but the hind-toe and claw nearly as long as the middle 
toe and claw, the liind-claw stronger; the inner and outer toes subequal 
and the inner toe and claw a little longer than the middle toe alone. 
As showing how generally true conclusions based upon facts are, I will 
quote Gould’s review of this group: “ This form is peculiar to Australia, in 
every portion of which great country, including Tasmania, one or other of the 
