I N T R O D U C T I O N .
I n the preface to my seven volumes on the Birds of Australia, published just twenty years
ago, I ventured an opinion that although the work comprised every species known to inhabit
that vast country up to the date of its completion, each new district that might be explored
would probably afford additional species; this prediction has been fully verified, and I have now
the gratification of completing a Supplemental volume, containing figures and descriptions of
the novelties that have been obtained during the interval between 1848 and 1868. Were I
asked if I think there are many more undescribed birds yet to be discovered in that great
southern land, I should answer in the affirmative, and add my belief that, as exploration
proceeds and fresh colonies are established, new birds will be brought to light. Whether I
may he permitted to see these novelties, and to produce a second Supplementary volume, must
depend upon the will of that High Power which has enabled me to devote so large a part of my
life to the illustration of one of the most beautiful of its mainfold creations. If the blessing
of health he continued to me, I trust I shall not he found wanting in energy or desire to do
justice to the delineation and description of any novelties that may be discovered, it being as
much a labour of love to be thus engaged now as when ardour and youth went hand m hand
during my visit to the distant country one portion of whose natural productions I trust I
have not in vain attempted to illustrate.
It might naturally have been supposed that the newly explored regions, distant as they
are from the old and well-trodden tracts, would present us with some new genera as well as
new species; and this has been the case, but only to a limited extent, the ornithology of
Australia proving to be very persistent, the forms of which it is composed being much
the same in the north as in the south. It is true that there are a few exceptions to this law ;
and exceptions they are in the strictest sense of the word. The most important addition to