An introduction to the birds of Australia / by John Gould.

  • John Gould
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the birds of Australia / by John Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    So little has as yet been ascertained respecting the climatology of western, north-western and northern Australia, that it is not known whether theyr also are subject to these tremendous visita- tions ; but as we have reason to believe that the intertropical parts of the country are favoured with a more constant supply of rain as well as a lower degree of temperature, it is most probable that they do not there occur. Independently of the vast accession of birds attracted by the great supply of food, as mentioned above, there are many species which make regular migrations, visiting the southern parts of the continent and Van Diemen’s Land during the months of summer, for the purpose of breeding and rearing their progeny, and which retire again northwards on the approach of winter, following in fact the same law which governs the migrations of the species in- habiting similar latitudes of the Old World. There are also periods when some species of birds appear to entirely forsake the part of the country in which they have been accustomed to dwell, and to betake themselves to some distant locality, where they re- main for five or ten years, or even for a longer period, and whence they as suddenly disappear as they had arrived. Some remarkable instances of this kind came under my own observation ; for in- stance, the beautiful little warbling Grass Parrakeet (' Melopsittacus undulatus), which, prior to 1838, was so rare in the southern parts of Australia that only a single example had been sent to Europe, arrived in that year in such countless multitudes on the Liverpool plains, that I could have procured any number of specimens, and more than once their delicate bodies formed an excellent article of food for myself and party. The Nymphicus Novce Hollandice forms another case in point, and the beautiful Harlequin Bronze-winged Pigeon (Peristera histrionica) a third; this latter bird occurred in such numbers on the plains near the Namoi in 1839, that eight fell to a single discharge of my gun ; both the settlers and natives assured me that they had suddenly arrived, and that they had never before been seen in that part of the country. The aborigines who were with me, and of whom I must speak in the highest praise, from the readiness with which they rendered me their assistance, affirmed, upon learning the nature of my pursuits, that they had come to meet me. The Tribonyx ventralis may be cited as another species whose movements are influenced by the same law. This bird visited the colony of Swan River in 1833, and that of South Australia in 1840, in such countless myriads, that whole fields of corn were trodden down and destroyed in a single night; and even the streets and gardens of Adelaide were, according to Captain Sturt, alive with them. If we compare the ornithology of Australia with that of any other country in similar latitudes and of the same extent, we shall find that it fully equals, if it does not exceed them all, in the number of species it comprises; and the parts of the country still unexplored doubtless contain many yet to be added to the list of its Fauna. In the course of the present work it will be found that I have frequently given a wide range of habitat to some of the species, and