Podiceps gularis Gould. N. S. W., V. D. L., and I.

Sula Australis Gould. N. S. W., V. D. L., and I. in

velox Gould. Seas of N. S. W., V. D. L. and B. S.

Sternella Nereis Gould. Seas of N. S. W., V. D. L.,

and B. S.

Hydrochelidon fluviatilis

V. D. L., and B. S.

Seas of N. S. W.,

Diomedea exulans Linn. Seas of N. S. W., V. D. L.,

and B. S.

cauta Gould. Seas of N. S. W., V. D. L., and B. S.

V. D. L.,

Daption Capensis Steph. Seas of N. S. W., V

and B. S.

Procellaria gigantea Gmel. Seas of N. S.W., V.D.L.,

and B. S.

leucocephala

Seas of N. S. W.,

V. D. L., and B. S.

Solandri Gould. Seas of N. S. W.,V. D. L.,

and B. S.

Seas of N. S. W.,

Nereis Gould. Seas of N. S.W., V.D. L.,

Seas of N. S. W., V. D. L., and

Seas of N. S. W.,

REPTILIA AND AMPHIBIA.

To the original 9 species of reptiles which had been described in Captain King's Appendix, 107 have been added since. Of these, 4 species belong to Monitorida, 31 species to Scericidæ, 2 to Gymnopthalmida, 1 to Liatisida, 2 to Pygopida, 3 to Rhodonida, 1 to Aprasiada, 8 to Geckotidæ, 9 to Agamida, 1 to Chamaleonida, 1 to Viperidæ, 15 to Colubrida, 1 to Boida, 3 to Hydrida, 4 to Chelyda, 3 to Chelonida, 1 to Crocodilidæ, 4 to Ranidæ, 11 to Hylida, and 2 species to Bufonida.

The determination of the above 107 species is due to J. E. Gray, Esq., of the British Museum; and the catalogue which he gave of them is to be found in the Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, &c., Vol. I. No. V. 1841.

ANNULOSA.

The published discoveries of Australian insects subsequent to these of Wm. Sharp M'Leay, Esq., inserted in Captain P. P. King's Appendix, are as yet very limited. Our knowledge, however, of that interesting branch of natural history cannot fail to be extended soon, by the illustrious entymologist residing now in Sydney, and to whom science is already indebted for the most valuable contributions.

PISCES.-RADIARIA.-MOLLUSCA.

For the additions made to the class of fishes we are indebted to T. I. Lemprière, Esq., Deputy Assistant Commissary General in Port Arthur, Van Diemen's Land, who collected the specimens, and to Dr. Richardson, of the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, who determined them.

The interesting description which Dr. Richardson gave of these specimens, inserted partly in the Zoological Transactions of 1839, partly in those of 1841, embraces 35 species; to which, if we add the contributions made by the French, and those previously secured by Captain P. P. King, R. N., the known number of species of Australian fishes up to the present day will not exceed 60!

The classes of Radiaria and Mollusca cannot even boast of so many; surprising deficiency indeed, when the abundance of the marine fauna in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, and the extent of the British navigation between those parts and England, is borne in mind.

With a view of facilitating the transmission of specimens of natural history in good preservation from the colonies to England, Dr. Richardson communicated to the Tasmanian Society an excellent paper, in which cheap means are devised towards attaining the

desirable object. That paper is inserted in the Transactions of that useful and highly important society. Tasmanian Journal, Vol. II. No. VI.

In the above review of the state of Recent Fauna of N. S. W. and V. D. L., we see, that if some classes — as reptiles, fishes, insects, marine shells, and zoophytesshow as yet great deficiency in the number of the species known, and lay strong claims to the attention of naturalists, our knowledge respecting the Mammalia and Aves is nearly complete, a result the more gratifying as being entirely due to the efforts of private enterprise.

To enter on the description of the species which that knowledge of quadrupeds and birds embraces,-to assign to each species its proper geographical region,— to give, farther, an idea of their habits, forms, and the gaudy colours with which many of them are clothed, and which no pen can adequately do, would be an attempt as difficult as inconsistent with the general plan and the limits prescribed to this volume. Nor would an attempt to epitomise, or describe by a few partial gleanings, those treasures of anatomical knowledge connected with the physiological condition of the Marsupials and Ornithorhynchus, with which Owen has so richly endowed the science, be any thing better than trifling with a subject which is deserving of, and which has received, the most minute and serious investigation.

The reader, then, must be referred, for the physiological description of the Australian zoology, to the papers of that eminent naturalist, Owen; some of which are inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, London, 1832, Part II., and 1834, Part II.; some in the Zoological Transactions of 1835, Part III.; while others, relating to the Marsupialia and Monotremata, form most important articles in the Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology. (1841 and 1842.)

For a description and illustration of the Mammalia and Aves, and which, in the most settled parts of the colonies are threatened with extinction, we may refer the inquiring reader to the splendid works of Mr. J. Gould, F. R. S., with the certainty of his not being disappointed by its perusal. At the time when the writer of this volume was exploring the two colonies, Mr. Gould was on a zoological tour in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land; and from the circumstance of his studying the quadrupeds and birds before collecting them, and of his losing no time, after they became specimens, in transferring and fixing on paper by a masterly drawing, their shape, colour, posture, and the plants upon which they fed, his work acquires a value and authority to which few others of this description can pretend."

"In the year 1838, Charles Lucian Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, inentions, in his Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and America.' that Mr. Gould's work on The Birds of Europe is the most beautiful work on Ornithology that has ever appeared in this (England) or any other country.' And such it undoubtedly was, at the time the Prince was writing; but the work of which we are going to speak, and of which two parts have already appeared, is likely, if we may judge of the whole by this sample, to prove as superior to The Birds of Europe as that work was to the Century of Himalayan Birds, of the same author. The Birds of Australia is, in fact, a princely work; and in no other country but our father-land could such an ouvrage de luxe be brought out without the patronage and support of the government; and we have only to look at the Continental works on ornithology, to see how immensely inferior the best of them are to those of Lear, Swainson, and Gould. Temminck's plates are certainly beautifully coloured; and the subjects selected by Le Vaillant are some of the most gorgeous in nature, but they are all evidently portraits taken from stuffed specimens in museums; whereas those of Swainson and Gould bear evidence of having been taken from those living beings, the most graceful of all God's creatures, each species of which possesses a movement peculiar to itself, sufficient to distinguish it from all its congeners.

"Australia may well be proud that, though the last of the great geographical divisions discovered, she will be the second to have her feathered race illustrated; for, with the exception of Europe, she will stand alone.” - Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, &c. No. II.