e Australian
Birds</i> by E. P. Ramsay of the Australian Museum, Sydney
(1888); <i>Catalogue of Australian Mammals</i> by J. O. Ogilby
of the Australian Museum, Sydney (1892); <i>Catalogue of
Marsupials and Monotremes</i>, British Museum (1888);
<i>Prodromus to the Natural History of Victoria</i> by Sir
F. McCoy. Constant reference has also been made to Proceedings
of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales, Proceedings and
Transactions of the Royal Societies of Victoria and Tasmania,
and to the journal of the Field Naturalist Club of Victoria.

The birds both in Australia and New Zealand have been
handsomely treated by the scientific illustrators. Gould's
<i>Birds of Australia</i> and Buller's <i>Birds of New
Zealand</i> are indeed monumental works. Neither Gould nor Sir
Walter Buller scorns vernacular names. But since the days of
the former the number of named species of Australian birds has
largely increased, and in January 1895, at the Brisbane Meeting
of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,
a Committee was appointed to draw up a list of vernacular
bird-names. By the kindness of a member of this Committee
(Mr. A. J. Campbell of Melbourne) I was allowed the use of a
list of such vernacular names drawn up by him and Col. Legge
for submission to the Committee.

VIII. SCIENTIFIC WORDS.

The example of <i>The Century</i> has been followed in the
inclusion of sundry scientific names, especially those of
genera or Natural Orders of purely Australasian objects.
Although it is quite true that these can hardly be described as
Australasian <i>English</i>, it is believed that the course
adopted will be for the general convenience of those who
consult this Dictionary.

Some of these "Neo-Latin" and "Neo-Greek" words are
extraordinary in themselves and obscure in their origin, though
not through antiquity. In his <i>Student's Pastime</i>, at
p. 293, Dr. Skeat says "Nowhere can more ignorant etymologies
be found than in works on Botany and `scientific' subjects.
Too often, all the science is reserved for the subject, so that
there is none to spare for explaining the names."

A generous latitude has also been taken in including some words
undoubtedly English, but not exclusively Australasian, such as
<i>Anabranch</i>, and <i>Antipodes</i>, and some mining and
other terms that are also used in the United States.
Convenience of readers is the excuse. <i>Anabranch</i> is more
frequently