NATIVES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA.
I.R. Fitzmaurice del.
TO
CAPTAIN ROBERT FITZROY, R.N.
THE FOLLOWING WORK
IS DEDICATED
AS A TRIBUTE TO HIS DISTINGUISHED MERIT,
AND AS A TOKEN OF HEARTFELT GRATITUDE AND RESPECT,
BY HIS OLD SHIPMATE AND FAITHFUL FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION.
I cannot allow these volumes to go before the public, without expressing my thanks to the following gentlemen for assistance, afforded to me in the course of the composition of this work: To Captain Beaufort, R.N., F.R.S., Hydrographer to the Admiralty, for his kindness in furnishing me with some of the accompanying charts; to Sir John Richardson, F.R.S; J.E. Gray, Esquire, F.R.S.; E. Doubleday, Esquire, F.L.S., and A. White, Esquire, M.E.S., for their valuable contributions on Natural History, to be found in the Appendix; to J. Gould, Esquire, F.R.S., for a list of birds collected during the voyage of the Beagle; to Lieutenants Gore and Fitzmaurice, for many of the sketches which illustrate the work; and to B. Bynoe, Esquire, F.R.C.S., for several interesting papers which will be found dispersed in the following pages.
Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S., also merits my warmest thanks, for the important addition to the work of his visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.
I have to explain, that when the name Australasia is used in the following pages, it is intended to include Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and all the islands in the vicinity of the Australian continent.