The Birds of Australia is a 12-volume ornithological

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

 handbook

Handbook

A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference .A handbook is sometimes referred to as a vade mecum or pocket reference that is intended to be carried at all times.Handbooks may deal with any topic, and are generally...

 covering the bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was the second of three monumental illustrated works dealing with the avifauna of the continent and was published midway between the other two, the first being Gould’s

John Gould

John Gould was an English ornithologist and bird artist. The Gould League in Australia was named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...

 identically titled The Birds of Australia (1840-1848), and the third the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds

Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds

The Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds, known as HANZAB, is the pre-eminent scientific reference on Birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and islands...

(1990-2006).

History

It was sponsored and authored by wealthy Australia amateur ornithologist Gregory Mathews

Gregory Mathews

Gregory Macalister Mathews CBE was an Australian amateur ornithologist.Mathews made his fortune in mining shares, and moved to England around 1900....

, with considerable assistance from his collaborator and private secretary Tom Iredale

Tom Iredale

Tom Iredale was an English-born ornithologist and malacologist who had a long association with Australia, where he lived for most of his life. He was an autodidact who never went to university and lacked formal training...

, and was published by H. F. & G. Witherby of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 over a 17-year period from 1910 to 1927. The text and plates, comprising 12 volumes, were issued serially in 75 parts in royal quarto

Quarto

Quarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...

 format in an edition of 225 numbered copies. The five supplements issued at various times during the long publication period fill a 13th, supplementary, volume; the first three supplements comprising the Check-List of Australian Birds, and the last two the Bibliography of the Birds of Australia.

When the publication was complete it was reviewed in the RAOU

Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union

The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, also known as Birds Australia, was founded in 1901 to promote the study and conservation of the native bird species of Australia and adjacent regions. This makes it Australia's oldest national birding association. It is also Australia's largest...

 journal The Emu

Emu (journal)

Emu, subtitled Austral Ornithology, is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union. The journal was established in 1901 and is the oldest ornithological journal published in Australia...

by J. A. Leach

John Albert Leach

Dr John Albert Leach was an ornithologist, teacher and headmaster in the state of Victoria, Australia.Leach was born in Ballarat, Victoria and educated at Creswick Grammar School , Melbourne Training College and the University of Melbourne, where he graduated B.Sc. in 1904, M.Sc...

 (as J.A.L.) who wrote:

”In these twelve splendid volumes, Mr Mathews has stressed largely the nomenclatural aspect, a phase of ornithology which received little attention from John Gould in the eight folio volumes of his highly valued work, The Birds of Australia. Gould seldom listed a date, and therefore he failed to recognize occasionally that another name listed by him was really older than the name used by him. He was a firm believer in the use of the prior name; this he showed by changing when necessary to an older name. These two great ornithological works which have the same title, and of which Australians are justly proud are thus complementary. Gould emphasized the field and natural history sides, while Mathews stressed the academic and nomenclatural aspects. An Australian student having the use of these fine volumes is well equipped with material on which to base future studies.”

Mathews’ approach to nomenclature

Nomenclature

Nomenclature is a term that applies to either a list of names or terms, or to the system of principles, procedures and terms related to naming - which is the assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object or property...

 was controversial and not always consistent. In a review in the AOU

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...

 journal The Auk

The Auk

The Auk is a quarterly journal and the official publication of the American Ornithologists' Union, having been continuously published by that body since 1884. The journal contains articles relating scientific studies of the anatomy, behavior, and distribution of birds. The journal is named for the...

, the editor Witmer Stone

Witmer Stone

Witmer Stone was an American ornithologist, botanist, and mammalogist, and was considered one of the last of the “great naturalists.” Stone is remembered principally as an ornithologist. He was president of the American Ornithologists’ Union 1920–23, and was editor of the AOU’s periodical The...

 comments:

”It is interesting in view of Mr Mathews's many discussions of nomenclature to see how his attitude on certain points changed as his work progressed. In the opening volume he congratulates the authorities of the British Museum upon their intention of ignoring many of the "useless generic names" of the late Dr Bowdler Sharpe

Richard Bowdler Sharpe

Richard Bowdler Sharpe was an English zoologist.-Biography:Sharpe was born in London and studied at Brighton College, The King's School, Peterborough and Loughborough Grammar School. At the age of sixteen he went to work for Smith & Sons in London...

 and yet in a few years we see Mr Mathews as one of the most extreme genus splitters that ornithology has known. So again in spite of his vigorous plea for the universal use of subspecies we find him, by the time Vol. V is reached, refusing to give them the full recognition in the text that they had previously received and simply discussing them at the end of each species. And what is far worse placing them in the synonymy where they cannot be distinguished from the real synonyms. The number and treatment of subspecies however are ornithological problems, always subject to personal opinion, with no possible "code" to govern them.

”We have felt that the great amount of space devoted to nomenclatural discussion in the 'Birds of Australia' was unfortunate as most of the facts could usually have been stated without nearly so much verbiage and often the very fact that the author was endeavoring to bring out has been obscured by useless repetition. It seems as if some parts of the text may have been printed from a hastily prepared manuscript without revision. We have discussed Mr Mathews’ great work from a nomenclatural point of view because that seems to have been the author's chief concern in its production and that is the feature that will be remembered in the future. He has, however, collected a great deal of valuable and interesting data on the lives and habits of the birds but as he tells us the adequate life histories of the Australian birds are yet to be written and his aim has been to clear away the technical difficulties in Australian ornithology and set up the species and their names on a permanent basis. This we feel that he has done or at least has presented all of the necessary information on the subject, an achievement of which he may well be proud.”

As well as the extensive scientific text, in which Mathews described several new species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 and subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

, the 12 volumes are illustrated with some 600 hand-coloured lithographed plates by J.G. Keulemans

John Gerrard Keulemans

Johannes Gerardus Keulemans was a Dutch bird illustrator.-Biography and Work:...

 (who completed 163 illustrations for the first four volumes before his death on 29 March 1912), H. Grönvold

Henrik Grönvold

Henrik Grönvold was a Danish bird illustrator.Grönvold developed an interest in natural history at a young age, and would spend his time drawing the birds and animals around him. After studying drawing in Copenhagen he went on to work as a draughtsman for the Danish artillery from 1880.Grönvold...

, R. Green

Roland Green

Roland Green is a retired Canadian mountain bike and road bicycle racer. Green was a member of the Canadian Olympic Mountain Bike Racing Team for the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia...

, H. Goodchild and G.E. Lodge

George Edward Lodge

George Edward Lodge FZS, was a British illustrator of birds and an authority on falconry.-Early life:...

. Stone commented on the plates by saying that as artistic productions they could not be compared with the great folios of John Gould, though those by Keulemans were probably the best.
Lipoa ocellata from Volume I.

Associated works

After completing the publication of the 12 volumes, in 1928 Mathews produced The Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands and the Australian South Polar Quadrant, in the same format and with the same publisher, containing 45 lithographic plates. It was followed in l936 by A Supplement to the Birds of Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands to which is Added those Birds of New Zealand not figured by Buller, containing 57 plates. Although not technically part of The Birds of Australia, these two volumes extend its coverage to Australia’s Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

 and Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

 in the Tasman Sea

Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is the large body of water between Australia and New Zealand, approximately across. It extends 2,800 km from north to south. It is a south-western segment of the South Pacific Ocean. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman, the first recorded European...

, and even attempt to fill in the gaps left in Walter Buller

Walter Buller

Walter Lawry Buller KCMG was a New Zealand lawyer, naturalist and ornithologist.Buller was the author of A History of the Birds of New Zealand , with illustrations by John Gerrard Keulemans. In 1882 he produced the Manual of the Birds of New Zealand as a cheaper, popular alternative...

’s coverage of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 in his similarly ambitious A History of the Birds of New Zealand (1872-1873, 2nd edition 1887-1888).

Parts

Volume 1

• 1 – 31 October 1910
• 2 – 31 January 1911
• 3 – 29 April 1911
• 4 – 9 August 1911
• 5 – 31 October 1911
• 6 – 31 January 1912

Volume 2

• 1 – 30 May 1912
• 2 – 31 July 1912
• 3 – 20 September 1912
• 4 – 1 November 1912
• 5 – 31 January 1913

Volume 3

• 1 – 2 April 1913
• 2 – 2 May 1913
• 3 – 18 August 1913
• 4 – 31 December 1913
• 5 – 26 March 1914
• 6 – 25 June 1914

Volume 4

• 1 – 6 October 1914
• 2 – 17 February 1915
• 3 – 23 June 1915

Volume 5

• 1 – 5 November 1915
• 2 – 29 Feb 1916
• 3 – 23 May 1916
• 4 – 30 August 1916

Volume 6

• 1 – 22 November 1916
• 2 – 6 February 1917
• 3 – 17 April 1917
• 4 – 27 June 1917
• 5 – 11 September 1917
• 6 – 11 December 1917

Volume 7

• 1 – 4 March 1918
• 2 – 15 May 1918
• 3 – 26 August 1918
• 4 – 19 December 1918
• 5 – 10 July 1919

Volume 8

• 1 – 5 May 1920
• 2 – 17 June 1920
• 3 – 18 August 1920
• 4 – 13 October 1920
• 5 – 15 December 1920

Volume 9

• 1 – 15 February 1921
• 2 – 15 April 1921
• 3 – 20 June 1921
• 4 – 19 October 1921
• 5 – 15 December 1921
• 6 – 15 February 1922
• 7 – 4 April 1922
• 8 – 22 May 1922
• 9 – 3 August 1922

Volume 10

• 1 – 28 September 1922
• 2 – 12 December 1922
• 3 – 30 January 1923
• 4 – 19 March 1923
• 5 – 24 April 1923
• 6 – 5 June 1923
• 7 – 26 July 1923

Volume 11

• 1 – 8 October 1923
• 2 – 21 November 1923
• 3 – 27 December 1923
• 4 – 20 February 1924
• 5 – 2 April 1924
• 6 – 21 June 1924
• 7 – 31 July 1924
• 8 – 25 October 1924
• 9 – 22 December 1924

Volume 12

• 1 – 3 March 1925
• 2 – 11 May 1925
• 3 – 22 June 1925
• 4 – 31 August 1925
• 5 – 23 November 1925
• 6 – 24 March 1926
• 7 – 28 June 1926
• 8 – 6 September 1926
• 9 – 6 December 1926
• 10 – 8 February 1927

Supplements

• 1 – 16 February 1920
• 2 – 26 July 1923
• 3 – 8 September 1924
• 4 – 6 April 1925
• 5 – 22 June 1925

Sources

• Illustrations of plates by John Gerrard Keulemans appearing in The birds of Australia