The National Library Magazine
Our quarterly magazine
December 2010
On the cover:
The first scientific descriptions of New Holland animals included words such as ‘extraordinary’, ‘remarkable’, ‘peculiar’, ‘curious’ and ‘singular’. Compared with creatures of the known world, Australia’s fauna was indeed extraordinary. One such creature was the Australian Brush-Turkey, which ornithologist John Latham initially named the New Holland Vulture in 1821, having been fooled by the lack of feathers on its neck. He had to correct his assessment later, noting, amongst other things, that the bird had too many tail feathers to be a vulture. In the 1840s, John Gould described the remarkable way in which the bird laid its eggs inside a huge mound of vegetable matter—such a means of incubation was a revelation to Victorian England. Read more about early European impressions of Australia’s curious animals.
Contents:
- Nature Seems Determined To Have a Bit of a Play (346KB PDF File)
- Java Emerging: Unfolding Cartographic Views (315KB PDF File)
- Do Children Play the Way They Used To? (206KB PDF File)
- The Squatter’s Map (599KB PDF File)
- Oceanic Accomplishments in Choreography (297KB PDF File)
- The 2010 Ray Mathew Lecture: Everywhere and Nowhere (100KB PDF File)
- Reverend John Cross and His Bible (211KB PDF File)
- New Exhibition Galleries and Central Foyer (106KB PDF File)
- Friends (420KB PDF File)
- Cover to Cover (2.60MB PDF File)
