Fauna of Australia in Australia, feeding on sea grass in coastal areas. The destruction of sea grass beds is a threat to the survival of this species. Eleven species of seal—family Pinnipedia—live off the southern coast. Australia and its territories are home to around 800 species of bird; 45% of these are endemic to Australia. The fossil record of birds in Australia is patchy; however, there are records of the ancestors of contemporary species as early as the Late Oligocene. Birds with a Gondwanan history include the flightless ratites (the emu and southern cassowary), megapodes (the malleefowl and Australian brush-turkey), and a huge
The Birds of Australia (Mathews) these two volumes extend its coverage to Australia’s Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea, and even attempt to fill in the gaps left in Walter Buller’s coverage of New Zealand in his similarly ambitious "A History of the Birds of New Zealand" (1872-1873, 2nd edition 1887-1888). Publication dates of the various parts are as follows: The Birds of Australia (Mathews) The Birds of Australia is a 12-volume ornithological handbook covering the birds of Australia. It was the second of three monumental illustrated works dealing with the avifauna of the continent and was published midway between the