time in Victoria, we can enumerate some six or seven gentlemen who have already intimated their intention to forward specimens of frescoes, in way of competition, to the Commissioner of Public Works. Recently we expressed an opinion that not more than two or three fresco painters were to be met with in any of the colonies, and are, therefore, much pleased to have to record this fact. In regard to Decorative Art, several specimens shown us in plastic ornament and carving will bear comparison, both in design and execution, with the best work of a similar character produced in the ateliers of home or foreign artists. These facts go to strengthen our confidence in the success of the Exhibition.
We shall steadily proceed, therefore, in organizing our plans, with a view to the opening the Exhibition as early as possible in September next. In the meantime, we hope all gentlemen amateurs, or artists, who possess pictures or statuary of intrinsic merit, will aid us in our purpose by according permission to exhibit them in the "Victorian Exhibition."—Australian Builder.
The Ornithology of Australia.
We may, perhaps, be allowed to draw the attention of our readers to the magnificent works of Mr. Gould on Australian Zoology. One of them, devoted to the kangaroo family, has since been merged in another now in course of publication, intended to comprise all the Mammalia of the country (exclusive, probably, of the Cetacea), and of which seven Parts have reached this colony. A third work, devoted to the birds of Australia (including also certain species from New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Lord Howe Island), was completed in 1848, and since then two Supplements have been published to describe and figure the birds discovered since that period. As the cost of the "Birds of Australia" (without the Supplements) to subscribers was £114 17s., it is, of course, not easily accessible to the mass of the public, except through the medium of public libraries, of which two in Sydney—the Australian Library, and that of the Mechanics' School of Arts—subscribed for it.
