science

The Literature of Australian Birds

The Literature of Australian Birds is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Literature of Australian Birds rather than just read about it. In short: The Literature of Australian Birds is a book published in 1954 by Paterson Brokensha in Perth, Western Australia. Its full title is The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and a Bibliography of Australian Ornithology.

Key takeaways

The Literature of Australian Birds belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Literature of Australian Birds to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Literature of Australian Birds from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Literature of Australian Birds is a book published in 1954 by Paterson Brokensha in Perth, Western Australia. Its full title is The Literature of Australian Birds: A History and a Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. It was authored by Hubert Massey Whittell. It is in large octavo format (252 by 184 millimetres or 9.9 by 7.2 inches) and contains some 900 pages, two separately paginated parts bound in one volume in brown buckram. It contains a coloured frontispiece (Plate 1) of a drawing of the superb lyrebird by Lieutenant-General Thomas Davies from 1799, with another 31 black-and-white plates bound between Parts 1 and 2. Part 1, titled “A History of Australian Ornithology 1618 to 1850”, is 116 pages in length. It covers the period from the exploratory Dutch voyages of the early 17th century to the voyages of HMS Fly and HMS Rattlesnake during 1842–1850. Much the larger part of the book, however, lies in the 788 pages of Part 2, titled “A Bibliography of Australian Ornithology 1618 to 1950, with Biographies of Authors, Collectors and Others”, where Whittell has attempted to be exhaustively comprehensive in compiling mentions of Australian birds, not only from the scientific literature but also from newspapers, magazines and other published sources, and including potted biographies of their authors. The two parts of the book are dedicated separately, Part 1: "To D.L.S. in Appreciation of our long Association in Australian Ornithology", and Part 2: "In Memoriam. GREGORY MACALISTER MATHEWS C.B.E. A Pioneer Bibliographer of the Literature of Australian Birds. OBIT 1947." A facsimile edition was published by Oak Knoll Press in 1993 (ISBN 1888262680). In 1995 the Bird Observers Club of Australia (BOCA) published BOCA Report Number 6 – “Whittell (1618-1950) Supplemented. Additions and Emendations to H.M. Whittell’s The Literature of Australian Birds”, compiled by Tess Kloot. In the preface to this latter work Kloot comments, with regard to Whittell:

In his monumental work, The Literature of Australian Birds, (Paterson Brokensha Pty Ltd, 1954), the late Major H. M. Whittell paid tribute to those who went before him : In 1925 Gregory M. Mathews issued, as a supplement to his Birds of Australia, a bibliography of books and articles studied in the preparation of his work, plus brief biographical notes on the authors; and in 1935 Anthony Musgrave published his Bibliography of Australian Entomology 1775-1930. In turn, I can do no better than pay tribute to Major Whittell. With his book constantly before me as I worked, I never ceased to wonder at his exhaustive research and meticulous attention to detail. It is indeed a remarkable achievement. I offer this modest contribution (and later, A Bio-bibliography of Australian Ornithology: 1951-1975) in the hope that others who come after me will build upon my work.

References

Sources

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Literature of Australian Birds

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Literature of Australian Birds claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Literature of Australian Birds before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Literature of Australian Birds ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Literature of Australian Birds

In research: The Literature of Australian Birds appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Literature of Australian Birds in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Literature of Australian Birds is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 non-fiction books, Books about Australian birds, Ornithological literature, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Literature of Australian Birds outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Literature of Australian Birds in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Literature of Australian Birds means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Literature of Australian Birds out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Literature of Australian Birds in simple terms?

Why does The Literature of Australian Birds matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Literature of Australian Birds?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Literature of Australian Birds.