The avi-fauna of Australia: comprising Gould's Birds of Australia, and all other birds discovered in the Australian colonies since 1850.

[Sydney]: [Author], 1897.
Small quarto, two page introductory "advertisement", four chromolithograph plates with accompanying letterpress to three plates. Publisher's plain black wrappers, some slight chipping, all contained in a modern cloth box, rare and probably ONE OF TWO KNOWN COPIES.

The avi-fauna of Australia is a prospectus, or more correctly a sample proof of an intended work that was never published. It is a great rarity and belongs to a small and select group of colour-plate books published in Australia in the nineteenth century. There is a pencil annotation on the verso of the advertisement page "The above note appears in the only other recorded copy- that of Broinowski- in the Mitchell Library". Broinowski spent his latter years trying to generate interest in future publications none of which succeeded. He published three prospectuses in his lifetime for works that were never produced. The earliest, this copy, is dated 1897 whereas the other two were published in 1910. The birds illustrated are Pale-headed Rosella Platycercus palliceps, Spotted Bowerbird Chlamydodera guttata, Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus uropygialis and Rawnsley's Bowerbird ( the probably hybrid Regent/Satin Bowerbird figured in Gould's Birds of Australia).

Gracius Joseph Broinowski (1837-1913) was born in Poland in 1837 and arrived in Australia in 1857 where he jumped ship at Portland, Victoria. He is best known for his ambitious six volume Birds of Australia, 1887-1891 although he published a number of related works including the rare Birds and mammals of Australia, 1885.

For an excellent account of these rare publications see Hindwood, Keith. Gracius Joseph Broinowski: his books and his prospectuses. The Australian Zoologist, volume 13, part four, December 1966.