I was just flicking through the little Collins ‘Birds
of the Palearctic: Passerines’, from Norman Arlott, nice little book if
your tastes run in that direction, but a bit expensive for the size. I
thought I’d use it to see in the light of the latest C&B2 how many
passerines the Australian list still had in common with the Palearctic (as
defined). Excluding vagrants (now up to 17!) and introductions the
answer is ‘3’. If anyone wants to guess which these are, I’ll
tell you whether you’re right.
In this message I didn’t get around to making the interesting
point I picked up from this book about zosterops. Maybe next time.
