ORNITHOLOGY. 



BY 



PROFESSOR ANDR. WAGNER, OF MUNICH. 



WE joyfully greet the announcement of a work which is 

 intended to supply one of the most urgent requirements in 

 Ornithology. It bears the title of The Genera of Birds, by 

 G. R. Gray. Illustrated with about 350 plates, by D. W. 

 Mitchell. London. 1844. Small folio. 



Although the announcement only of this work was given in the year 18 43 (the 

 first part was not published till May 1 844), yet its appearance is by far too 

 important for the Reporter not at once to direct attention to it. The object 

 of the work is to collect and exhibit methodically, all the widely-scattered 

 ornithological materials. To this end ah 1 the genera and subgenera are cha- 

 racterized in detail, and the species belonging to each enumerated, and one 

 authority or more cited for each. Each genus will be figured, and for this 

 purpose a species, not hitherto figured, will be regularly selected; and besides 

 this, the individual characteristic parts will be separately exhibited in 

 other plates. The whole work will probably not exceed 50 monthly parts, 

 and will contain about 350 plates. Each part costs 10*. 6d. Although an 

 accurate analysis of this work must be reserved for the next year's Report, 

 still the Reporter is assured, from seeing the first Part, that the undertaking 

 could not be in better hands than those of Gray and Mitchell. The text and 

 figures are elaborated with equal excellence, and, from the comprehensive 

 knowledge of the Literature of the subject possessed by G. R. Gray, the com- 

 plctest possible arrangement of the vast mass of materials may be expected. 

 This is a work which no library should be without; at all events no zoologist, 

 who wishes to keep up his knowledge of the most recent condition of ornitho- 

 logy, can, without it, any longer do so. 



Ornitologia powszechna, ezyli opisandc ptakow wszystkich 



