(50 REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXL1II. 



having a collection as rich as that of Leyden at his command. The critical 

 part appears to me to hold the correct mean between the two extremes of too 

 great subdivision and too close grouping of species. The constant reference 

 made to allied exotic forms is highly praiseworthy, by means of which it is 

 frequently possible to refer them to known species. The plates are excellently 

 drawn and engraved, but the colouring might be more lively, which it is easy 

 to effect, and which would render the book more attractive to amateurs. 

 Among all the contributions to ornithology that have appeared during the 

 year 1843, the Reporter considers the present the most important. One 

 great advantage also presented by it, is the size that has been selected, which 

 is not only conducive to its convenient use, but renders the cost unusually 

 small. Works of luxury, such as those of Goidd and Audubou, are not adapted 

 for the extension and promotion of science, but must inevitably, on account 

 of their unnecessary costliness, constantly tend to reduce the number of natu- 

 ralists who are able to avail themselves of them, and they thus enrich orni- 

 thology only to its ultimate injury. 



Brehm has contributed some good remarks on the Raptorial Birds capable 

 of enduring confinement. (Isis, p. 511.) 



Though Lindermayer (Isis, p. 523) still places Vultur 

 fidvus and V. albicollis as distinct species, near each other, 

 his own statements prove the unity of the species. 



He himself, for instance, says that 1st, V. albicollis does not differ in its 

 habits from V.fulvus ; 2dly, that it occurs only in association with the latter ; 

 3 dry, that these birds exhibit as many varieties as there are specimens, and 

 that with respect to the cervical ruff, every possible shade is met with, 

 from that of V.fulvus to that of V. albicollis ; and, 4thly, that the egg of 

 V. albicollis is also spotted with reddish-brown, but less thickly than that of 

 V. fuloits. 



The eggs of V. cinereus, of which nothing certain has hitherto been known. 

 Liudermayer describes as entirely white, and without spots. Malherbe, on 

 the contrary, says that towards the larger end they are spotted with brown, 

 and watered with bright red. Others, again, assign uniformly coloured 

 eggs to V.fulvus. 



In these contradictory statements, originating in an interchange of the nests 

 of the two species, that of Lindermayer may probably have the most authority 

 in its favour. Of V. auricularis, of which it woidd appear, according to 

 Schlegel and Temminck, mauy specimens have been sent from Greece, 

 no instance has been met with there either by Lindermayer or Count v. 

 Muhlc. 



Fnlco rt//ijjcs was observed by Lindermayer, around Athens, only on its 

 spring passage ; moreover there were many more old males than females. In 

 the Morea, on the contrary, it was frequently seen by Count v. Muhle, on is 



