NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 35 



tenebroso-oliva, striata, eradiata; dentibus cardinalibus subcrassis, com- 

 presso-tuberculatis, subelevatis ; margarita alba et valde iridescente. 

 Hab. South America, Don Patricio M. Pas. 



Anodonta Pazii. Testa laevi, subrotunda, valde inflata, ineequilaterali, 

 postice et antice rotundata^ valvulis crassiusculis ; natibus subprominentibus, 

 acuminatis; epideraaide tenebroso-rufo-fusca, eradiata, striata; margarita, 

 punicea et formossissime iridescente. 



Hab. South America, Don Patricio M. Paz, 



FASH RNITHOLOGI.E. 



BY JOHN CASSIN. 



Woe be to the man who reads but one book 1 Rev. George Herbert. 

 My starvling bull, 



Alack for me, 

 In pasture full 

 How lean is hel 



Rev. Thomas FuUer. 



No. 2. 



Bes Naturforschee. 



A Journal for Natural History^ edited by J. C. D, Schreber and J. E. J. Walck, 



" Der Naturforscher " was published at Halle from the year 1774 to 1804, 

 that is to say, during a period of thirty years, one part or volume every year, 

 though it is usually bound in fifteen volumes, octavo. Each of the thirty parts 

 is, however, separately paged and has a title page and date of its own, and must 

 be considered and treated as a volume for all practical purposes. The first thir- 

 teen volumes are edited by Walch, the last seventeen by Schreber, both of whom 

 are contributors of a large number of papers in various departments of the Zoo- 

 logical and Botanical Sciences. In Zoology the papers of both are mainly on 

 groups of the Invertebrata, but the latter occasionally has a valuable article on 

 other subjects and higher orders of animals, and is the eminent and successful 

 author of stadard and elaborate work3 on Mammalogy. 



The illustrations in this Journal are generally very superior, many of the 

 colored plates, of Insects and Shells especially, being much above the average 

 of those of a similar description to be found in books of the last century, and 

 all of them seem to be quite sufficient for the easy recognition of species. 

 There are about one hundred and fifty plates in the series, nearly all of which 

 are carefully colored, those of Insects being the most numerous, but of Shells, 

 also, there are a very considerable number. Special allusion will be made to 

 the plates of Birds towards the end of this paper. Of the contents of the en- 

 tire work as published, Indices and " Registers" are given at the end of every 

 tenth volume, apparently very copious and accurate, and from which it appears 

 that no less than sis hundred and four memoirs in all departments of Natural 

 History are contained in these thirty volumes. In Ornithology the contribu- 

 tions are not numerous, and contain but few descriptions of species, but of those 

 few descriptions, nearly all the names proposed would stand good were it not 

 for the recently exhumed names of Prof. P. L. S. Miiller. The authors of these 

 contributions are, for the greater part, quite unknowa in modern times as or- 

 nithological writers. 



" Der Naturforscher " seems to have been a very considerable journal in its 

 day, and names amongst its contributors many naturalists of standard and de- 

 servedly 'nigh reputation. The memoirs on Conchological and Entomological 

 subjects are apparently the most valuable, and are certainly the most numerous 

 and most carefully illustrated. For better or worse it happens that compara- 

 tively few of its many papers are devoted to Ornithology, and a large majority 



1866.] 



