276 



Griffith's Cuvier, 



we have numerous genera, of which a single figure is not given of any 

 one of the species ; while of other genera, copperplates are engraved of 

 several of the species. This indefinite, unsystematic mode of giving illus- 

 trative engravings, publishers will, in time, learn to avoid, from the necessity 

 which they will find of accommodating their productions to the present im- 

 proved state of the public judgment in books, called forth, in a great measure, 

 by an increased taste for reading, and the diminished means of procuring this 

 gratification. We can see no occasion for engravings on copper to illustrate a 

 work like the present ; had the figures been on wood, they would have been 

 nearly as expressive, or, at least, sufficiently so for every useful purpose, as that 

 which we now give of the GeoflProy's Shrike (/:,?t. 1 43.) will show to those who 

 can compare it with the 

 copperplate from which 

 it was copied inPartXV. 

 They could have been 

 printed along with the 

 descriptions, and more 

 readily compared with 

 them; and, had they 

 been limited to the type 

 species of each genus, 

 the work would have 

 been much more com- 

 l)lete, and, we should 

 think, not near so high 



priced. There is also 



an omission which de- 

 tracts from the value of the work. As the system of Cuvier is founded 



on the physiology of animals, there ought to have been plates given of those 



parts of the osteology of vertebrated animals which form the distinctive 



characters. They are not given in the original work of Cuvier, because it 



was intended to form a cheap text-book, and the reader is supposed to have 



access to the museums of Paris, and to extensive libraries of natural history; 



but in a work which will be ten times the price of the original, they ought 



to have been added. We regret to be obliged to make these objections, 



and should have • ^ ^ 



been much better 



pleased to have 



given the work 



entire instead of 



qualified appro- 

 bation. 



As a principal 



object of the last 



number of this 



Magazine was to 



impress on the 



mind of the young 



reader the ter- 



minologyofbirds, 



we shall here 



copy from Mr. 



Griffith's work an 



engraving which 



exemplifies that 



terminology in a 



very judicious 



manner.(^g.l44) 



