458 Bibliographical Notices. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Ornithological Biography, or an account of the Habits of the Birds of 



the United States of America. By John James Audubon, F.R.S. 



L. & E., &c. Vol. iv. 1838. Royal 8vo. London, Longman. 



Edinburgh, A. and C. Black. 



For a very long period the illustrated works devoted to Natural 

 History in Great Britain were considered inferior in their execution, 

 and in the scope of their plan, to those published in France and Ger- 

 many. The splendid works of Levaillant and Vieillet, of Meyer and 

 Wolfe, and of Humboldt, in Zoology and Botany, mostly published 

 either immediately previous to, or about the commencement of, the 

 present century, were looked upon as the height of finish which 

 plates of this character could be brought to, and as the models which 

 future naturalists were to endeavour to equal. At the period alluded 

 to, the continent still continued to advance in its beautiful volumes 

 published at the national expense, which accompanied every voyage 

 of discovery, and without which, indeed, the record of the expedi- 

 tion was looked upon as incomplete. They combined the progress 

 of science with the improvement of the arts which a few years gra- 

 dually carries with them ; but it was perhaps not much before the 

 year 1820 that British naturalists began to revive the character of 

 their illustrated works, by attention to the pictorial department. At 

 the present time this will bear the palm both for execution and com- 

 position, while it approaches very near to the minute accuracy for 

 which the productions of the continent are still deservedly famed. 



The illustrations of Mr. Audubon's remarkable work were com- 

 menced in Edinburgh, so far as we can recollect, about 1826, at first 

 under comparatively little encouragement, from the circumstance of 

 subscribers thinking that the requisite expense and labour could not 

 be continued with regularity ; and it is a proud thing for the metro- 

 polis of Scotland to say, that this gigantic work was undertaken 

 there, after having passed the cities of America and France and En- 

 gland, while it is equally gratifying to know that the plates exe- 

 cuted there can bear comparison with the best of those which have 

 been elsewhere engraved. This part of the work, " comprising four 

 hundred and thirty-five plates, with one thousand and sixty-five 

 figures, was finished on the 20th of June last ; " and although some 

 of the plates might be justly criticised, we should be illiberal indeed 

 were we to endeavour to pick out the minor faults of a series so ex- 

 tensive, and containing many pictures beautiful both in drawing and 

 composition. 



The descriptive portion of the work, or the ' Ornithological Bio- 



