4G0 Bibliographical Notices. 



wood-cuts, which has added to our limited stock of facte on this 

 branch of ornithology. Several new species are also described in 

 this volume, but on which we dare scarcely venture an opinion, 

 without having the birds before us ; some of these are the acquisi- 

 tions procured during the journeys undertaken by American travel- 

 lers, and are very interesting. The reader will also find the descrip- 

 tions of some of our native birds during the season of incubation, 

 which do not breed in our own islands. We shall add a few notices 

 of some of the latter, and also of those for which Mr. Audubon 

 claims both an American and British parentage, but which other or- 

 nithologists have considered distinct. We take them as they occur 

 in the volume. 



The Turnstone, Strepsilas Interpres, is plentiful on the southern 

 coasts of the United States, and was observed in April and May in 

 Texas and Mexico ; it was however looked for in vain on the Labra- 

 dor coast, and its breeding-places were not discovered. Mr. Audu- 

 bon makes the following remarks on its affinities : "I have always 

 looked upon the Turnstone, while at its avocations, as a species very 

 nearly allied to the Oyster-catcher ; and although it certainly differs 

 in some particulars, were I to place it in a position determined by 

 its affinities, I should remove it at once from the Tringa family. Its 

 mode of searching for food around pebbles and other objects, the 

 comparative strength of its legs, its retiring disposition, and its loud 

 whistling notes while on the wing, will, I think, prove at some pe- 

 riod, that what I have ventured to advance may be in accordance 

 with the only true system." We have little doubt that our author 

 is here right ; and this bird and Hamatopus have elsewhere been 

 shown to be the medium by which the connexion was wrought out 

 between the Ardeada, Scolopacida and Charadriadce. It is a bird 

 easily tamed, and like the Oyster-catchers, thrives well where access 

 can be given to a supply of water. 



The Great Northern Diver, Colymbus glacialis. The American 

 range of this bird is very extended ; it has been *• met with in win- 

 ter on all the water-courses of the United States. I have seen it 

 along the whole of our Atlantic coast, from the Maine to the extre- 

 mity of Florida, and from thence to the mouths of the Mississippi 

 and the shores of Texas. It occurs on the waters that fall into the 

 Pacific, and has been observed on the Columbia rivers ; in the fur 

 countries it is plentiful." In its incubation it resembles the black- 

 throated species, placing the nest sometimes near the water, and 

 sometimes a short way distant, in the latter case having a path 

 wrought by the passage of the bird to and from it. The eggs Mr. 



