4i# Bibliographical Notices. 



it is impossible to draw up a definition which shall embrace the whole, 

 without qualifying it with such terms as " generally," " more or less," 

 '* except," &c. Mr. Gray has overcome these difficulties by care and 

 judgement, and has given us very full generalizations of generic cha- 

 racters, though these would have been more useful if the diagnostic 

 portion of them were printed in a different type, or otherwise sepa- 

 rated from the general mass. Another important feature in the work 

 is the condensation of superfluous genera, which are daily manu- 

 factured by scores on trivial or imaginary characters, and which Mr. 

 Gray has used a sound discretion in reducing within reasonable limits. 



In regard to species, the author has only been able to give a full 

 list of them under each genus, accompanied by their chief synonyms 

 and references to the principal works where they are figured or de- 

 scribed. To have annexed their specific characters would have ex- 

 tended the work fourfold and consumed years of valuable time. The 

 localities might however have been mentioned with advantage, and 

 the specific characters of the new species which are occasionally in- 

 troduced ought to have been added. In other respects the student 

 is guided at once to the best sources of information, while the rigid 

 impartiality with which the rule of priority is enforced supplies him 

 with a nomenclature which seems likely to be permanent. 



In the illustrative plates the essential characters of every genus are 

 admirably displayed, and in each subfamily a coloured plate of some 

 new or unfigured species is introduced. This portion of the work is 

 beautifully executed by Mr. Mitchell, who has entered fully into the 

 spirit of that improved style of delineation first introduced into or- 

 nithology by Mr. and Mrs. Gould's unrivalled pencils. Mr. Mitchell 

 has been the first to apply the art of Uthotint to the illustration of 

 zoological subjects, and in representing that wonderfully organized 

 structure, the plumage of birds, we are inclined to prefer it to any 

 other method, as attaining the happy medium between the hardness 

 of line-engraving and the indistinctness of common lithography. 

 Indeed in respect both of drawing and colouring, it would be scarcely 

 possible to produce more perfect copies of nature than some of these 

 plates exhibit. The only defect which we have noticed is the occa- 

 sionally too abrupt transition of the leg into the body in some of the 

 figures, that of Esacus and Syrrhaptes for instance. 



It will be evident to the practical zoologist that this beautiful and 

 elaborate work will tend greatly to advance our knowledge of orni- 

 thology, and that no public or private museum can be scientifically 

 arranged without its aid. 



JDescriptiones Animalium qua in itinere ad Maris Australis terras per 

 annos 1772-74 suscepto collegit J. R. Forster, nunc demum editce 

 curante H. Lichtenstein. 8vo. Berlin, 1844. Pp. 424. 

 Professor Lichtenstein has conferred a boon on literature and sci- 

 ence by rescuing from oblivion these original observations of a pro- 

 found and learned naturalist. John Reinhold Forster is well-known 

 as the companion of Cook in his second voyage round the world, 

 but by various mischances these memoranda of the valuable additions 

 which he made to natural history have remained in MS. for seventy 



