216 Museum at Saffron Walden. 



of Wilson and Audubon, Charles Waterton may be said to 

 stand first among field naturalists." His extraordinary per- 

 severance, his enthusiastic love of nature, his singular power 

 and beauty of description, all entitle him to this praise. And 

 higher praise cannot be bestowed, than in affirming that this 

 little volume is fully worthy of a place beside those of the most 

 illustrious ornithologists of the age, Wilson, Selby, Mudie, 

 and Audubon. Next comes the Natural History of Selborne, 

 by the placid Gilbert White. Of all the numerous editions 

 of this work with which I am acquainted, that edited by Rennie 

 (published 1833) is the best. I have procured it for less than 

 the advertising price, through the proper bookseller, which 

 shows that 165. is an unfair charge. 



Indeed, there is scarce a work that can be named, from the 

 Ornithologia of Jennings to the Ornithological Biography of 

 Audubon, that can be pronounced to bear a price proportionate 

 to its value; and none but the public can be blamed for the 

 continuance of the grievance. As long as individuals will 

 continue to purchase at any price the booksellers choose to 

 ask, so long will they be obliged to be cheated of half their 

 money's value ; but if they will apply through the proper 

 sources, they will be enabled to double or triple their literary 

 meal with the same money. These remarks, which may also 

 serve as a sort of guide to books, will, I hope, be attended 

 with the proper results. There are booksellers who make 

 fair charges, and others who make unfair charges ; and as long 

 as preference is shown to the latter, the price of books will 

 continue at the present ruinous height. This being the case, 

 it is sincerely to be hoped, that the wealthier class of natural- 

 ists, if not for their own sakes, will, at leasj, for the sake of 

 their poorer brethren, contribute their aid to lower the greedy 

 and rapacious charges made by the bookvenders ; for there 

 are many, like your correspondent H. (II. 465.), "obliged to 

 economise, not having the means to purchase the required 

 works on science." — C. T% Wood, Burton on Trent, July 19. 

 1835. 



Art. XIV. Instances of Mans Progress in the Extension of his 

 Knowledge of Natural History. 



The Museum at Saffron Walden, Essex, has closed for the 

 season, for the purposes of rearrangement, after a weekly ex- 

 hibition of its contents to the public for six months. 



It possesses specimens of the greater part of the British 

 kinds of birds ; a few only of the more rare being wanted to 



