Wood's Descriptions of British Song Birds. 391 



In works of such kind as Mudie's Feathered Tribes of the 

 British Islands, Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology, 

 and Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, " we have fre- 

 quently given long extracts, which are certainly far better 

 calculated to convey an idea of the spirit of the author than 

 a dry abstract review." 



" We have endeavoured to conduct the whole with perfect 

 impartiality." 



There is a mistake in the notice of the Magazine of Natural 

 History, p. 49, 50.: each number of it includes 56 pages, not 

 50 only; and there is not any mention of the engravings. 



The reviews occupy 1 19 pages ; the treatises on the follow- 

 ing subjects the remainder, except the index, preface, &c. 



Synopses of the systems of arrangement of Willughby, 

 Linnaeus, Brisson, Latham, Lacepede, Dumeril, Meyer* 

 Illiger, Temminck, Cuvier, Blainville, Vieillot, Vigors, La- 

 treille; Lherminier, his developement of Blainville's ; Lesson, 

 Fleming. The synopses are treated of in the order of time. 



Hints for a new and complete work on general ornithology. 



A notice of the prospect of the institution of a new maga- 

 zine of natural history, and remarks and suggestions relative* 



A notice of the habits of the ivy wren, that is, the brown 

 wren : extracted from the author's work on the British song- 

 sters, as a specimen of that work. 



On the English nomenclature of birds. The author argues 

 for the expediency of devising English names for applying to 

 the species and genera of birds, and to be of parallel power 

 in distinctiveness with the names in use in catholic ornitho- 

 logy. The kind of thing proposed for birds has been for 

 years adopted, theoretically, in botany, subject to the stipula- 

 tion that, where the Latin or Greek word is not conveniently 

 translatable, it is adopted as an English one; see Don's Hortus 

 Cantabrigiensis, any of the editions; or Loudon's Hortus 

 Britannicus, or Sweet's Hortus Britannicus : but it is little 

 used practically. The work is dedicated to Dr. Latham. 



Wood, Neville, author of the Ornithologist's Text-Book : Bri- 

 tish Song Birds ; being Popular Descriptions and Anec- 

 dotes of the Choristers of the Groves. 8vo, 418 pages. 

 London, J. W. Parker, West Strand, 1836. 



A work that no practical naturalist would like to be with- 

 out. The author has stated, that it is " the result of many 

 years' close observation and investigation in the fields ; " and 

 that, though " it cannot be denied that much of the informa- 

 tion has been included elsewhere," yet " no one fact is herein 

 stated which has not been observed with " his " own eyes, 



