700 Entomological Magazine, 



Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia, on Feb. 7. 

 1832. Pamphlet, 8vo, of 8 pages, and 2 lithographic 

 prints. 



Dr. Sharpless, in 1831, contributed to the Cabinet of Na- 

 tural History and Rural Sports, published by Messrs. Doughty 

 of Philadelphia, a most delightful article on the wild swan; 

 in which, in a manner almost poetical, he has very happily 

 described the habits of wild swans, and the numerous delight- 

 ing associations connected with them. In that paper (a sight 

 of which we owe to the kindness of Mr. Yarrell, to whom 

 Dr. Sharpless had sent it) the author intimates his belief that 

 the wild swan of America is in species distinct from the wild 

 swan of Europe. The pamphlet under notice includes the 

 results "of Dr. Sharpless's subsequent research on this point 

 of the subject ; and in it he presents an abstract of Mr. Yar- 

 rell's published descriptions of the Cygnus ferus L. (the 

 Hooper), and the Cygnus BewickzV Yarrell (Bewick's swan), 

 as well as a short notice of the Trumpeter swan (Cygnus 

 buccinator of Dr. Richardson in the Northern Zoology), and 

 describes in detail and in contrast the characteristics, both 

 external and internal, of the wild swan of America. The 

 author exhibits a sufficiency of differences, derived from the 

 examination of a series of specimens, to prove it, he con- 

 ceives, a distinct species, to which he applies the specific 

 epithet " americanus." The detailed differences we cannot 

 transcribe, but the diagnostic presented is this : — " Cygnus 

 americanus [Sharpless']. Beak black and semicylindrical, sides 

 of the base with a small orange or yellow spot ; body white, 

 tail of twenty feathers, feet black." We commit the matter 

 to the canvass of technical ornithologists. 



Anon.'. The Entomological Magazine, No. I. Sept. 1832. 

 8vo, 104 pages. London. 3s. 6d. To be continued 

 quarterly. 



Knowledge is derivable only from the accumulation of 

 observations ; and as, in every branch of knowledge, many 

 observers fail to make known their observations for want of a 

 congenial vehicle of publication, we wish there existed a 

 magazine devoted to every branch of knowledge. Possessing 

 this sentiment, we regard with good affection the Entomologi- 

 cal Magazine, the first number of which is now before us, and 

 which announces that " the plan of the projectors is, to pro- 

 duce a magazine which shall contain illustrations of the habits 

 and metamorphoses of insects, descriptive characters of new 

 genera and species, records of the capture of rarities, reviews 



