Literary Notices. 191 



as well as describing and explaining the various changes of 

 their plumage, hitherto so imperfectly understood, will be pub- 

 lished occasionally ; forming, by the time of the completion of 

 the figures, two volumes large 8vo, which will not exceed 2/." 



The Natural History of the Birds of Africa^ translated from 

 the French of F. Le Vaillant, with copious notes and synonymes, 

 by Professor Rennie, will be published early in the spring. 

 The work is intended to make two volumes. A translation of 

 Le Vaillant's Birds of Paradise and the Parrots^ uniform with 

 the above, and with Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary, is 

 also in a forward state of preparation. 



The A?igler's Museum, edited by a member of the Walton 

 and Cotton Club. A printed prospectus of a work to be thus 

 denominated has been issued by Mr. Wood for circulation 

 among the members of the club and the friends of the editor. 

 A copy has reached us, and we have perused it with real 

 pleasure, because it is written unassumingly, clearly, and ably. 

 The author complains that the pursuit of angling has not 

 hitherto been duly accompanied by those correlative consider- 

 ations in natural history which it is eminently calculated both 

 to excite and to gratify. Besides the acquaintance with the 

 general philosophy of nature to which it tends to introduce 

 us, it leads us, with an almost irresistible directness, to an in- 

 creased and increasing acquaintance with ichthyology, ento- 

 mology, botany, and meteorology; and the editor both regrets 

 that the knowledge of these sciences has been hitherto so little 

 coupled with the prosecution of the art of angling, and pro- 

 fesses his ardent desire, and we think evinces his ability, 

 if the public will but encourage him to the task, to render 

 this no longer the case. The editor also proposes, as indeed 

 would be expected of him, to collect and collate whatever 

 contributions to improvement, both in the practice of the art 

 and in considerations of science and philosophy connected 

 therewith, the modern school of angling may have developed, 

 and to add these improvements to, and blend them with, all the 

 excellencies of the older school. He will thus perform an 

 acceptable service to all interested in the pursuit of angling ; 

 for it is difficult to conceive any thing more annoying than the 

 necessity of procuring and perpetually recurring to numerous 

 books for information on a single subject. This is our feeling ; 

 and the welcome patronage the public has latterly bestowed 

 on comprehensive works attests that we are not singular in 

 the possession of this feeling. The editor farther proposes to 

 do what indeed will require superlative familiarity with his 

 subject to do well ; it is as follows : — to supply " a biblio- 



