Faiine Franfahe, 363 



portion of the remainder. Several tliousand species will consequently be 

 figured in the 900 plates which the work will contain when completed ; and 

 a mass of original illustrations, more extensive and more comprehensive 

 than almost any other that has yet been given to the world, will be accu- 

 mulated for the use of the zoological student. Of these plates, upwards of 

 two hundred have already appeared ; they are executed in a style which 

 reflects great credit on the artists employed, and leave little to be desired 

 on the score of accuracy and neatness of delineation. They have no pre- 

 tensions, it is true, to be compared with our friend Audubon's stupendous 

 work on the birds of America ; nor can they be put in competition, as works 

 of art and of luxury, with the beautiful Planches Coloriees of M. Temminck, 

 or the splendid Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes of MM. GeofFroy Saint 

 Hilaire and Frederic Cuvier : but, as natural history engravings, they are 

 equally faithful and equally valuable with the two latter works ; and what 

 is of infinite importance to the zoologist, whose purse is not always of the 

 heaviest, are to be obtained at a fraction of their cost. It is for this reason, 

 more especially, that we feel called upon to recommend the present publi- 

 cation to our readers ; for we are convinced that nothing has contributed 

 in a greater degree to retard the progress of natural science and its general 

 diffusion, than the splendid mode of publication adopted by many of its 

 professors, and the consequently enormous price at which their labours, or 

 rather those of the artists employed by them, are rated by the booksellers. 

 We could name many excellent works that have, on this very account, re- 

 mained utterly unknown to the world at large, and have scarcely met the 

 ^occasional glance of the scientific naturalist, who has endeavoured to satisfy 

 himself by a hurried inspection of their contents in some public library; 

 whereas, had they been published with less pretension, in a moderate form 

 and at a reasonable price, they would have contributed most essentially to 

 the advancement of the science, to its spread among the people, and to their 

 own real and substantial fame. 



Of the letter-press we may also speak in terms of commendation. The 

 names of the writers are indeed of themselves a sufficient guarantee of the 

 scientific value of their labours, which are distributed in the following man- 

 ner : — M. Desmarest undertakes the Mammalia, Reptiles, and a portion of 

 the Insects ; M. Vieillot, the Birds ; M. Blainville, the Fishes, and all the in- 

 vertebrated animals, with the exception of the Insects and Spiders ; the latter 

 are described by M. Walckenaer, and the remaining Insects are divided 

 between MM. Serville and Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau. There is, perhaps, 

 rather too much succinctness in the descriptions, which are seldom relieved 

 by the introduction of details relative to the habits and economy of the 

 species ; a fault which we were the less prepared to meet with, as the work 

 was originally announced to be " designed for all classes of society; " and 

 it was, consequently, made an especial feature of the prospectus, that the 

 authors " would enter at greater length into the history of those animals 

 which were remarkable either for their advantages or disadvantages, so as 

 to fulfil one of the principal objects proposed, that of utility and appHca- 

 tion." For want of a little of this kind of matter, to render it readable, 

 the work has somewhat too much of the uninviting character of dry tech- 

 nical definitions, which have nothing in them to interest any but the pro- 

 fessed zoologist. It is, however, announced, that general observations on 

 each division will hereafter be published in the form of an introduction 

 to the respective parts ; and it is probably the intention of the authors to 

 render these preliminary essays the vehicles for communicating information 

 of a more generally interesting kind. 



We heartily wish success to this work, and such success as may dispose 

 others to imitate the example that is here set before them. Why have we 

 not in England a Fauna of our own ? We have long been in possession of 

 the most perfect Flora that has ever been published, and yet we have nothing 



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