398 Analytical Notices of Books. 



and give to the public a far better compilation. To prepare a Speciet? 

 Animalium, if indeed such a work be at all practicable in the present 

 state of our knowledge and collections, would require abilities and in- 

 dustry of a very superior order. 



Of the plates it will be sufficient to remark, that they also are taken 

 from other works, and these, in some instances, by no means the best 

 that might have been employed for such a purpose. The one which il- 

 lustrates the insects, for example, contains copies of French figures in 

 the very worst style of art in which such objects have ever been repre- 

 sented even in France. 



Manuel d' Ornithologie, ou Description des Genres et des principales 

 Especes d'Oiseaux: par k. P. Lesson. Paris, 1828. 18mo., 2 

 tomes, pp. 421 and 448. 



Unlike the convenient httle Manuel de Mammalogie of the same 

 authour, which has recently been noticed in this Journal, the present 

 work does not attempt to characterize the whole of the species of the 

 class to which it is devoted. It is rather designed as a Genera of Birds ; 

 the characters or descriptions of each group being accompanied, in addi- 

 tion, by incidental remarks on its value, its position in the general sys- 

 tem, or its geographical distribution, and also by references to, or 

 characters of, some of the species contained in it. Beyond this no fixed 

 plan is pursued ; and hence great inequality exists in the various parts of 

 the volumes. In some instances the genera are characterized with preci- 

 sion and conciseness; in others, the characters are given with such 

 diffuseness as to merit the appellation of generic descriptions. In some 

 of the groups again, the species are merely referred to, and even these 

 references are few in number, an example of which may be found in the 

 Psittacidce, those quoted in M. Lesson's pages being scarcely one-tenth 

 of the whole number, and few among them having attached to their 

 names any notice of the peculiarities by which they are distinguished. 

 In other cases, as in Tanagra, nearly every species known to ornitholo- 

 gists is characterized ; and in others again, as in Charadrius, not only is 

 the enumeration of the species equally complete, but each of them is 

 also fully described. 



