Bibliographical Notices, 337 



having never performed the function of one. May it not^ with 

 greater propriety, be considered as some form of the endo- 

 chrome, a result of development of the granules of the articula- 

 tion ? It exactly resembles the spores of the terminal articu- 

 lations^ which, as has been already stated, originate in the gra- 

 nular endochrome of this articulation. 



The parasitic plant I have now described resembles in many 

 respects those found by Hannover and Stilling on the newt 

 and frog. As in these, the filaments swarmed with infusorial 

 animalcules, Monads, Bursarice, &c. Some of these doubtless 

 lived among the filaments while the fish was still aUve ; others, 

 again, as the Bursaria, must have taken up their residence 

 there after the commencement of putrefaction. Hannover in 

 Miiller's ^Archiv,^ 1842, page 7^^ has described the deve- 

 lopment of the conferva of the frog and newt, and has men- 

 tioned the animal-like movements of the spores. Mr. Daniel 

 Cooper (^Microscopic JournaP) has frequently observed a cot- 

 ton-like conferva on the gills and fins of gold-fish. From a 

 preserved specimen, an examination of which was afforded me 

 by Prof. Balfour, I am inclined to believe in the existence of 

 more than one species of this genus of parasitic Algae. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Gould's Birds of Australia. Parts I. to VI. Folio. 1841-42. 



One hundred plates of this magnificent work are now before the 

 public ; it seems therefore high time that some notice of its contents 

 should be given to such of our readers as may not have seen the ori- 

 ginal. Great as is the excellence of Mr. Gould's former pubUcations, 

 there can be no doubt that the present work exceeds them all, both 

 in an artistic and in a scientific point of view. Additional practice 

 in designing and additional opportunities of studying animated na- 

 ture have greatly improved his pictorial powers, while his recent ex- 

 cursions in the wilds of Australia have supplied him with a mass of 

 novel and original information of the highest value to the ornitholo- 

 gist. Students in that science too often have to regret their igno- 

 rance of the natural history of exotic species of birds. With no other 

 data before them than a dried skin, they can only conjecture the real 

 afiinities of a species, while if they were acquainted also with its 

 habits, food, nidification and anatomy, they might in general fix its 

 true place in the system with the greatest certainty. As far as 

 Australian ornithology extends, this desideratum will now be sup- 

 plied by the labours of Mr. Gould and of those whom he will induce 

 to tread in his steps ; and if his efforts should in some degree allure 

 our countrymen in the other hemisphere from the race-course and 

 the gaming-table to a study of the works of Creation, the moral in- 

 fluence of his work will not be one of its least recommendations. 



