6 REVIEWS. 



earth is bound by an icy chain, or because the flowers on which it feeds 

 have gone to rest for a short season, in spring to arise again in fresh loveli- 

 ness ; no every day is spring, or summer, or autumn in those lands, and 

 winter, in all its sternness, is unknown. Why, then, must they be away? 

 Our swallows and summer birds leave us it is true ; but, then, they love 

 perpetual sunshine, and need perpetual supplies of insect food, which that 

 sunshine calls into life ; and equally good are the reasons that guide the 

 migratory powers of the Trochilidre. Beautiful though be the climes they 

 live in, yet, as if it were to verify the vulgar saying, " that there is no part 

 of the earth without its drawbacks," those countries are at seasons sub- 

 ject to perpetual rains, which drench, and almost inundate, their abodes, or 

 to frightful hurricanes, that, in a few short moments, leave only a wreck 

 of what was before so magnificent and luxuriant ; and so, before any 

 such disasters have happened, these birds pass over to other lands, where 

 the reparation of a previous wreck is proceeding with all the magical 

 rapidity of tropical vegetation. To enable them to accomplish in safety these 

 journeys, often of a long duration, and during which they have sometimes 

 to withstand a passing gale, showers, or even the rigour of a snow storm, 

 we find them gifted with wings of a large size, and quills of a great 

 strength, entirely out of proportion to our ideas of symmetry in a creature 

 clothed with feathers, did we not take into consideration their migratory 

 disposition, and, then, the utility and design of them become most obvious. 

 But the fascination which attaches itself to this "gay creation" has led us 

 far from our original task ; in resuming it we will enumerate the various 

 works of importance that have been devoted to the history of these birds. We 

 pass over the accounts of single individuals, given us by Wilson, Audubon, 

 Bullock, and, lately, by Gosse, in his "Birds of Jamaica," and shall only 

 notice those works that can be compared to the "Monograph" before us: 

 first, in 1820-23, M. C. J. Temminck published his "Nouveau Rdcueil des 

 Planches Colorees des Oiseaux, pour servir de Suite en de complement aux 

 Planches Enluininees de Buffon." Quarto, with plates. In comparing this 

 work with the one before us, we cannot but be struck with the unsatisfac- 

 tory nature of the descriptions, while very little notice is taken of the habits 

 of the birds. The plates also are a little too highly coloured, and would 

 lead to the impression that they had been drawn from stuffed specimens. 

 Secondly, in 1829, M. R. P. Lesson published his "Histoire Naturelle des 

 Oiseaux Mouches," with 86 coloured plates; in 1831, his "Hist. Nat. des 

 Colibres," with 66 plates; and, in 1834, his"Les Trochilides,"with 70 plates. 

 These are three most beautiful volumes ; the plates are delicately executed ; 

 and, uj) to the date of the publication of Mr. Gould's "Monograph," were the 



