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pacioiis Birds, of Mac Gillivray, and the Second Edition of the Feathered Tribes 

 of the British Islands, by Robert Mudie, are principally entitled to attention. The 

 former of these is, more especially, a master-piece of ornithological description and 

 research. We hope to see, ere long, other Orders of our British Birds delineated, 

 and, in the true signification of the word, illustrated, by the same powerful, deli- 

 cate, and experienced hand, and in language of the like commanding eloquence and 

 perspicuity. Mr. Mac Gillivray's wood-cuts, representing the heads of the various 

 species of Birds of prey, are uncommonly spirited and striking : his delineations of 

 the internal structure of the Buzzard and the Owl, admirable studies for the orni- 

 thological inquirer, and models for the artist. Would that anything we can say, 

 might induce Mr. Mudie, in the future editions of his deeply interesting work, to 

 substitute for the painted figures, with which it is, at present, infested, some such 

 accurate and impressive sketches of the external configuration, or internal anato- 

 my, of the Feathered Tribes, as really adorn, because really illustrating, the feli- 

 citous and masterly descriptions of Mr. Mac Gillivray. To this list may be added, 

 although not, strictly speaking, a British publication, the third volume of Audu- 

 bon's fascinating Ornithological Biography. 



The more important works, in progress of publication during the current 

 year, are the magnificent and yet unrivalled Birds of Europe by Mr. Gould ; 

 Meyer's Illustrations of British Birds, a very respectable, although, assuredly, 

 not a first-rate production ; and the accurate and beautifully executed British 

 Oology, of our friend, Hewitson. The intellectual and enterprizing Mrs. Perrott 

 has been so rudely, — we had almost said unrighteously — assailed by certain litera- 

 rary shrikes, in whose crania the organs of combativeness and destructiveness 

 sadly predominate over those of benevolence and attachment to the softer sex, 

 that we really apprehend she must have quitted, in disgust, the field of competi- 

 tion.* The most valuable and interesting periodicals, of which Ornithology conr 

 stitutes an essential portion, are Partington's British Cyclopaedia of Natural 

 History ; and the masterly Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology, by Dr. 

 Todd. The third and fourth numbers of the latter contain an article upon Birds 

 (Aves) which must elevate its profound and accomplished author, Mr. Owen, to 

 the first rank in the phalanx of living zoologists. The Outlines of Comparative 

 Anatomy, by Dr. Grant — a third Part of which has recently appeared — will be 

 found to supply information, alike luminous, accurate, and minute, upon the struc- 

 ture of the Bird-Class. 



A new edition of the valuable Ornithological Dictionary, of Colonel Mon- 

 tagu, wherein the original structure will, doubtless, be cleared from the rubbish 



* Since this sentence was written, we have received the distressing intelligence of the 

 death of the accomplished and highly-gifted Mrs. Perrott, under circumstances of deep 

 affliction. 



VOL. I. T 



