138 



and incongruities with which it has been encumbered and defaced by the impotent 

 yet daring hand of Professor Rennie, and extended and adorned by the real dis- 

 coveries and improvements of modern ornithological science ; — a new periodical on 

 the Smaller British Birds, by Messrs. Blythe and Fowler, whose names alone 

 constitute a sufficient pledge for the accuracy and value of such a book ; and — 

 what is still better than all — a complete systematic work on British Ornithology, 

 corresponding, in form and execution, with the British Fishes, of Yarrell, and 

 the British Quadrupeds, of Bell, — may be selected as the most promising pro- 

 ductions which, during the present year, have been announced for publication. 

 Of the execution of the latter, we cherish the most sanguine expectations : we feel 

 the deepest interest in its character and fate. Instead of the useless, although 

 amusing, and frequently indelicate tail-pieces exhibited in the popular work of 

 Bewick, we earnestly recommend the author of the projected volumes, whoever he 

 be, to introduce cuts illustrative of either the internal or external peculiarities of 

 structure, or the habits, of the individual bird under discussion. Ornithology will 

 never attain the requisite precision to constitute a science until we have accurate 

 delineations of the internal anatomy of almost every species of bird which traverses 

 the desert, haunts the marsh or shore, or floats in air or water. In illustration of 

 our views on this subject, we recur, with peculiar pleasure, to the elaborate and 

 scientific volume of Mr. Mac Gillivray on the Rapaces. 



The title of Mr. Eyton's supplementary work, to which we, at length, revert, 

 sufficiently indicates its character and objects. The three Parts, of which it con- 

 sists, exhibit pleasing, well-executed, and generally accurate representations on 

 wood, of more than forty of the rarer species of British Birds. A few of these, 

 however, it should seem, have been given in the last edition* of Bewick's interest- 

 ing volumes ; and consequently ought not to have made their appearance here. 

 The tail -pieces of Mr. Eyton are ordinarily quite as irrelevant to the subject which 

 they follow, and, of course, quite as useless, as those of Bewick ; with but a very 

 sorry sprinkling of the spirit and humour which characterize the execution, and, 

 in some measure, expiate the sins, of their predecessors. The whole is terminated 

 by a copious Catalogue, with a tolerably full and correct Synonymy, of British 

 Birds. 



Of the two productions of Mr. Neville Wood, both highly valuable and in- 

 structive, we greatly prefer the last. It is a delightful volume ; full of living por- 



* It has generally been believed that the 1826 edition of Bewick's work is the last pub- 

 lished. This was long our opinion ; and our reiterated inquiries, among the London and 

 provincial biliopoles, served only to confirm the erroneous impression. Another edition, 

 with several additional figures of the rarer or newly-discovered British Birds, it now ap- 

 pears, came out in 1832. This edition, we naturally infer, must have been small, and 

 speedily bought up ; as all our efforts to obtain a copy, or even the inspection of one, have, 

 hitherto, been unavailing. 



