OF BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY. 93 



in fact, unrivalled. From the absence of all superfluous ornament, 

 and the ease and elegance generally displayed in the attitude and 

 grouping of the various subjects, we prefer them to even Audubon's 

 great and justly-celebrated work. Each Part contains twenty 

 plates, comprizing, on the average, about twenty-two species of Eu- 

 ropean birds, with a page of concise but masterly description ; from 

 which much interesting and some original information may invaria- 

 bly be gleaned. One Part is published regularly every three months. 

 On this plan, the whole, Mr. Gould calculates, will be completed in 

 three — we take the liberty of substituting the numeral /bwr, or even 

 five — years from its commencement.* The work, considering the 

 time, care, and labour, bestowed upon its execution, and the style in 

 which it is got up, is exceedingly cheap : and ultimately its value 

 will be greatly enhanced by the destruction of the lithograph, as 

 promised in the Prospectus, when three hundred impressions shall 

 have been taken from the stone. This important pledge, Mr. Gould 

 will, we doubt not, most honourably redeem; as he has already done 

 in his exquisite work on the Birds of India. 



Postscript — Since the preceding review was written, two 

 works upon British Birds which had previously escaped our recol- 

 lection or research, have fallen under observation ; and four others 

 . have made their first appearance upon the stage of letters. A no- 

 tice of these, however brief and imperfect, and late with respect to 

 the former, will best atone for our negligence of them ; and suffice, 

 as regards the whole, to bring up our review of the literature of 

 British Ornithology to the present period. All these publications 

 are, with one exception, devoted to the Ornithology of the British 

 islands ; and, as treating exclusively of Birds, naturally belong to 

 the First Section of our Retrospect. 



Mr. Selby, it appears, ])ublished, as far back as 1833, the second 

 edition of his first volume of British Ornithology ; and, at the same 

 time, completed the work by the addition of a second volume. Of 



* There are, we calculate, at least four hundred distinct species of Euro- 

 2)ean Birds ; the whole of which must be necessarily dehneated by Mr. Gould. 

 Of these, nearly three hundred are indigenous in, or periodical or occasional 

 visitants of, the British Islands. 



