80 A RETROSPECT OF THE LITERATURE 



book. Trash should, verily, be gilded, or it will not catch the eye, 

 and excite the appetite, of "babes and boobies ;" but the sound and 

 substantial aliment, fitted to satiate the intellectual wants of the 

 public in these intellectual times, requires no such flimsy and mere- 

 tricious ornament. The adoption of these '^ tricks of the trade" is 

 the more to be regretted in an author who, like Mr. Mudie, has 

 really no need for such despicable auxiliaries ; and who, if he stu- 

 died the art of literary condensation with half the zeal and dili- 

 gence displayed by him, in the production of books, would shortly 

 assume that elevated station, in the popular opinion, as an interest- 

 ing and instructive writer, which his indutitry and acquirements must 

 ultimately command. He is evidently an accurate and experienced 

 observer of the facts and phenomena of Natural History ; in the de- 

 scription of which he occasionally exhibits so much facility, felicity, 

 and talent. 



II. We have now reached the termination of the First Stage of our 

 retrospect; and, in entering upon the Second, which comprehends 

 those works wherein Ornithology forms part only of a systematic 

 description of the Animal Kingdom, have, first, to notice the useful 

 Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain and Irelandj pub- 

 lished by Dr. Berkenhout, in three octavo volumes, in the year 

 1769. A Third and, we believe, last Edition, in two volumes, under 

 the title of Synopsis, bears the date of 1795. It comprehends a 

 good description of two hundred and forty -six species of British 

 birds, arranged according to the Linnaean system. Seven years sub- 

 sequently to the appearance of Berkenhout's First Edition — 177^ — 

 the zoological labours of Pennant, in a quarto and an octavo edition, 

 of four volumes each, were given to the world. The British Zoology 

 constitutes a shewy and amusing rather than profound work. The 

 last, a posthumous edition, in four octavo volumes, illustrated with 

 many spirited but not very accurate engravings of British animals, 

 appeared in 1812. It exhibits numerous errors and deficiencies in 

 the arrangement and delineation of the various species. Pulteney 

 published, in 1799, his valuable Catalogue of the Birds of Dorset- 

 shire. It originally formed part of Hutchinson's new edition of the 

 History of ttat county ; but is now, we believe, with those of the 

 shells and other natural productions of Dorset, sold separately from 



