82 A KETROSPECT OF THE LITERATURE 



Britixh Birds, This production is too well known to require com- 

 ment or eulogium here. The sixth and latest edition, — two octavo 

 volumes, — came out in 1826, — a short time previously to the decease 

 of its highly-gifted and lamented author.* The appearance of the 

 original edition was followed by the publication of the first volume 

 of Donovan's Natural History of British Birds, in 1799 ; and by 

 that of the first volume of Lewin's Birds of Great Britaifi, in 1800.t 

 The former was completed by the appearance of a tenth volume, in 

 1819 ; and contains two hundred and forty plates of birds tolerably 

 drawn, and sometimes prettily, — although, on the whole, tawdrily 

 coloured. Lewin^s work, the eighth and last volume of which ap- 

 peared in 1801, exhibits two hundred and seventy-eight figures of 

 birds, and fifty-eight plates of their eggs, generally, with respect 

 alike to their outline and their colouring, of miserable execution. Of 

 the accompanying descriptions in English and French, the principal 

 merit consists in their brevity ; for nonsense is generally diffuse. — 

 The utility of either of these costly productions, whether^ contem- 

 plated as Works of science or of art, we acknowledge ourselves ut- 

 terly destitute of the ability to comprehend. 



The year 1802 gave birth to Montagu's justly celebrated Ornitho- 

 logical Dictionary, in two octavo volumes. It is evidently the fruit 

 of long, patient, and correct observation; and pregnant with in- 

 struction. Copies of it have now become exceedingly scarce. A 



• A greater or more acceptable service could not, we conceive, be rendered 

 to Ornitholoffical Science in this country, than the issue of a corrected re-print 

 of Bewick's delightful volumes. The publication of such a work in monthly 

 numbers would, while securing an abundant sale and ample remuneration, 

 render it accessible to all those for whose perusal and profit it would be 

 mainly intended ; and to whom the more costly productions of Selby, Gould, 

 and Meyer, must for ever remain sealed volumes. The admirable work of 

 Mr. Yarrell, on British Fishes, now in the course of publication, may be 



Sointed out, as a worthy example of the form and style in which such an un- 

 ertaking should be executed. Upon the " daft friend," and enthusiastic eu- 

 logist of Bewick, this hint may not, peradventure, be thrown away. No 

 man is better qualified, by talent and knowledge of the subject, than Mr. 

 Dovaston, to confer this signal benefit on the good cause of popular instruc- 

 tion and amusement ; and, at the same time, erect, with pious hand, an im- 

 perishable monument — sere vel saxo perennius, — to the memory of departed 

 worth and genius. 



+ Some writers would make it appear that the early volumes of this work 

 were published in 1789. Our copy bears the date above specified ; without 

 the slightest intimation that it has attained the certainly unmerited honours 

 of a second edition. 



