SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 265 



indicative of the natural site of the tree that produced it. We are 

 yetj however, but as children in regard to our knowledge of the 

 mutual dependence of organic beings upon each other ; and still 

 more so, when we view them in connection with the complicated 

 chemical and mechanical agency with M^hich their existence is amal- 

 gamated. 



SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



(Gould's " Birds of Europe.") 



In conformity with the pledge given in the last number of The 

 Analyst, we proceed to analyse the splendid work of Mr. Gould on 

 The Birds of Europe. The First Part, with which we shall com- 

 mence, made its appearance in June, 1832, and has been regularly 

 followed up, at intervals of three months, by the publication of its 

 successors. Each part consists of txventy folio plates : the figures 

 drawn upon stone, in a style of uncommon accuracy, and, in gene- 

 ral, coloured with admirable taste, fidelity, and effect. The more 

 striking peculiarities of plumage, which result from age or sex, are 

 frequently illustrated by the introduction of two figures ; and some- 

 times, although more rarely than we were led, from perusal of the 

 Prospectus originally published by Mr. Gould, to expect, two or 

 more of the species of a genus of the middle-sized or smaller birds 

 are grouped together in a plate. In that Prospectus, Mr. Gould 

 proposed that each part of his work should exhibit, on the average, 

 iwenty-Jive species. Hitherto he has failed in the performance of 

 this important pledge. Fortunately, however, for his own credit 

 and for the interest of his subscribers, the hour of redemption is not 

 yet irrevocably past. 



The analysis upon which we are about to enter will, ordinarily, 

 comprehend the specific and, whenever the institution of new genera 

 may require, the generic characters of each bird, as traced by Mr^ 

 Oould ; and all the more novel or valuable information which may 



