290 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



wild hybrids. Siam shows, among her commodities, edible birds^- 



nests ; but we have looked through Spain and Sweden without 



discovering as much ornithology as that. Switzei-land exhibits 



the Grebe-skins for which her lakes have long been celebrated ; 



while the United States and Uruguay complete the list, and add 



two more to the courts we have drawn blank while bird-hunting. 



Perhaps it was not to be expected natural history should 



make any very great show on an occasion of this sort. Still, in 



a design so vast as an Exhibition of the "Works of Industry of all 



Nations, one would have thought that bird-stuffers would have 



evinced a greater desire to display their wares, if for no higher 



purpose than advertising them. We do not know, but we 



cannot help suspecting that at the last Exhibition no rewards 



were given to those who competed in taxidermy ; and we have 



already alluded to the prevalent rumour that in the present case 



certainly no encouragement was held out to the professors of this 



craft. Yet it cannot be said that the art is altogether unworthy 



of notice ; for if zoology be really a science, the different methods 



of preserving the objects which illustrate it — many of them, be 



it remembered, of daily increasing rarity — deserve attention ; or 



if it be only a pastime, it is unquestionably a popular one, since 



almost every other house in town or country contains some 



stuffed beast, bird, or fish, and thus, on that ground also, such 



methods merit anything but neglect. Utilitarianism is not so 



rife in these days as to influence many persons by its sneers. 



There is, we know, no fear of our readers not agreeing with us in 



these general remarks ; we are not, therefore, lecturing them ; 



but we would urge them strongly, if another International 



Exhibition be ever talked of in London, to make sure, by 



timely activity, that Ornithology at any rate should not appear 



in the same unsatisfactory state as it now does at Brompton. 



June 10, 1862. 



XXXII. — Recent Ornithological Publications. 

 1. English Publications. 



'^ What can a bird be that is not drawn from nature V our 

 readers may be inclined to ask, on seeing the title of Mrs. Black- 



