Recent Ornithological Publications. 379 



study of more important works/' Mr. Wolf's woodcuts should 

 be a great inducement to those who want some popular and 

 readable information about our feathered tribes in this country 

 to select Mr. Johns's volume ; but we cannot believe that the con- 

 cise characters of either genera or species as here given are 

 likely to be of much assistance to the student in determining 

 doubtful species. 



Dr. Bree has almost disarmed us as critics of his work, by the 

 graceful compliment he has lately paid to this Magazine. Though 

 we have occasionally ventured to differ from the opinions he has 

 put forth, we have never done so without regret, and we have 

 always borne testimony to the excellence of his intentions. It 

 is only due to the worthy Doctor that we should now add a 

 word in praise of the good temper in which he has taken our 

 remarks, unfavourable as they may have sometimes been to his 

 treatment of the subject. That his labours would prove highly 

 useful, — if only in directing attention to a branch of the study, 

 like the Ornithology of Europe, which has hitherto been so 

 much neglected in this country, — we have from the first main- 

 tained. Each succeeding part of the work shows increasing 

 care on the part of its author. 



While modesty prevents our enlarging upon the lately com- 

 pleted ' Catalogue of a Collection of American Birds '*, our duty, 

 as a faithful chronicler of ornithological bibliography, obliges 

 us to notice the fact of its publication. In the hope that our 

 work may be found useful to those who are interested in the orni- 

 thology of the New World, we have entrusted it to an indulgent 

 public. More than this our readers will not expect us to say. 



Mr. Mason's volume on Burmahf, published at Rangoon 



* Catalogue of a Collection of American Birds belonging to Philip 

 Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. London : Triibner and Co. 



t Burmah, its People and Natural Productions ; or. Notes on the 

 nations, fauna, flora, and minerals of Tenasserim, Pegu, and Burmah, with 

 systematic catalogues of the known mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, insects, 

 mollusks, crustaceans, annelids, radiates, plants, and minerals, with verna- 

 cular names. By the Rev. F. Mason. Rangoon, 1860. London : Triibner 

 and Co. 



