Eevieiv of i\I, 0. Des Miirs's ' Oologie Ornitliologique.' 325 



des algues gelatiueuses, a des lichens, soit encore Ji dii sue 

 gastrique, ;i des melanges de zoophytes, dc frai de poisson, ou a 

 des mucus*. II est constate aujourd'hui que les nids comes- 

 tibles d'hirondelles sont formes par unc substance muqueusc 

 d\me remarquable abondance, mucus tout special secrete au 

 temps des amours de ces petits oiseaux." 



The Collocalia nidifica breeds in the Sikhim Himalaya, which 

 is rather too far from the sea to permit of any theory that neces- 

 sarily connects its nests with any product of the ocean. 



Calcutta, March 31, 1860. 



XLII. — Review of ]\I. 0. Des Murs's * Oologie Ornitho- 

 logique^t- 

 That a man with but one idea is a nuisance, is an axiom which 

 only requires time to ripen into a proverb. In spite therefore 

 of the agreeable impression which some of M. Des Murs' pre- 

 vious labours had given us, we confess to having taken up his 

 recent publication in a spirit by no means favourable to what, 

 as we gathered from the title of the work, we expected to find 

 were our author's doctrines. How far a further acquaintance 

 with them has induced us to modify our opinion, we leave our 

 readers to discover from the following remarks. 



Few writers have ridden their hobbies m^ore unmercifully 

 than systematizers in Natural History. In Ornithology, indeed, 

 there is hardly any portion of a bird's organization which has 

 not been by some one or another made the basis of classification, 

 and announced to be the real key to the comprehension of 

 the order of creation, and the only means of discovering the 

 much-desired ultimus finis — the system of Nature. Beaks and 

 claws, the scutellation of tarsi and the superposition of feathers, 

 the bones of the palate and the bones of the sternal apparatus, 

 the arrau2;ement of the muscles of the trachea and the structure 

 of the alimentary canal, the insertion of the quills and the set- 

 all uentistenacemquandammateriam colligunt, sive ea balaenarum sen alio- 

 ruin ])iscium sit semen, ex qua suos nidos a^dificant." 



* Voyez Ics ' Comptes rendus de rAcademie des Sciences,' 1859, p. 521. 



t Traite general d'Oologie Ornitliologique au point de vue de la Classi- 

 fication. Par O. Des Murs. Paris: Klinoksieck, 18()0. 



