not observed in the British Isles.' 97 



look, — Aquila pennata, yes, here it is ; after all, it is right : my 

 fears, and not the dealer deceived me." This is the state of the 

 case ; and can anything be more illogical ? M. Moquin-Tandon 

 is, we are afraid, by no means singular. There are many collect- 

 ors in this country, who yearly spend large sums in buying eggs 

 from dealers — utterly un-identified, or with (since identification of 

 eggs has lately become somewhat fashionable) a plausible history, 

 but one that will not bear investigation. Little do they know 

 how the four quarters of the globe have been ransacked, how 

 varieties have been selected from a large series of specimens 

 belonging to allied, or, it may be, utterly remote forms, because 

 they resemble the figures that have been published of the egg for 

 which there is a demand in the market. They are of no author- 

 ity whatever ; their faces are their fortune, and like, we fear, some 

 other pretty faces, are without character, and may lead those that 

 seek them into endless trouble. It is this example of M. Moquin- 

 Tandon's mode of identifying eggs which compelled us, while 

 treating of the Bald Eagle, to pass over the evidence in favour of 

 its European claims adduced by Mr. Bree from supposed eggs of 

 that bird, said to have been brought from the North of Europe 

 by Prince Napoleon^s expedition. It would be a waste of time 

 to inquire whether they were rightly named, or from what country 

 they were obtained — whether from Iceland, where no one has even 

 said that the Bald Eagle occurs ; from Norway, where no one now 

 believes that it ever existed ; or from Spitzbergen, innocent of all 

 eagles, whether French or American. We regret to see our author 

 avail himself of such an argument. 



And now one word more and we have done. To find fault 

 is never an agreeable task, and never so disagreeable as when the 

 })erson censured is, in the main, of the same way of thinking as 

 oneself. Still less is the office of a reviewer an enviable one, — 

 a single sentence, nay, a word, may breed a hostile spirit that 

 nothing can appease. And least of all should we desire to pro- 

 voke such an enmity among ornithologists, when writing in the 

 first number of a new Journal, which can only be continued by 

 the favour they may accord it. It is simply because we be- 

 lieve that Mr. Breeds work will have a deservedly wide sale among 

 many who have had hitherto little or no knowledge of European 



VOL. I. H 



