412 Herr Badeker's and Dr. Brewer's Oological Works. 



ardour. We therefore heartily wish well to the grand undertaking 

 commenced by the Smithsonian Institution^ which was announced 

 to our readers in our last number by Professor Baird(an/ea,p.334), 

 and trust it will enable our author, in a supplementary publi- 

 cation, to fill up many of those voids, the existence of wliich we 

 regret as much as he can. The following extract from the 

 Doctor's Introduction affords a remarkable contrast to the 

 results we just now laid before our readers with regard to the 

 oology of these islands : — " The present Part embraces the 

 descriptions and illustrations of the eggs of the Order Raptores, 

 and of the Tribe Fissirostres of the Order Insessores. So far as 

 he [Dr. Brewer] is at present aware, these include seventy-nine 

 species inhabiting North America. Of these the eggs of no less 

 than twenty are still entirely unknown to him, while of those of 

 eleven others he has no means of giving illustrations." That 

 is to say, the deficiencies of North American as compared with 

 British Oology, in this Order and Tribe, are as f^ to -^j, or 

 more than 8*5 to 1 ! 



Lest it be thought that Dr. Brewer is one of those " faultless 

 monsters whom the world ne'er saw," we must, we suppose, 

 particularize a few points wherein we must join issue with his 

 opinions ; but this we assure our readers we do not do without 

 some diffidence. We are most inclined to complain of what we 

 think is a tendency on his part to hasty generalization : thus, 

 the worthy Doctor argues that additional proof of the distinctness 

 of Nuttall's Buteo montanus and the B. borealis of authors is 

 furnished by the differences observable in theii- eggs. Now, of 

 the first-mentioned bird, since it appears that he has seen only 

 two examples, both from the same nest, it seems hardly fair to 

 assume that these represent the typical appearance of the egg ; 

 and, again, even if it be that they do so, and also that the 

 learned author's assertion be correct, that " they bear no resem- 

 blance to any eggs of B. borealis" that he has ever seen, we 

 cannot agree w^ith him in his deduction, because the character 

 of one of them, judging from his figure (PI. I. fig. 6), is exactly 

 that often seen in the eggs of Buzzards generally, and, we take 

 it, of B. borealis among them. We are not in a position to pass 

 an opinion on the propriety of separating the birds specifically. 



