486 Mr. C. Davies Sherhoru— Dates of 



as Aug. 1823. Now in Ferussac, Bull. i. (1821) pp. 87 & 

 178, iv. (1825) p. 125, and v. (1825) p. 127, are four 

 reviews, in each of which Q,uoy remarks upon the wonderful 

 regularity in the publication of the livraisons, which came 

 out month by month. Having therefore the exact date of 

 the use of the word Megapodius in this book^ we know that 

 of livraison 37 in which Megapodius first appeared ; and^ 

 knowing that, we can fix with absolute certainty the 

 date of the first 37 livraisons. Moreover, the regularity 

 of publication is still remarked upon in the last review 

 quoted, and this takes our certain dates up to livraison 55. 

 After 55 we have no further definite information beyond 

 Ferussac's Bulletin, which corroborates Crotches list so far 

 as the years are concerned ; and there appears no reason to 

 doubt that Crotches list for the remaining livraisons is 

 correct, with the one exception of livraison 75, which was 

 received at the Linnean Society^s Library in 1827, and 

 should, therefore, be so dated. 



An interesting fact which, though evidence of course to 

 the original subscribers, had been overlooked by and un- 

 known to later ornithologists is mentioned by Quoy in his 

 first notice of the work (Bull, general, 1823, iv. p. 207)., 

 who states as follows : — •' Les deux editeurs . . . ne s^etaient 

 d^abord engages qu^a fournir six planches coloriees par 

 mois ; mais, depuis, ils ont ajoute plusieurs feuilles de texte 

 h, chaque livraison." With this change the price of the 

 livraison was also raised, from 9 francs for the 4to and 

 12 francs for the folio issue, to 10 francs 50 c. and 15 francs 

 respectively, while a paragraph was added to the notice on 

 the wrappers, beginning — " Les Souscripteurs qui poss^deut 

 les vingt premieres Livraisons qui desireront en acquerir 

 le texte . . J" At first, therefore, there was no text ; it was 

 not until livraison 21 that text appeared, and then all that 

 for livraisons 1-20 and 21 appeai'cd at once. After livraison 

 21 text and plates appeared together. This statement will 

 be found in Fervissac, Bull. i. (1824) p. 179, and on the 

 back of the original wrappers preserved in Professor Newton^s 

 copy [e. g. livr. 26), thus : — ''Les Souscripteurs qui possfedent 



