41 
This charm can never belong to merely descriptive ornithology, 
because even the best descriptions are only like mosaic stones, which, 
when placed without rules, or arranged according to false principles, 
give us only a scattered mass of heterogeneous materials, or a picture 
destitute of truth. 
These claims I have urged over and over again in my dissertations, 
but hitherto without effect. When shall the time arrive when a 
catholic spirit shall guide the destinies of science, and lead onward to 
that triumph of true knowledge, in which every director of a mu- 
seum, and every student of the works of nature, may take his part? 
At present it is impossible that a naturalist can without help 
arrange the whole materials of one class in his museum. Our mu- 
seums are little more than great exhibitions for the people, who look 
too often only to colour, instead of being stores of nature’s trea- 
sures, ready to be communicated to every naturalist who has proved 
himself worthy of the name. Every museum ought to accord freely 
and liberally the wished-for materials, for this is the cheapest way in 
which a family can be properly named and accurately classed. The 
common excuse that the lent materials might come to harm, is little 
more than an excuse. Time and destructive insects will do the harm, 
without the slightest advantage to science. 
Nisus (seu ACCIPITER) CHIONOGASTER, Kaup. 
Diagnosis.—Above dark blue grey, beneath pure white. 
Description.—The male is less than the Nis. fringillarius. Above 
dark blue grey, the crown, lorum, and a stripe over the eye- and ear- 
cover feathers more approaching to black; ear-covering, cheek and 
crop with fine black quill lines; tail with three black bands and a 
broader band at the end, which is white bordered ; the underside of 
the tail has the bands more silver-grey ; the first tail-feather with five 
bands before the large end-band ; the wings on the inner side with 
four bands before the large end-band. Before the emarginations the 
bands are grey, and after them whiter. 
The larger female with a white eye-stripe, and broader black quill 
stripe on the crop; the cover feathers of the tibia with a fine rufous tint. 
According to the ticket of M. de Lattre, the iris of the female is 
orange, and that of the male dark brown, like burnt sienna. 
These two specimens were procured by M. de Lattre in Coban, in 
the year 1843. 
Dimensions in millimetres.— r 
| a Fes eee aaa 21 ange aie 45 
Gape. . DD enn 19 
BAT oO RE REY a LS eee 206 
oO Sra ened, om aera i: | i ee 160 
"TIBI. 2 Go, eee a ao ss aes 56 
Middle toe without nail... 32 ...... 37 
We possess several species in the genus Misus, Cuv., seu Accipiter 
of the English authors. Most of these are very near to the common 
Sparrow-Hawk ; and I think some of them, like the North American 
