284 



Orizaba in the State of La Puebla. Wlien in Paris a short time 

 since, I had the pleasure of looking through this collection in com- 

 pany with Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte ; and at his request, 

 and that of ^I. Salle, who offered to place a series of the birds in 

 my hauds for that purpose, agreed to endeavour to make a coniplete 

 catalogue of the species. Although I have not been able to devote 

 all the time I could have wished to this object, I have succeeded in 

 ascertaiuing, without much doubt, the names of the greater part of 

 the known species ; while there are fourteen or fifteen birds in the 

 collection which may be considered as probably unknown to science, 

 and for which I have accordingly proposed new specific appellations. 

 It is ąuite likely that some of these may have been already named 

 by the American Naturalists, who have recently done so much to 

 extend our knowledge of the Fauna of the northem portion of the 

 New World ; but I have been unable to find any notice of them in 

 the publications of the Scientific Societies of the United States or 

 other works, as far as they have been received in this country up 

 to the present time. 



Although we have a pretty good general knowledge of Mexican 

 Ornithology — many coUections having been made in that country — 

 there has been, as far as I am aware, no attempt made to form any 

 detailed accountof the birds inhabiting it, except Mr. Swainson's im- 

 perfect Synopsis published in the Philosophical Magazine in 1827, 

 and Wagler's paper on Mexican Animals in the Isis for 1831 ; 

 and the notices of more recently discovered species are scattered at 

 random through the scientific publications of Englaud, France, Ger- 

 many and America, to the great perplexity of the naturalist. So I 

 may hope that the present list of 233 species found by M. Salle in 

 Southern ]Mexico, will be of some use as an Index to the Ornithology 

 of that country as far as it goes, and form a foundation on which a 

 more perfect work ou the šame subject may some day be raised. 



I may remark, that there are examples of many well-known South 

 American forms in the present collection (such as Nyctidromus, Pipra, 

 Anahates and Formicarius) which have not hitherto been noticed so 

 far north ; the zoology of the bot eastern sea-board, which M. Salle 

 explored, being, as might have been expected, much more tropical 

 in its character than that of the high table-land of the interior, 

 whence most Mexican collections have hitherto been brought. 



The occurrence of the examples of the pūrely Boreal types Cer- 

 thia and Parus so far south (below the parallel of 19' N. L.), is also, 

 I believe, hitherto unrecorded. 



A notice of these collections of birds by Prince Bonaparte will be 

 found in the Comptes Rendus of the French Academy of Natūrai 

 Sciences for the month of May of this year, and some of the new 

 species are there shortly indicated. 



ACCIPITRES. 

 1. TlNNUNCULUS SPARVERIUS (Liiin.). 



Salle, no. 8. Cordova. 



