182 REPORT — 1844. 



other includes the remaining Insessores, together with the Easores. The 

 remarks on Classification and Nomenclature in the Introduction are, for the 

 most part, sound and judicious, though the author has not always adhered to 

 his own rules. 



Professor M'Gillivray has given a condensed abstract of his larger work in 

 two small volumes, entitled 'A Manual of British Ornithology,' 1840-42. 



Sir W. Jardine's ' History of British Birds,' forming three volumes of the 

 * Naturalist's Library,' is a well-illustrated work, and embodies a great mass 

 of original observations, forming a cheap and excellent manual for the student 

 of British ornithology. 



The most elegant work on British Birds recently published, is that of Mr. 

 Yarrell. From the beauty of the engravings and of the typography, it may 

 rank as an " ouvrage de luxe" while the correctness of the descriptions, and 

 the many details of habits, geographical distribution and anatomy, render it 

 strictly a work of science. A second edition of this work is in preparation. 



The birds of Ireland are treated of by Mr. W. Thompson in an elaborate 

 series of papers, commenced in the ' Magazine of Zoology and Botany,' and 

 continued in the ' Annals of Natural History.' The author has collected 

 from his own observations and from external sources, much valuable infor- 

 mation on habits, migrations, and other subjects connected with Irish orni- 

 thology. Being the most western portion of temperate Europe, Ireland 

 presents some interesting peculiarities in its fauna, among which may be 

 mentioned the occasional occurrence of American terrestrial birds in that 

 country, though the nearest point of America is 1500 miles distant. The 

 results of Mr. Thompson's labours are incorporated in his excellent ' Report 

 on the Fauna of Ireland,' read to the British Association in 1840, in which 

 careful comparisons are made between the species of Ireland and of Great 

 Britain. 



The subject of British ornithology is now so nearly complete, that the 

 works above enumerated will probably long remain unsuperseded, and we 

 may hope that students and collectors will now extend their attention to the 

 far more neglected department of exotic ornithology. 



North and Central Continental Europe. — Many useful works on the orni- 

 thology of Northern and Central Europe were published between 1820 and 

 1830, by Brehm, Nilsson, Faber, Boie, Naumann, Walter and others, but as 

 these are prior in date to the period to which I have more particularly limited 

 this report, and as their various merits are reviewed with candour by M. 

 Temminck, in the Introduction to his ' Manuel d'Oruithologie,' part M, I need 

 not enlarge upon them here. 



Of the voluminous works of M. Brehm, his last, the ' Handbuch der Na- 

 turgescliichte aller Vogel Deutschlands,' 1831, is perhaps the least valuable, 

 on account of the immense number of so-called new species which he has 

 introduced, based upon the most trivial and inappreciable variations of size, 

 form, or colour. This view of the subject, if carried out, would upset the 

 whole fabric of systematic zoology, the very foundation of which is a belief 

 in the reality, the permanence, and the distinguishableness of species. This 

 author still continues his predilection for imaginary diagnoses in the memoirs 

 which he publishes in the ' Isis.' 



Nilsson's ' Skandinavisk Fauna,' Lund, 1835, contains a very complete, 

 and apparently very accurate summary of the ornithology of Scandinavia, but 

 unfortunately the Swedish language renders it a sealed book to the majority 

 of British naturalists. The ornithology of Scandinavia has received some 

 recent additions and corrections from a memoir by Professor Sundevall in 

 the ' Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar,' 1842. 



