ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF ORNITHOLOGY. 193 



Several of the States of the American Union have adopted the truly en- 

 lightened policy of making regular scientific surveys of their respective ter- 

 ritories. Of these the state of New York has already published several 

 handsome volumes on other branches of natural history ; but the ornitholo- 

 gical portion is not yet issued. A list of the birds of Massachusets will be 

 found in Prof. Hitchcock's Report on the Geology of that State. This list 

 has been further extended by Dr. Brewer and by the Rev. W. Peabody in 

 the 'Boston Journal of Natural History,' 183? and 1841. The latter gen- 

 tleman has given much valuable information on the manners and migrations 

 of the species. Some popular notices of the birds of Vermont are given by 

 Mr. Z. Thompson in his ' History of Vermont,' Burlington, 1 842. 



A mass of interesting observations on the zoology of the arctic portion of 

 North America is contained in the appendices to the narratives of Ross, 

 Parry, Franklin and Back, and in the ' Memoir on the Birds of Greenland,' 

 by our respected Secretary Col. Sabine (Linn. Trans, vol. xii.). These en- 

 terprising explorers found the means, during their arduous and protracted 

 expeditions, to add greatly to our knowledge of Arctic zoology, and the re- 

 sults of their labours were brought together and reduced to system in the 

 volumes of the ' Fauna Boreali- Americana,' of which the volume on birds is 

 the production of Dr. Richardson, assisted by Mr. Swainson. The specific 

 descriptions by the former gentlemEin are a model of accuracy and precision, 

 and the lithographic plates are executed with Mr. Swainson's usual skill. 



In his able ' Report on North American Zoology,' read to the British As- 

 sociation in 1836, Dr. Richardson has presented us with a full catalogue of 

 the birds of North America, including Mexico. He enters at some length 

 into the subject of migration, and has incorporated with his own observa- 

 tions those of the Rev. J. Bachman in Silliman's ' American Journal of Sci- 

 ence,' 1836. 



His Highness the Prince of Canino continues to take a lively interest in 

 the zoology of North America, where so many years of his life were spent. 

 In 1838 he published a very elaborate * Comparative List of the Birds of 

 Europe and North America,' exhibiting in parallel columns the species which, 

 whether by identity or by close affinity, represent each other in the two coun- 

 tries. This work exhibits some interesting results connected with the geogra- 

 phical distribution of species and of forms. The region between Mexico and 

 the Polar sea approaches in its fauna much more to the European, and less 

 to the tropical American type, than might have been expected. Of i?! 

 North American species of birds, no less than 100 are identical with Euro- 

 pean kinds. This is due not merely to snnilarity of climate, but to the com- 

 paratively short interval between western Europe and eastern America, which 

 enables nearly all the marine and some of the terrestrial species to pass from 

 the one continent to the other. Another cause is the proximity of north- 

 western America to Siberia, which has extended the migrations of certain 

 essentially arctic species, and caused them to spread completely round the 

 world to the north of about lat. 50°. 



The Prince is at present engaged on an improved edition of the ' List of 

 North American Birds,' in which he now proposes to include tlie birds of 

 Mexico. This additioa will materially modify the numerical results of the 

 former work, as it will introduce a large number of species of a more tropical 

 character than most of those of the United States. It will form a valuable 

 addition to our knowledge, the birds of Mexico being as yet but imperfectly 

 determined and their descriptions scattered through many remote sources. 

 Some of them have been described by Mr. Swainson (Philosophical Maga- 

 zine, ser. 2> vol. i. and Animals in Menageries), others by Wagler and Kaup, 



181.4'. o 



