ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OP ORNITHOLOGY. 199 



is especially useful for its details of anatomical structure. The Latin specific 

 characters might however have been drawn up with more care ; and an ap- 

 pendix should have been added, containing the numerous species described 

 by Latham and the old authors, which had not come under Mr. Ey ton's ob- 

 servation. No monograph can be considered complete which does not, in 

 addition to the ascertained species, enumerate also the unascertained, that is 

 to say, those nominal species which for the present exist only in books and 

 not in museums, many of which however will no doubt be again restored to 

 science as real species, while others will be recognised as peculiar conditions 

 of the species we now possess. In this respect, the collection of monographs 

 published by Wagler under the title of ' Systema Avium,' and continued af- 

 terwards in Oken's ' Isis,' affords a useful model. It was his custom, after de- 

 scribing those species of a genus with which he was himself acquainted, to 

 append two lists, one of '■^species a me non visce," and the other of "species ad 

 genera diversa pertinentes." 



MM. Hombron and Jacquinot have communicated to the Academic des 

 Sciences a memoir on the habits and classification of the Procellariidcc, of 

 which an abstract is given in the ' Comptes Rendus,' March, 1844, and in 

 which several new subgenera are proposed. Mr. Gould has also extended 

 our knowledge of this obscure group in the 'Annals of Nat. Hist.,' May, 1844. 



M. Brandt, of Petersburg, who has made the Natatores his peculiar study, 

 has monographed the family Alcidce, and the genera Phaeton and Phalacro- 

 corax, in memoirs contributed to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Pe- 

 tersburg. 



Professor Sundevall states that there is a monograph of the genus Dysporus 

 (Sula) in the ' Physiographisk Tidskrift,' Lund., 1837. 



Many monographic summaries of different genera will be found in Tem- 

 minck's 'Planches Coloriees,' Riippell's works on Abyssinia, and Smith's 

 ' Zoology of South Africa.' 



Besides monographs of the larger groups, there are many valuable me- 

 moirs on individual species, such as that by M. Botta on Saurolhera califor- 

 niana (originally described by Hernandez as a Pheasant, and now properly 

 termed Geococcyx mexicanus, Gm. (sp.)) in the ' Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat.,' 

 vol. iv.; that by Dubus on Leptorhynchus pectoralis and other new generic 

 types, in ' Bullet. Acad. Roy. de Bruxelles ;' by De Blainville on Chionis (Ann. 

 Sc. Nat., 1836) ; by Lesson on Euryceros (Ann. Sc. Nat., 1831); by Mr. 

 Yarrell on Apteryx (Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. i.), &c. 



4. Miscellaneous Descriptions of Species. 



Among recent works of this class, Guerin's ' Magazin de Zoologie,' com- 

 menced in 1831, demands notice. This publication, which for the excellence 

 of its scientific matter and its moderate price deserves every encouragement, 

 is rendered the more convenient to the working naturalist by being sold in 

 separate sections. The ornithological portion of this periodical contains va- 

 luable papers by Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Lafresnaye, D'Orbigny, Ey- 

 doux, Gervais, L'Herminier, Delessert and others. Many new and important 

 forms are there described and figured with great exactness, and although the 

 authors are not in all cases sufficiently conversant with the writings of IJritish 

 ornithologists, yet they duly estimate the claims of the latter when brought 

 before them. 



Upon the whole, the ' Magazin de Zoologie ' must be regarded as a work 

 highly creditable to French science, and it is much to be regretted that since 

 the discontinuance of our own ' Zoological Journal ' no similar periodical has 

 been set on foot in this country. Such a work might however be easily re- 



