220 REPORT — 1844. 



nothing would be easier than to instruct those ingenious people in the art of 

 collecting specimens. We obtain, too often indeed in a mutilated state, the 

 "audy Paradisiidce of New Guinea, but the less attractive birds of that 

 countr)', as well as of the whole Polynesian archipelago, are almost unknown. 

 From Madagascar a few remarkable species have been occasionally sent to 

 Europe, but the peculiarly insulated fauna of that island, partaking neither 

 of an African nor an Asiatic character, is still very imperfectly explored. 

 Even our own colonies of the West Indies and Honduras have been regarded 

 only with a commercial, and not with a scientific eye, and their ornithology 

 affords to this day — with shame be it spoken — an almost untrodden field of 

 inquiry. Morocco, Eastern Africa, Arabia, Persia, Ceylon, the Azores, and 

 the rocks and billows of the southern ocean, present ample materials for the 

 future researches of the ornithologist, and will doubtless furnish many new 

 generic and specific forms. 



5. Besides the collecting of new species, the correct determination of those 

 already described is no less important. The names and characters of species 

 are scattered through such an infinity of works, and are often so vaguely 

 defined, that the apparent number of known species far exceeds the real one, 

 and much critical labour is required to reduce the nominal species to their 

 actual limits. Having myself devoted much time to this department of or- 

 nithology, I have found that the number of synonyms is nearly threefold 

 that of the species to which they refer, and it is important that the further 

 growth of this evil should be checked by the publication of exact lists of 

 species and their synonyms. 



6. This vast multiplication of nominal species mainly results from the great 

 number of scientific periodical works now issuing in all parts of the civilized 

 world, and which it is almost impossible for any one person to consult. This 

 is an unavoidable consequence of the great diffusion of knowledge at the 

 present day, but the inconvenience which results from it might be much di- 

 minished if some method were adopted of centralizing the mass of scientific 

 information which is daily poured forth. It is much to be wished that some 

 publication like the excellent but extinct ' Bulletin des Sciences ' were again 

 established, containing abstracts of all the important matter in other scien- 

 tific works; or if this were found too great an undertaking, a periodical 

 which should merely announce the titles of the articles contained in all other 

 scientific Journals and Transactions as they are published, would be a most 

 useful indicator to the working naturalist. Perhaps the nearest approach to- 

 wards supplying this desideratum at present, is made by the French scientific 

 newspaper ' L'lnstitut,' and in Germany by Oken's ' Isis,' and Wiegmann's 

 ' Archiv.' We shall shortly too possess an alphabetical index to all works and 

 memoirs on zoology, through the praiseworthy efforts of Prof. Agassiz, whose 

 gigantic undertaking, the ' Bibliographia Zoologica ,' is no w ready for the press. 



7. The science of ornithology would be much advanced if a greater number 

 of persons would devote themselves to the general subject. The majority of 

 those who now study it, or form collections, confine themselves to the birds 

 of their own country, under an impression that general ornithology is too 

 wide a field for them to enter upon. They often are not aware at how small 

 an expenditure of money or space a very large general collection may be 

 formed. By adopting the plan first recommended by Mr. Swainson, of 

 keeping the skins of birds in drawers, instead of mounting them in glazed 

 cabinets, the collector may arrange many thousand specimens in a room of 

 ordinary size, and have them at all times ready for reference and study. Or 

 if the ornithologist considers a general collection too cumbrous, he may de- 

 vote himself to the study and arrangement of particular groups, and supply 



