ORNITHOLOGY 



17 



Scandi- 

 navia. 



numbering among its supporters almost every American ornitholo- 

 : i I of repute, its editors being .Messrs Allen, Coues, Ridgway, 

 Brewster, and Chamberlain. 



Returning to the Old World, among the countries whose Orni- 

 thology will most" interest British readers we have first Iceland, 

 the fullest- -indeed the only full— account of the Birds "I' which is 

 Faber's Prodroiu us <o r islandisehcn Orniihologii (8vo, 1822), though 

 the island has since been visited by several good ornithologists, — 

 Proctor, Kriiper, and Wolley among them. A list of its Birds, with 

 some notes, bibliographical and biological, lias been given as an 

 Appendix to Air Baring-Gould's Iceland, its Sa m s and Sagas (8vo, 

 1862); and Mr Shepherd's North-west Peninsula of Iceland (Svo, 

 1867) recounts a somewhat profitless expedition made thither 

 c tpressly for ornithological objects. For the Birds of the Faroes 

 there is Herr II. C. Midler's Fardcrnes Fuglefauna (Svo, 1S62), of 

 which a German translation has appeared.' The Ornithology of 

 Norway has been treated in a great many papers by Herr Collett, 

 some of which may be said to have been separately published as 

 Norges Fugle (Svo, 1868 ; with a supplement, 1871), and The 

 Oniithology of Northern Norway (8vo, 1872)— this last in English. 

 for Scandinavia generally the latest work is Herr Collin's 

 Skandinarienx Fugle (Svo, 1S73), being a greatly bettered edition of 

 the very moderate Danmarks Fugle of KjaTbblling ; but the orni- 

 thological portion of Nilsson's Ska ndiua risk Fauna, Foglarna 

 (3d cd., 2 vols. 8vo, 1S58) is of great merit; while the text of 

 SiindevaH's Svcnska Foglarna (obi. foL, 1856-73), unfortunately 

 unfinished at his death, and Herr Holmgren's Skandinarieiis Foejlar 

 (2 vols. 8vo, 1866-75) deserve naming. 

 Ccrmany. Works on the Birds of Germany arc far too numerous to be 

 mted. That of the two Naumanns, already mentioned, and 

 yet again to be spoken of, stands at the head of all, and perhaps at 

 the head of the " Faunal " works of all countries. For want of 

 space it must here suffice simply to name some of the ornitholo- 

 gists who in this century have elaborated, to an extent elsewhere 

 unknown, the science as regards their own country : — Altum, 

 Baldamus, Bechstein, Blasius (father and two sons), Bolle, 

 Borggreve, whose Vogel-Fauna von Norddeutschland (Svo, 1869) 

 i ontains what is practically a bibliographical index to the subject, 

 I'.rclmi (father and sons), Von Droste, Gatke, Glogcr, Hintz, Alex- 

 and Eugen von Homeyer, Jaekel, Koch, Kbnig-Wart- 

 hausen, Kriiper, Kutter, Landbeck, Landois, Leisler, Von Maltzan, 

 Bernard Meyer, Von der Miihle, Neumann, Tobias, Johann Wolf, 

 and Zander. 2 Were we to extend the list beyond the boundaries 

 of the German empire, and include the ornithologists of Austria, 

 Bohemia, and the other states subject to the same monarch, the 

 number would be nearly doubled ; but that would overpass our pro- 

 posed limits, though Hen- von Pelzeln must be named. 3 Passing 

 onward to Switzerland, we must content ourselves by referring to 

 the list of works, forming a Bililiographia ttrnil/iologiea Helriliea, 

 drawn up by Dr Stblker for Dr Fatio's Bulletin de la Soeicte Ornitiio- 

 hi'jiijitc Suisse (ii. pp. 90-119). As to Italy, we can but name here 



the Fauna d!Italia, of which the s ml part, Uccelli (Svo, 1872), 



by Count Salvadori, contains an excellent bibliography of Italian 

 works on the subject, and the posthumously published Orni- 

 tologia Italiana of Savi (3 vols. Svo, 1S73-77). 4 Coming to the 

 Iberian peninsula, we must in default of separate works depart 

 from our rule of not mentioning contributions to journals, for of 

 the former there are only Col. Irby's tiruilluiLnig "f the Straits of 

 Gibraltar (Svo, 1875) and Mr A. C. Smith's Spring Tone in 

 Portugal 1 to be named, and these only partially cover the ground. 

 However, Dr A. E. Brehm has published a list of Spanish Birds 

 {Allgem. deutsche Naturhist. Zeitung, iii. p. 431), and The Ibis con- 

 tains several excellent papers by Lord Lilford and by Mr Saunders, 

 the latter of whom there records (1871, p. 55) the few works on 

 Ornithology by Spanish authors, and in the Bulletin de la Sociiti 

 Zoalogique'de France (i. p. 315; ii. pp. 11, S9, 185) has given a list 

 of the Spanish Birds known to him. 



I: turning northwards, we have of the Birds of the whole of 

 France nothing of real importance more recent than the volume 



Italy. 



Spain 

 and 



I 



i Journal far Ornithologie, 1869, pp. 107, 341, 381. One may almost .-ay an 

 translation also, for Major Feildcn*s contribution to the Zonioui/t for 

 1872 mi the same subject gives the most essential part of Herr Mullei's infor- 

 mation. 



- This is of course no complete list of German ornithologists. Some of the 

 i -t eminent of them have written scarcely a line on the Birds of their own 



eniuitt >, as Cubanis (editor since lS.j'i of the Journal fur liniilholurn'e), Finsch, 

 Ilaitlaub, Prince Max of Wied. A. Ii. Meyer, Nathusins, Nehrkom, Reichenbach, 

 Reichenow, and Sehalow among others. 



3 A useful ornithological bibliography of the Austrian-Hungarian dominions was 

 printed in the Veeluuulltuujen of the Zoological and I'.otanical Society of Vienna 

 for ls;s, by Victor Hitter von Tschusi zu Schmidhofen. A similar bibliography 

 of Hussian Ornithology by Alexander Brandt was printed at St Petersburg in 



■ 1878. 

 efnl 



ipendium of Greek and Turkish Ornithology by Ib's Kriiper and 

 Hartlaub is contained in Mommsen's Grtechische Jahrzeiten for 1875 (Heft Iff.). 



lev other countries in the Levant there are Canon Tristram's Fauna nu<! F/oeu 

 ui ' l;,leatim (lie, Isstjand Capt. Shelley's llamlbiml t„ the /Unix of Eoupl (Svo, 

 1872). 



5 In the h'nal chapter of this work the author gives a list of Portuguese Birds, 

 including besides those observed by him those recorded by Prof. Barboza du 

 Bocage in the Gazeta MecKca de Lisbon, 1861, pp. 17-21 



Oiscaux in Vieillot's Faune Francaise (Svo, 1822-29) ; but there is 

 a great number of local publications of which Mr Saunders has 

 furnished [Zoologist, 1>7S, pp. 95-99) a catalogue. Some of these 

 seem only to have appeared in journals, but many have certainly 

 been issued separately. Those of most interest to English orni- 

 thologists naturally refer to Britanny, Normandy, and Picardy, and 

 are by Baillon, Benoist, Blandin, Bureau, Canivet, Chesnon, 

 Degland, Demarle, De Norguet, Gent.il, Hardy, Lemetteil, Lemon- 

 nieier, Lesauvage, Muignon, Mareotte, Nourry, and Tasle, while 

 perhaps the Ornithologie Farisienne of M. Rene Paquet, under the, 

 pseudonym of Neree Quepat, should also be named. Of the rest 

 the most important are the Ornithologie Provcncale of Roux (2 rols. 

 4to, 1825-29); Risso's Histoire naturelle .... ties environs de 

 Nice (5 vols. 8vo, 1826-27); the Ornithologie du DauphinS of 

 Bouteille and Labatie (2 vols. 8vo, 1843-44); the Faune Meri- 

 dionale of Crespon (2 vols. 8vo, 1844) ; the Ornithologie de la Savoie 

 of Bailly (4 vols. 8vo, 1S53-54), and Les Bichcsscs ornithologiques 

 du midi de la France (4to, 1859-61) of MM. Jaubert and 

 Barthelemy-Lapommeraye. For Belgium the Faune Beige of Baron Belgium. 

 1 le Selys-Longchamps (Svo, 1842), old as it is, remains the classical 

 «ork, though the Planches colorUes des Oiscaux de la Belgique ><( 

 11. Dubois (Svo, 1851-60) is so much later in date. In regard to 

 Holland we have Schlcgel's De Vogcls ran Ncderland (3 vols. Svo, Holland. 

 1854-58 ; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1878), besides his De Dieren ran Ncder- 

 land: Vogels (Svo, 1861). 



Before considering the ornithological works relating solely to the Europe in 

 British Islands, it may be well to cast a glance on a few of those general. 

 that refer to Europe in general, the more so since most of them 

 are of Continental origin. First we have the already-mentioned 

 Maun,] d'Urnithologie of Temminck, which originally appeared as 

 a single volume in 1815 ; 6 but that was speedily superseded by the 

 second edition of 1820, in two volumes. Two supplementary parts 

 were issued in 1835 and 1840 respectively, and the work for many 

 years deservedly maintained the highest position as the authority 

 on European Ornithology — indeed in England it may almost 

 without exaggeration be said to have been nearly the only foreign 

 ornithological work known ; but, as could only be expected, grave 

 defects are now to be discovered in it. Some of them were already 

 manifest when one of its author's colleagues, Schlegel (who had 

 been employed to write the text for Susemihl's plates, originally 

 intended to illustrate Temminck's work), brought out his bilingual 

 Ei rue critique des tiisean.e d' Ln rape (Svo, 1844), a very remarkable 

 volume, since it correlated and consolidated the labours of French 

 ami German, to say nothing of Russian, ornithologists. Of Gould's 

 Birds of Europe (5 vols, fob, 1832-37) nothing need be added to 

 what has been already said. The year 1849 saw the publication 

 of Degland's Ornithologie Eunqiecnnc (2 vols. Svo), a work fully 

 intended to take the place of Temminck's; but of which Bonaparte, 

 in a caustic but by no means ill-deserved Revue Critique (12mo, 

 1850), said that the author had performed a miracle since he had 

 worked without a collection of specimens and without a library. 

 A second edition, revised by II. Gerbo (2 vols. 8vo, 1867), strove to 

 remedy, and to .some extent did remedy, the grosser errors of the 

 first, but enough still remain to make few statements in the work 

 trustworthy unless corroborated by other evidence. Meanwhile in 

 England Dr Bree had in 1858 begun the publication of The Birds 

 eg' Europe not observed in. the British Isles (4 vols. Svo), which was 

 completed in 1863, and in 1S75 reached a second and improved 

 edition (5 vols.). In 1862 M. Dubois brought out a similar work 

 on the "Especes non observees en Belgique," being supplemen- 

 tary to that of his above named. In 1870 Dr Fritseh completed 

 his' NcUurgesehichle der 1'ogel Eunq/as (Svo, with atlas in folio); 

 and in 1871 Messrs Sbarpe and Dresser began the publication of 

 their Birds of Europe, which was completed by the latter in 1879 

 (8 vols. 4to), and is unquestionably the most complete work of its 

 kind, both for fulness oi information and beauty of illustration — 

 the coloured plates being neatly all by Mr Keulemans, or when 

 not by him from the hardly inferior hand of Air Neale. In so 

 huge an undertaking mistakes and omissions are of course to bo 

 found if any one likes the invidious task of seeking for them; 

 but many of the errors imputed to this work prove on investigation 

 to refer to matters of opinion and not to matters of fact, while 

 many more are explicable if we remember that while the work was 

 in progress Ornithology was being prosecuted with unprecedented 

 activity, and thus statements which were in accordance with the 

 best information at the beginning of the period were found to need 

 modification before it was ended. As a whole European ornitho- 

 logists are all but unanimously grateful to Air Dresser for the 

 way in which he performed the enormous labour he had under- 

 taken. 



Coming now to works on British Birds only, the lirst of the British 

 present century that requires remark is Montagu's Ornithological Isles. 

 Dictionary (2 vols. 8vo, 1802; supplement 1813), the merits of 

 which have been so long and so fully acknowledged both abroad 

 and at home that no further comment is here wanted. In 1831 



6 Copies are said to exist bearing the date 1814. 



XVIII. — 3 



