26 DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 
in the gardens of the Zoological Society, was begun about 1855, with a 
brief text by Mitchell, at that time the Society’s secretary, in illustra- 
tion of them. After his death in 1859, the explanatory letterpress was 
rewritten by Mr. Sclater, his successor in that office, and a volume was 
completed in 1861. Upon this a second series was commenced, and 
brought to an end in 1868. Though a comparatively small number of 
species of Birds are figured in this magnificent work (17 only in the 
first series, and 22 in the second), it must be mentioned here, for their 
likenesses are so admirably executed as to place it in regard to orni- 
thological portraiture at the head of all others. There is not a plate 
that is unworthy of the greatest of all animal painters. 
Proceeding to illustrated works generally of less pretentious size 
but of greater ornithological utility than the books last mentioned, 
which are fitter for the drawing-room than the study, we next have to 
consider some in which the text is not wholly subordinated to the 
plates, though the latter still form a conspicuous feature of the pub- 
lication. First of these in point of time as well as in importance is 
the Nouveau Recueil des Planches Coloriés @Otseauaz of Ternminck and 
Laugier, intended as a sequel to the Planches Enluminees of D’Aubenton 
before noticed, and like that work issued both in folio and quarto size. 
The first portion of this was published at Paris in 1820, and of its 102 
livraisons, which appeared with great irregularity (Ibis, 1868, p. 500), 
the last was issued in 1839, containing the titles of the five volumes 
that the whole forms, together with a “Tableau Méthodique,” which 
but indifferently serves the purpose of an index. There are 600 plates, 
but the exact number of species figured (which has been computed at 
661) is not so easily ascertained. Generally the subject of each plate 
has letterpress to correspond, but in some cases this is wanting, while on 
the other hand descriptions of species not figured are occasionally intro- 
duced, and usually observations on the distribution and construction of 
each genus or group are added. The plates, which shew no improve- 
ment on those of Martinet, are after drawings by Huet and Prétre, the 
former being perhaps the less bad draughtsman of the two, for he seems 
to have had an idea of what a bird when alive looks like, though he 
was not able to give his figures any vitality, while the latter simply 
delineated the stiff and dishevelled specimens from museum shelves. 
Still the colouring is pretty well done, and experience has proved that 
generally speaking there is not much difficulty in recognizing the species 
represented. The letterpress is commonly limited to technical details, 
and is not always accurate; but it is of its kind useful, for in general 
knowledge of the outside of Birds Temminck probably surpassed any of 
his contemporaries. The “Tableau Méthodique” offers a convenient 
concordance of the old Planches Enluminés and its successor, and is 
arranged after the system set forth by Temminck in the first volume of 
the second edition of his Manuel @’ Ornithologie, of which more presently. , 
The Galérie des Oiseaux, a rival work, with plates by Oudart, seems to 
have been begun immediately after the former. The original project was 
apparently to give a figure and description of every species of Bird; but 
that was soon found to be impossible; and, when six parts had been issued, 
