Recent Ornithilogicul Publications, 97 



been issued by the Ray Society"^, and English-reading naturalists 

 have it in their power to become conversant with the important 

 branch of Ornithology of which it treats. We trust they will 

 not neglect the opportunity. The work has been most carefully 

 translated by Mr. W. S. Dallas, and is admirably edited by Mr. 

 P. L. Sclater, who remarks in his preface : — " It was with no 

 little satisfaction that I obtained the consent of the Council of 

 the Ray Society to undertake the publication of an English 

 translation of the present work^ believing as I do that it is one 

 of the most valuable and suggestive works on pure Ornithology 

 ever published. Ever since I became acquainted with the im- 

 portant nature of Nitzsch's researches as here given, I have not 

 ceased to wonder that the subject has not been taken up by 

 succeeding Ornithologists. How this may have occurred in 

 England it is not difficult to understand. But that not one of 

 the many German Ornithologists, having this excellent basis to 

 start from, should have continued the investigations of their 

 illustrious compatriot, is indeed surprising. 1 trust, however, 

 that the republication of Nitzsch's Memoir in its present form 

 may induce some of the many enterprising Naturalists of the 

 present day, either in this country or abroad, to follow up the 

 work, as, until this is fully accomplished, we can never hope to 

 arrive at a correct knowledge of the affinities of this very difficult 

 class of Vertebrates.'' 



Grateful as we are to the Ray Society for thus affording us 

 so valuable an assistance as a translation of this w^ork — the first 

 on Ornithology they have published in the three-and-twenty 

 years of their existence, we should have been still more obliged 

 to them had they condescended to consult the convenience of 

 those who will have to use it. The original work of Nitzsch, 

 edited after his death by Prof. Burmeister, appeared in quarto 

 form. The Society's translation is in folio, and consequently 

 as inconvenient for reading or reference as it was possible to be. 

 Nor was there the slightest necessity for this change. The 

 Society, as we before mentioned, by a great piece of good luck 



* Nitzsch's Pterylograpliy, translated from the German. Edited by 

 Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S. London : 1867. Folio, 

 pp. 178. 



N. S. VOL. IV. H 



