98 Recent. Ornitholofjical Publications. 



became possessed of the original plates of the work, from which 

 impressions of the smaller size could of course have been as 

 easily taken. Nay, more, as it appears to us, there was no 

 reason why the impressions of the plates should not have been 

 once folded, so as to permit the book to ap])ear as an octavo, 

 in which form it would have ranged exactly with the octavo 

 series of the Society's publications, and been thereby rendered 

 as handy a volume as it now is cumbersome. 



Did our space allow of it, we would willingly attempt to give 

 an analysis of the researches carried on, and an abstract of the 

 results arrived at, by this indefatigable author, whose labours, 

 as Mr. Sclater, in the passage above cited, shows, have been so 

 unaccountably neglected. As a help to classification, in these 

 days when long-established systems of ornithology are not 

 exempt from Reform Acts, the investigations of Nitzsch must 

 be regarded as of very high importance. 



We have much pleasure in congratulating Mr. Eyton on the 

 completion of his great work*, the publication of which has 

 been proceeding at uncertain intervals since it was last noticed 

 ip 'The Ibis' (1860, p. 419). He richly deserves the gratitude 

 of ornithologists for thus persevering to the end in bringing out 

 a volume the like of which has never been attempted ; and the 

 more credit is due to him, since we fear that he wall never be 

 reimbursed for the large outlay which the production of so great 

 a work necessarily demanded. " It is illustrated by upwards of 

 one hundred arid ten plates, drawn by Mr. Erxleben, — not the best 

 artist for such a purpose, we will freely admit ; but^ considering 

 that hitherto a series of figures of the skeletons, or parts of 

 skeletons, of birds has been a total desideratum by students of 

 their osteology, we are by no means disposed to be captious in 

 this particular, and we hail the completion of the work as sin- 

 gularly opportune just now, when the attention 'of so many 

 ornithologists appears to be directed to the osteology of birds, 

 with a view of arriving at a more natural classification of them. 

 Nearly, if not quite, all the specimens from which the various 



* Osteologia Avium ; or a Sketch of the Osteology of Birds. By 

 T. C. EvTON, Esq., F.G.S. Wellington, Salop : 1867. 4to. 



