4 PEELIMINAET OBSERVATIONS. 



sent out of the question. Lesson and Swainson 

 would now be constrained to remodel their ar- 

 rangements to reconstruct their divisions. 



Since the time of Linnaeus, who, as we have 

 intimated, was acquainted with a few species 

 only, few years, comparatively speaking, have 

 passed; and now three hundred species form 

 Mr. Gould's cabinet. Here we appear to con- 

 tradict our statement, that our knowledge of 

 the TrochilidaB has been slowly acquired. But 

 we reiterate our assertion. There is not a bird, 

 belong to what order or genus it may, pertain- 

 ing to Europe, or to continental Asia, or even 

 to Africa (the exceptions being limited as to 

 number), which is not known and described. 

 Even the great mass of the birds of Australia 

 have been splendidly figured, and thereby intro- 

 duced not only into the scientific world, but into 

 the world of popular intelligence. But who 

 knows anything relative to the Humming Birds 

 of America ? The total number of the birds of 

 Europe, of every order or group, amounts to no 

 more than 503 species, and of these 100 are 

 common also to America. Three hundred species 

 of Trochilidae are now collected together in one 

 cabinet, and from this number, nearly equallk, * 

 that of the whole of the birds of Europe, a num- 

 ber extraordinary as it is, we deduce a conclu- 

 sion that not more than two-thirds of the species 

 have as yet been registered in the pages of 

 science ; for, as we have observed, a purposed 



