384 BihUographical Notice. 



First of all, in such a case, to make his descriptions complete and 

 of the most service, the author should make them also comparative. 

 This Mr. Layard has not done. His descriptions have been penned 

 at various times and in various places, which was probably unavoid- 

 able ; but, then, they should have been subsequently compared with 

 one another, so as to ensure their symmetry. For species the author 

 has not himself seen, of course he is quite right to quote the original 

 descriptions unaltered ; and this, the safest plan, Mr. Layard appears 

 to have followed. But we are speaking of descriptions written by 

 himself; and the "broken and disjointed style" for which he in a 

 measure apologizes in his "preface" is here unnecessary: it not 

 merely disfigures the book, but is an absolute hindrance to its 

 utihty. 



The next important point is that the author of such a Catalogue 

 as the present should be very precise in quoting from his predeces- 

 sors. But here there is much room for improvement. Mr. Layard 

 is weakest in his "bookwork." We have no bibliographical in- 

 formation afforded us, no list of authorities given, and the references 

 to the pubhcations cited are now put in one form and now in another, 

 while many, and these most necessary, references are not made at all. 

 This is especially to be regretted in a book on South-African birds ; 

 for respecting the ornithology of few parts of the world are the mate- 

 rials so widely scattered and so little digested. It would have been 

 a great achievement for Mr. Layard to have drawn up his references 

 on a well-arranged system. Yery likely it would have been a 

 troublesome job, but still one quite feasible and quite worth the 

 labour bestowed upon it. Besides, we are much mistaken if it 

 could have been done anywhere better than at Cape Town. Take 

 for instance the numerous contributions to South-African ornitho- 

 logy by Sir Andrew Smith. In this country we doubt whether any 

 library contains a complete series of them. Some of his descriptions 

 originally appeared in newspapers published in the colony ; and at 

 the Cape, if anywhere, copies of these papers should be accessible. 

 Now Mr. Layard evinces no sign of having made search for them, 

 and yet, from all we have heard of the public library of Cape Town, 

 they are to be found there. 



We do not make these depreciatory observations without reason. 

 The fact is that Mr. Layard's book, as far as it goes, is so good and 

 so useful, that it ought to be better and more useful. He modestly 

 says of it that " it is a move forwards, and may serve as a founda- 

 tion for the labours of others whose opportunities may be greater." 

 But we would impress upon Mr. Layard that he has the greatest 

 opportimities of any one. We believe that he has informed his 

 friends at home that he is abeady preparing a second edition. We 

 are very glad to hear it ; but we trust he will take care that the 

 work undergoes a very thorough revision before a second edition is 

 printed. Moreover we venture, in addition to the hints for its 

 improvement given above, to recommend him to eliminate all those 

 species, now included, which he himself shows have been erroneously 

 introduced in the South- African fauna. By doing this he will leave 



