TRANSACTIONS OV THE SECTIONS. 91 



Central-European Ornithology. It was generally understood that Prof. Blasius, at 

 the time of his lamented death, had a work on the birds of his native country in 

 preparation ; but unfortunately this was never hnished ; or it would have proved to 

 be, no doubt, of first-rate excellence. In no other country, liowever, ex£ept oiu- own, 

 is Ornithology so much cultivated as in Germany. Two societies emulate each other 

 in their pursuit of this science ; and two special journals (74, 75) are devoted to its 

 progress. There is no lack, therefore, of recent information upon the birds of every 

 part of Germany, although this has to be fished out of journals and periodicals o'f 

 different sorts, instead of being put together (as we should rather wish to see it) in 

 some general work. 



i. Birds of Scandinaina and Northern Europe. — In Scandinavia also there is no dearth 

 of diligent observers of birds, as of every other class of animals. The Bird volume 

 of Nilsson's Scandinavian Fauna (40) was published in 1858, and is still worthy 

 of careful study. But the more recent works of Collett upon the Birds of Norway 

 in German (76) and in English (77) should be consulted, as also Sundevall'a 

 ' Svenska Foglarna ' (78), unfortunately not quite finished at the time of his de- 

 cease, and von AVright and Palmen's 'Finlands Foglar' (79). Several memoirs 

 have also recently appeared upon the birds of the extreme north, which have 

 always attracted great interest among ornithologists. Amongst these, special at- 

 tention may be called to : — v. Ileuglin's account of the birds of Nova Zenibla, first 

 published in Cabanis's Journal for 1872 (80), and afterwards enlarged and revised 

 in the second volume of his 'Reiseunach dem Nordpolarmeer ;' to Prof. Newton's 

 essay on the birds of Iceland, in Mr. Baring-Gould's * Iceland, its Scenes and 

 Sagas ' (81) ; and, lastly, to Messrs. Alston and Brown's narrative of their adven- 

 tures among the birds of Archangel (82) — a little-explored district, and one of 

 much promise, to which one of these active explorers has returned this year. 



C. European Herpetology. 



In this field of research there is not so much of recent work to record as among 

 the birds ; but Dr. E. Schreiber's ' Herpetologia Europcea,' which has just ap- 

 peared (83), marks an important epoch in this branch of science, since there was 

 previously no good work of reference upon the Reptiles and Batrachians of Europe. 

 l)r. Schreiber's work is drawn up upon the same plan as Blasius's well-known 

 ' Sfiugethiere Europa's,' and forms a most convenient handbook. The list of pub- 

 lished works and memoirs on the same subject prefaced to it renders it imnecessary 



• ... ' appear 



Dr. Schreiber is not acquainted with it, I must also call special attention to Dr. 

 Strauch's excellent memoir on the Serpents of the Russian Empire (84), recently 

 published in the Memoirs of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, which is as 

 important for the European as for the Asiatic part of the Russian dominions. As 

 regards our native Herpetological fauna also, I may point out that the last edition 

 of Bell's ^ British Reptiles' (85), published in 18.30, reqiures considerable revision 

 to bring it up to our present standard of knowledge, and that it is much to bo 

 desired that a new edition should be undertaken. Let me ventm-e to suggest that 

 Mr. Van Voorst should communicate with Dr. Giinther tipon this subject. In the 

 meanwhile ' Om- Reptiles,' by M. C. Cooke (8G), may be used as a correct as well 

 as popular guide to this branch of our fauna. 



D. European Ichthyology. 



I am not aware of the existence of any special work on European Ichthyology ; 

 but C. Th. v. Siebold published in 1863 a volume on the Freshwater Fishes of 

 Central Europe (87), which forms a usefid guide to the Piscifiiuna of the principal 

 European river-basins. For the fishes of the Atlantic which visit the British 

 coasts we have the third edition of Yarrell's ' British Fishes,' edited by the lato 

 Sir John Richardson (88), which was published in 1859. Now that Dr.'Giinther's 

 great general work on Fishes has been completed, this portion of Mr. Van V'oorst's 

 excellent series would be also much benefited by revision and rearrangement 



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