Audubon's Ornithology^ First Volume. 355 



fit to adopt this system then. We were gravely informed that 

 our birds had been "so admirably figured by the celebrated Wil- 

 son that little has been left for those who have gone over the 

 same ground."* Again we were told "Mr. Audubon's two vol- 

 umes may be consulted with advantage, but the scientific de- 

 scriptions are destitute of that precision and detail which rriight 

 have been expected in these days ; and as the nomenclature is 

 not that now in use, it is impossible to make out the modern gen- 

 era," &c. 



The verdict of the intelligent public have however seen fit to 

 set aside, in one instance, a decision so wholly unjust, and we 

 believe it would have done so again. Still we think Mr. Audu- 

 bon right in consulting his interest rather than incur the risk of 

 having his new work shut out of the pale of foreign favor. We 

 could not however forbear entering our humble protest against 

 this cumbersome, unwieldy, top-heavy system, which, we trust, 

 "will soon crumble into fragments, from its own want of symme- 

 try and ill-arranged proportions, and from its ruins arise a new 

 one, upon which Dame Nature may not dread to look for fear of 

 being frightened at her own distorted image. 



The volume before us, if it shall be succeeded by others of 

 equal merit, affords a promise which we have no doubt will be 

 fulfilled, of the best work on American ornithology yet published. 

 To the student the plates it contains offer all the advantages that 

 are to be derived from the larger work, while the text, having 

 been arranged and well assorted, is free from the confusion and 

 contradictions arising from new discoveries, and other necessary 

 faults in a work published, as was his first, in the midst of his 

 labors, and while the results of his investigations were constantly 

 rendering what he had before written, nugatory and out of date. 

 In short, we have here presented to us at a single view, the dis- 

 coveries and labors of a lifetime. 



A large portion of the text of this volume is the same with 

 what has already appeared in his former work. There is howev- 

 er much that now appears for the first time, and which is replete 

 with interest and information. We regret that our narrow limits 

 forbid us to make extracts. We can therefore only glance at a 

 few instances. 



* Swainson on the Natural History and Classification of Birds, Lardner, V, p. 83. 



