194 Miscellanies. 



tions of minerals, having undergone a complete repair, has been lately re- 

 opened to the public, with the collection of birds and shells. Only the 

 passerines, gallinaceous, and wading birds are as yet arranged ; but the 

 remainder will be exhibited in the course of the spring, when this room, 

 which is three hundred feet long and fifty wide, will contain one of the 

 richest ornithological collections in Europe. The cases are all glazed 

 with large panes of plate-glass, with very narrow brass bars; and the 

 smaller birds are arranged on a new plan, on box shelves, each bird hav- 

 ing a background close behind it, so as to show its outline distinctly and 

 relieve its colors ; and the shells, which will occupy forty table cases, are 

 exhibited on black velvet, which gives them admirable relief. — Ann. and 

 Mag. of Nat. Hist, for Dec. 1840. 



6. Pi'of. Agassiz and Us Works. — In former volumes of this Journal, 

 we have mentioned the labors of Prof Agassiz on the fossil fishes, the 

 echinodermata, and the living fresh-water fishes of Central Europe. 



1. His great work on Fossil Fishes. 2. Monograph on the Echinodermata, liv- 

 ing and fossil. 3. On the fresh-water Fishes of Central Europe, Part I. And we 

 now announce the reception from him of 4. His Description of the Fossil Echi- 

 nodermata of Switzerland, Parts I and 11. 5. Memoir on the moulds of Molluscs, 

 both living and fossil, Part I on the moulds of the living Molluscs. 6. Critical 

 Study of Fossil Molluscs, Part I, containing the Trigoniae of the Jura and of the 

 Chalk of Switzerland. 7. Systematic Catalogue of the Echinodermata. 8. Study 

 of the Glaciers, 1 vol. 8vo. with a folio Atlas containing thirty two plates. 



The Swiss formations prove to be unexpectedly rich in fossil echino- 

 dermata, hitherto undescribed, as appears from the extensive catalogue 

 of those which M. Agassiz has collected. It is his intention (as announ- 

 ced to us in a letter dated Jan. 8, 1841) speedily to publish monographs 

 of all these species as well as of those that are living. Two of these 

 parts have already appeared, and a third part is ready prepared. In his 

 critical study of the Molluscs, the author intends, in like manner, to de- 

 scribe the species of these genera that have hitherto been the most neg- 

 lected. 



The first monograph of the Trigonias, now before us, affords a striking 

 example of the great amount of materials which the author has collected. 

 In the memoirs upon the moulds of Molluscs, we may confidently expect 

 that a new era will open upon conchology, by proving the possibility of 

 determining, with rigorous exactness, the fossil moulds so frequent in cer- 

 tain geological formations, and which have hitherto remained undeter- 

 mined. 



The study of the glaciers will probably excite a more vivid interest than 

 any of the works of Agassiz, especially since the discovery made by him, 

 during a residence of some months in the British Islands, of marks indi- 

 cating, that in former ages a very extensive shell or crust of ice extended 



