172 THE AUSTKAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. IV. 



AN EXTEAORDINARY BIRD BOOK. 



By Gregory M. Mathews and Tom Iredale. 



We have recorded from time to time some peculiar literary 

 efforts in connection with ornithology, but the present case 

 is one of the most extraordinary items we have noted. 



" Ornithologia, or The Birds ; a poem in two parts, by 

 James Jennings, 1828," is not an unknown title, but probably 

 very few ornitliologists of the present generation have ever 

 examined it, or was curiosity evinced in it. The opportunity 

 of acquiring a " Second Edition, with additions and 

 corrections " instigated this note, as examination revealed 

 facts which suggested the above title. 



As subsidiary to the Poem is " an Introduction to their 

 Natural History ; and Copious Notes " ; and on p. 32, after 

 a Synopsis of Linne's System has been given and some notes 

 regarding such, this is recorded : "A Synopsis of Dr. Latham's 

 Last Work on Birds. The Latin names of the Genera are 

 supphed, in part, from the Index Ornithologicus of Dr. Latham, 

 and the remainder from private information kindly com- 

 municated by Dr. L. from his MS. copy of a new edition 

 of the index not yet pubhshed." In tliis Synopsis the new 

 generic names AnthojjJiagus for the Honey-Eater (p. 33) 

 and Pteropus for the Fin-foot (p. 36) immediately attract 

 attention. These two names have previously escaped the 

 eyes of recorders, and as both prove to be preoccupied they 

 can cause no alterations. It may be as well to renew the fact 

 that Newton has put on record the information that Latham's 

 MS. Index, which never was published, came into his hands 

 and is in liis Library, which, to the disgrace of Cambridge 

 University, appears to be in a most neglected state. 



The book begins with a Preface wherein Jennings discusses 

 the usage of scientific terms as opposed to vernaculars, and 

 concludes Poetry will prove a profitable vehicle for the popular- 

 ising of the study of ornithology. Therefore, in the poem 

 he has not used scientific names, but by means of notes has 



