Notices of New Books. 2917 



Notices of New Books. 



1. Catalogue of British Birds* 



Mr George Robert Gray, the senior assistant of the Zoological De- 

 partment in the British Museum, has just completed a synonymic list 

 of British Birds, which will be found extremely useful to ornitholo- 

 gists, not only among ourselves, but on the continent. Every generic 

 and specific name employed for a bird is given, together with the 

 date of publication, thus settling at a glance the question of priority. 

 The work is one of great labour and is highly creditable to its author : 

 it is impossible for a British ornithologist to prosecute his studies 

 without its assistance. Under each species is given a list of the spe- 

 cimens in the British Museum, together with the sources whence they 

 were obtained. 



2. Introduction to Conchology. f 



Conchology is one of those fashionable pursuits which may be said 

 to carry more sail than ballast. Mammology, Ornithology, Ichthyo- 

 logy, Entomology, and the other ologies, require all the lubrication 

 which the skilful pen and graceful pencil can bestow, to make them go 

 down with a fastidious and somewhat superficial public ; but Concho- 

 logy is a furore, and alas ! its advocates, whether dealers or collectors, 

 are too often perfectly satisfied with knowing the comparative rarity, 

 and as a sequence, the money-value of any given shell that may 

 chance to be offered for their inspection. An introduction to Concho- 

 logy, in order to meet the taste of conchologists, should, therefore, 

 supply this information ; but Dr. Johnston's book fails in this ; indeed, 

 in his brief but very explicit preface, he declares his " object is to 

 present the conchologist with a view of the economical, physiological 

 and systematical relations of molluscous animals to each other, and to 

 other created beings." Now this object, the only one the author pro- 

 fesses to have in view, is also the only one he has carried out; and it 

 has just as much to do with Conchology, whether considered as a 



* List of the Specimens of British Animals in the Collection of the British Mu- 

 seum. Part III. Birds. 



f An Introduction to Conchology, or Elements of the Natural History of Mollus- 

 cous Animals, hy George Johnston, M.D, L.L.D., &c. London: Van Voorst, 1850. 

 VIII 2 ° 



