THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. ( 99 



advantages over the old, 1st, it is in one volume 

 instead of three, 2nd, the supplement is incorporated, 

 3rd, some beautifully executed woodcuts have been 

 added, and the whole volume is neatly got up. But 

 it has also several disadvantages : 1st, many errors 

 are introduced : 2nd, the classification is an undi- 

 gested medley of almost all the systems that were 

 ever propounded ; instead of being like that of 

 Linneus, Temmink, or Selby, uniform : 3rd, much 

 of what the author wrote is omitted ; and what the 

 author wrote is not always sufficiently distinguished 

 from what is added: 4th, a worse nomenclature 

 both in Latin and English, could hardly have been 

 selected. Rennie, in fact, is in no way fitted for the 

 task of editing the works of such an Author as 

 Montagu: compilers may, if they choose, seek 

 to " make themselves holes in the monuments of the 

 mighty," but they will never gain a lasting reputa- 

 tion thereby. Something more than compilation is 

 needed now-a-days; and such a work as the second 

 edition of the " Ornithological Dictionary of British 

 Birds" is not such a one as will satisfy the Ornitho- 

 logist of the present day. Montagu died in 1815. 



General, Zoology ; or Systematic Natural History : By George 

 Shaw, M.D., F.R.S., &c. with plates from the first authorities and 

 most select specimens, 14 vols. 8vo. 1800 1826. 



The two first volumes of this work are devoted 

 to Mammalogy, the third to Erpetology, the fourth 



