118 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 



contains much more matter than the Gleanings ; 

 and has besides many colored plates, and the cost 

 is £1 8s. Rennie's edition of Montagu contains 

 upwards of GOO closely printed pages, containing 

 twice the quantity of matter the Gleanings do, 

 for <£l Is. The 3rd vol. of the Gleanings contains 

 only 310 pages for 10s. 6d : this is "too bad." 

 Such prices as this may well induce the proprie- 

 tors of the cheap library of Natural History to 

 talk of the " notoriously exorbitant price of works 

 on Natural History." Loudon when reviewing 

 Kirby's work on the Instincts of Animals, has 

 noticed the same of that work : — " The quantity of 

 words in the two volumes, Ave guess, about equal to 

 the quantity in a few ninepenny parts of the Penny 

 Cyclopedia ; and yet 30s. are asked for this quantity 

 and the plates ! Who can profit by the teaching of 

 a Kirby, while the bookseller precludes access 

 to his lessons ?" Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. VIII. p. 471. 

 This is somewhat similar to picking the pockets of 

 their purchasers, and publishers will find that in 

 the long run they will be the losers by this 

 grasping system. 



The British Naturalist, by Robert Mudie : 2 vols. 12mo. 2nd 

 edition, 1835, 12s. Orr and Smith. 



We have not space to do justice to this meritorious 

 little work, but we shall give specimens of the 

 author's plan and mode of execution, which appears 

 to us very masterly. The first passage we shall 



