THE OENITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 155 



Blue Tit, the Kentish Plover, the Red-throated Diver, 

 and the Eider Duck, are eye sores rather than orna- 

 ments, from being crammed 2, 3, or even more into 

 one octavo page ! These are said to be " from 

 nature ;" we may well exclaim with Audubon — 

 " From Nature ! — How often are these words used, 

 when at a glance he who has seen the perfect and 

 beautiful forms of birds, quadrupeds, or other objects, 

 as they have come from the hand of Nature, discovers 

 the representation is not that of living Nature." 

 The vignettes are very pretty, though it must be 

 remarked, that the nest of the Dipper is not true to 

 nature. The index is alphabetical ; but there is 

 only one : another should by all means be given on 

 the plan of Selby's, the land birds in the first 

 volume, and the water birds in the second : we have 

 often felt the want of this. The work amply deserves 

 the popularity it enjoys, and with the amendments 

 at which we have hinted, would become a valuable 

 standard work, and will descend to our latest posterity 

 a monument of the talent and industry of its author, 

 when Bewick, (excellent as an artist) and other 

 authors, who have drawn from the " stagnant pool" 

 rather than from the " living fountain," shall have 

 perished and " left not a wreck behind." 



Since the foregoing was written, the second edition 

 has appeared. We think that any additions which 

 might have been made would amply have covered 

 any additional expense of printing : the publisher 

 however, it seems, has thought otherwise, for the 



