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REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 



I. — Iconographia delta Fauna Italica. Di Carlo Luciano Bona- 

 parte, Principe di Musignano. Folio. Parts 1 to 12. Rome. 

 Agent in London, Havell, Oxford Street. 



We cannot describe the pleasure Avith which we undertake the 

 office of introducing this valuable and most interesting work to such 

 of our readers as may not have met with it. A few years ago, whilst 

 revelling in the enjoyment of the amenity and tranquillity the im- 

 perial city affords, and regaling in the feasts afforded by the daily 

 inspection of its masterpieces of ancient and modern art, it never 

 occurred to us, that we should be so soon called on to announce the 

 commencement of a new era, in the facilitating the researches of those 

 who vary the scenes of mental relaxation, by the pursuit of natural 

 science. The lead in this most desirable change has been taken 

 by the Prince of Musignano, who is better known to the public by 

 the more familiar, and to our ears, we confess, more agreeably sound- 

 ing name of Charles Bonaparte. His father Lucien, as is well 

 known, has long been settled in the Papal states, where he is a 

 landed proprietor, and after resisting the temptations of high titles, 

 offered in the great and palmy state of the empire, has retired with 

 the rank of a Roman noble. The public are likely to be very much 

 indebted to him for the discovery and investigation of antiquities, 

 which have been found on his lands in the ancient Etruria, and will 

 probably prove of great importance in clearing up parts of the an- 

 cient history of Italy. Of that numerous family, all of whom are 

 possessed of talent, and are well educated, with the desire of dis- 

 tinction inherent in them, we believe the Prince of Musignano 

 alone has given his time to the regular and systematic pursuit of 

 natural history. 



After the disaster of 1815, the Prince accompanied some part of 

 his family to the United States, where his well-known work, " the 

 continuation of Wilson's North American Ornithology," was publish- 

 ed. He returned to Europe in 1828, and immediately afterwards 



