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REVIEWS AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS. 



Dr Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopcedia. Natural History. Natural 

 History and Classification of Birds. By W. Swain son, Esq. 

 A. C. G., F. R. S. L., &c. Vol. II. London, Longman and Co. 

 1837- 



Since the publication of the seventh Number of the Magazine of 

 Zoology and Botany, in which our review of this interesting depart- 

 ment of the Cabinet Cyclopaedia embraced the whole of the volumes 

 then published, another has appeared, being the second of the orni- 

 thological series, and which, as bringing to a conclusion the author's 

 observations and views on the natural history and arrangement of 

 birds, is too important not to demand our early notice and attention. 

 Of this volume we can venture to speak in terms of approval simi- 

 lar to those we have bestowed upon the previous labours of the dis- 

 tinguished author. It is a companion worthy to stand by its pre- 

 decessors, exhibiting, wherever Mr Swainson has allowed himself 

 to go into detail, the same luminous and philosophic views in regard 

 to natural arrangement, and that thorough acquaintance with his 

 subject, even to the minutest analytical detail, which proclaims him 

 to be one of the first ornithologists, we may add naturalists, of the 

 present age. We cannot however but regret, that the limit to 

 which he has been restricted has obliged him to compress into one 

 volume, matter sufficient to have occupied two, for with the excep- 

 tion of the Insessores, the other orders are comparatively left in an 

 unfinished state ; in some of them the great or primary division 

 alone being glanced at. We undoubtedly are aware, that, with our 

 present limited knowledge of the constituent parts of these orders, it 

 is impossible to determine or arrange the whole of the inferior 

 groups in a natural series, but we feel convinced that he could (had 

 space permitted) have added considerably to that valuable informa- 

 tion he has conveyed. Much, therefore, it is evident, remains to 

 be done to work out and determine the minor natural groups of the 

 Natatorial, Grallatorial, and Rasorial orders, but the impetus has 

 VOL. II. no. 11. h h 



