52 ornithologist's text-book. 



with one exception, in the whole collection ; and 

 it is explained by eleven large pages of letterpress, 

 written in Mr. Wilson's best manner. This variety 

 of Wolf is very common on the American continent 

 north of Canada, and is found as far northwards as 

 man has been able to penetrate; varying somewhat 

 in size, according to the latitude of its localities. 

 The two following plates are devoted to the male 

 and female of Richardson's Grouse (Tetrao Rich- 

 ardsonii,) discovered by Mr. David Douglas among 

 the mountainous districts of the river Columbia, 

 and other parts of the Rocky Mountains, in North 

 America. The Scarlet Ibis, in the plumage of the 

 first year, forms the subject of the other plate. 



" The two first plates in No. ix are really out of 

 place in a work like this, destined for the drawing- 

 room, and into which ladies may be presumed to 

 look without danger. They are pictures of the fore 

 and hind feet of the great Ourang Outang of Sum- 

 atra ; faithful to Nature we are assured and do 

 believe, but abominably ugly. The Great Auk 

 (Alca impennis) forms a good subject for plate 35. 

 This large and rare water bird is found along the 

 shores of Iceland and Greenland; it occurs occa- 

 sionally among the Feroes, and has once or twice 

 been observed in the Orkney Islands. Two in- 

 stances are recorded of its being driven on the 

 British coast. Its ' true sphere of action is the 

 water, through which it swims and dives with 

 extraordinary power and rapidity ; and where its 

 short wings, entirely useless for the purposes of 

 flight, become efficient locomotive organs when 

 used as oars or hns beneath the surface. Its powers 

 of swimming and diving exceed, indeed, those of al- 

 most any other species of the feathered tribe. It has 

 been seen cresting the waves during the rjrevalence 

 of the most fearful storms, or shooting through the 

 raging surf with the rapidity of an arrow.' The 



