90 



faced conglomerates in the whole course of our 

 ornithological reading — Jennings's Ornithologia 

 (p. 53) not excepted. It is a favorite notion of the 

 Professor's, that birds strengthen their nests by- 

 saliva from their own mouths; in speaking of which, 

 Mudie says in his charming Feathered Tribes (re- 

 viewed p. 63), " it has, very naturally, no doubt, 

 occurred to some who have mentioned this bird 

 (the Hedge Dunnoek), that the internal part of the 

 nest is put together with paste, — (as some books 

 are, and, of course, that the materials are obtained 

 with scissors,) — a process to which magpies will 

 resort, though, instead of paste, they are apt to 

 daub with more vulgar mortar, as the manner of 

 some is — among ourselves." — p. 287. These trashy- 

 volumes are wholly useless to the Ornithologist, and 

 reflect no credit upon the Professor of Zoology at 

 King's College, even as a compiler. We marvel 

 at the Useful Knowledge Society's having chosen 

 such a man as Rennie for writing — or rather past- 

 ing together, for we should think his pen had very 

 little to do in the matter — the ornithological vo- 

 lumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge. 

 Had Mudie, or our intelligent friend Mr. Blyth 

 been fixed on, we might have expected both a use- 

 ful and entertaining series, which Rennie is totally 

 unable to produce. 



Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary. Second 

 edition, edited by Professor Rennie. London. 

 1831. 8vo. £1. Is. 



Although we have already mentioned this edition 

 of Montagu's excellent Ornithological Dictionary 

 (p. 20), yet we shall here offer a few additional 

 remarks on it. 



We shall now direct our attention chieflv to the 



