J 53 



SUPPLEMENT. 



HINTS FOR A NEW AND COMPLETE WORK ON 



GENERAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



It has long appeared to us that the greatest de- 

 sideratum in Ornithology is a work devoted to the 

 whole of the science, and including every particu- 

 lar which has hitherto been observed. It is true 

 that we have Latham's General History of Birds, 

 Shaw's General Zoology, and Griffith's translation 

 of Cuvier's Regne Animal, which are all intended 

 as complete histories of Zoology or Ornithology. 

 But the lamentable deficiency of each and all of 

 these expensive works, must be obvious to all who 

 have had occasion to consult them. In the Gene- 

 neral History of Birds, the system of Linnaeus is 

 adopted throughout ; the figures are not generally 

 characteristic or well coloured, and the descriptions 

 are meagre. In the General Zoology it can hard- 

 ly be said that any system is adopted. It ap- 

 pears, however, to commence with the Linnaean, 

 and to conclude with that of Vigors ! The plates 

 (uncoloured) are almost entirely taken from other 

 works, with extremely little care in the selection ; 

 and the descriptions are mostly copied from La- 

 tham's works. In Griffith's Cuvier the descriptions 

 are fuller, but cannot certainly lay claim to origi- 

 nality, nor always to correctness. 



