ornithologist's text-book. 187 



may now be entirely abandoned, and suffered to 

 moulder on the shelf of the proprietor, while Mr. 

 Jenyns's Manual will, if we mistake not, reap a 

 plentiful harvest from the enlightened Naturalists 

 of Britain. 



We would fain notice the whole of this tempting 

 book, but this our plan forbids, and we are com- 

 pelled to restrict our readers to a bill of fare con- 

 sisting entirely of fowl. Ornithology occupies a 

 considerable — though not an undue — portion of the 

 Tolume, and the same taste, order and accuracy 

 reign here as in the other zoological classes. Our 

 author informs us that he is strougly inclined to 

 quinary principles, but we are sorry to find that he 

 has not adopted the masterly theory of Macleay, 

 as developed by his zealous and talented disciples. 

 Perhaps, however, his reason for this is, that he 

 could not have carried the system throughout, on 

 account of some of the minor classes not having 

 been investigated with sufficient precision, in their 

 quinary relations. Mr. Jenyns has, accordingly, 

 rather chosen to be directed by his own reason, 

 than to being servilely guided by any previous au- 

 thority, however great. The system, though not 

 the natural one, is ably drawn up. Descriptions 

 of the plumage and general habits of every British 

 bird, and a few of the principal synonyms, judi- 

 ciously selected, constitute the letterpress, which, 

 we rejoice to say, is original wherever originality 

 has been possible, and, in other cases, authorities 

 which can be depended on, are alone resorted to. 

 The volumes most frequently referred to, are those 

 of Montagu, Temminck, Selby, Bewick-, Gould, 

 and a few other worthies, whose names the Orni- 

 thologist delights to pronounce. 



With regard to the style in which the work is 

 " got up," we need only observe that we should 

 never desire to see better paper or more beautiful 



