﻿210 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



are chiefly known by the admirable work of Le Vaillant, 

 whose sole object in travelling the southern parts of 

 this continent was to collect specimens for the French 

 and Dutch cabinets. Only six volumes of this great 

 undertaking have been published,, so that the whole of 

 the rasorial, grallatorial, and natatorial orders are omitted. 

 In the volume of zoological plates, or atlas, to M. 

 Riippers travels, there are a few birds of Northern 

 Africa ; while some interesting materials for the ornitho- 

 logy of the western coast, which we have long been 

 collecting, will probably soon be put into the hands of 

 the publisher. 



(177)- The state of our knowledge of the birds of 

 America offers a singular contrast to that which we 

 possess on the two last provinces. Those of the northern 

 portions of this continent have been so admirably figured, 

 and their habits so fully described, by the celebrated 

 Wilson, that little has been left, comparatively, for 

 those who have gone over the same ground. Many of 

 the new species, said to be since discovered, are, in fact, 

 either already named by Wilson, or are young birds, or 

 females, of well known sorts. In the continuation of 

 Wilson's noble work, by the prince of Musignano, the 

 greatest care has been taken to avoid the above errors ; 

 and we believe all the species are really new. Professor 

 Nuthall has also published, as we hear, an account of 

 the birds of North America in a more popular form, 

 but the work is not to be had in this country, and we i 

 cannot, therefore, speak of its contents or execution 

 from personal knowledge. M. Audubon's two volumes 

 of letter-press may be consulted with much advantage, 

 but the scientific descriptions are destitute of that pre- 

 cision and detail which might have been expected in 

 these days ; and as the nomenclature is not that which 

 is now in use *, it is impossible to make out the modern 



* The author states in his preface (vol. ii. p. xxvii.), "that he has fol- 

 lowed the nomenclature of C. Lucien Bonaparte, ?'. e. the prince of Musig- 

 nano." M. Audubon, however, does not appear to be aware that the 

 nomenclature he has used has been long ago repudiated by the prince 

 himself, as altogether unsuited to the present state of ornithology : for, in 



