﻿ORNITHOLOGY OF TROPICAL AMERICA. 211 



genera to which his supposed new species really belong, 

 either by his descriptions or his figures, beautifully de- 

 signed as the latter unquestionably are : in this latter 

 respect, they will always be valuable as models of ornitho- 

 logical forms. Materials towards the ornithology of Mexico 

 will be found in the description or enumeration of many 

 new birds of that country inserted by us in the Philo- 

 sophical Magazine and in Murray's Encyclopaedia of 

 Geography ; but much more remains for future dis- 

 covery. The birds of the West Indies, by some strange 

 fatality, are as little known now as they were in the 

 time of Sir Hans Sloane, and we have no accounts what- 

 ever of the ornithology of that part of tropical America 

 laying between Guitamala and Cayenne, including the 

 whole of Columbia ; for the few species known to inhabit 

 these countries are mixed up in our general works. De- 

 merara, equally remarkable for the variety and beauty of 

 its feathered inhabitants, has been often visited by ama- 

 teurs, whose sole object seems to have been that of pro- 

 curing perfect skins : as to the habits of the birds them- 

 selves, their structure, or their classic names, we know 

 almost as little about them as if they never existed. 

 This lamentable oversight in neglecting all that can be 

 truly beneficial to science, we may confidently hope 

 will be remedied, as far as concerns Demerara, by the 

 exertions of an enterprising and scientific zoologist. 

 M. Schombergh, who is now conducting the expedition 

 into the interior of that little-known region, set on foot 

 by the Royal Geographic Society, and who, with his 

 assistants, intends to devote great attention to the orni- 

 thology of those inland tracts the expedition may ex- 

 plore. Among the numerous and important labours of 

 Le Vailliant must be mentioned his monograph of the 

 Ampelidce, or typical fruit-eaters, a most splendid group 

 of birds, peculiar to tropical America, and whose man- 

 ners are recorded from his personal observation. Pro- 



his Sagio di una Distribuxione Methodica degli Animate Vertebrati, printed 

 in 1831, the learned and noble author casts aside his old nomenclature, 

 which M. Audubon has taken up, and adopts all the modern genera. 



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