﻿SUGGESTIONS TO DIRECT RESEARCHES. 251 



collector to the most useful subjects of investigation,, 

 and that he may employ his labours to the best advan- 

 tage. In regard to Europe, indeed, there is not much 

 to be said, as its general ornithology has been so well 

 investigated and so accurately described : much, how- 

 ever, remains to be done in respect to the southern 

 extremity of Spain, and the whole of Greece and Euro- 

 pean Turkey. No one has yet informed us of the pro- 

 portion of Spanish birds found on the shores of the 

 opposite continent of Africa ; and what are the birds of 

 the latter countries which do not pass the straits of 

 Gibraltar ? As to the birds of Greece, its numerous 

 islands, and the wild and wooded provinces of Turkey, 

 we know as little of them as if these countries were situ- 

 ated in the heart of Africa. The ornithology of the 

 Caspian Sea, and the adjacent provinces, w r as, indeed, 

 investigated by Pallas, but in those days we were not 

 accustomed to examine very accurately; and we question 

 much whether that celebrated traveller is correct in con- 

 sidering so many of the species he there met with (par- 

 ticularly among the land birds) as identically the same 

 as those of northern Europe. The annual migration of 

 land and water birds from Africa to the shores of the 

 Mediterranean and its islands, would furnish a large 

 collection to any ornithologist who made a spring trip 

 to these countries in the months of April and May. 



(212.) Africa, as being the least known continent, 

 would seem to hold out a prospect where the greatest 

 discoveries might be made, but this is very problema- 

 tical. The arid, naked, dry nature of the soil is alike 

 unsuited to insects and birds ; and the obstacles which 

 impede the ordinary traveller will be doubly felt by the 

 naturalist who attempted to penetrate its central tracts, 

 and who would be encumbered with his collections. 

 These objections, however, do not apply so much to the 

 more fertile provinces of Asia Minor and the shores of 

 Red Sea, neither of which have been visited by any 

 modern ornithologist. Mr. Salt, indeed, brought a toler- 

 ably good collection with him from Abyssinia, but the 



