﻿252 OX THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



smaller species have been so mixed up in the General 

 History of Birds with the old genera, that they have 

 rather tended to impede than to advance our knowledge 

 of forms and of geographic distribution ; and we know 

 not where the original specimens are deposited. Ruppell 

 has brought some few very interesting birds from Nubia 

 and the adjacent provinces, but these, as well as the 

 collection just mentioned, can only be looked on as the 

 first fruits of what might be expected from the steady 

 and undivided exertions of a professed practical orni- 

 thologist. It is to be hoped that the French colony at 

 Algiers will tempt some of the young and intelligent 

 naturalists of that enterprising nation to explore the orni- 

 thology of that province, with a special reference to the 

 birds found on the opposite coast of the Mediterranean. 

 We have long been receiving from Senegambia and Sen- 

 egal beautifully prepared skins of the splendid birds of 

 those two districts, one, if not both, of which will shortly 

 be illustrated in one of the most popular natural histories 

 of the day.* It would be curious to know by whom these 

 specimens are prepared, for they are evidently done by 

 one hand,, and are the best which we have ever seen sent 

 for sale to this country. From Sierra Leone, and all 

 the richly wooded coast of western Africa, we have, as 

 yet, had nothing peculiar ; for the Sierra Leone goat- 

 sucker is also found on the banks of the Gambia. Thus, 

 while tracts containing thousands of miles in this vast 

 continent are absolutely unknown, its southern extremity 

 might be almost said to be exhausted of its ornitholo- 

 gical novelties. Not to mention Le Vaillant, who brought 

 home hundreds of species, and has published the greatest 

 portion, two other travellers have more recently tra- 

 versed the country in different directions, although nei- 

 ther have yet given the public the results of their re- 

 searches. Mr. Burchell's birds, collected twenty years 

 ago, have never been published, and Dr. Smith is still pro- 

 secuting his arduous travels in districts never yet visited. 

 The ornithological discoveries of the latter, we have 



a * The Naturalist's Library. 



