Bibliographical Notices. 



339 



It would be endless to refer to the mass of new and interesting 

 facts in natural history which are detailed in these pages. Many of 

 them have been communicated to the Zoological Society, whence 

 they have made their way into this and other periodicals. But we 

 cannot pass over in silence the extraordinary habits of the bird di- 

 stinguished by the rather clumsy name of Megapodius tumulus. [Why 

 not have called it tumulator, tumulorum, or tumulificus ?] This sin- 

 gular bird, like its congeners Talegalla and Leipoa, has the habit of 

 leaving its eggs to be hatched by solar or terrestrial heat ; but not 

 content with covering them moderately with leaves, it forms vast 

 mounds of sand from five to fifteen feet high. Into these it burrows 

 to a very considerable depth, where it deposits the egg and fills up 

 the excavation with soil precisely in the manner of certain species of 

 bees and wasps in this country. In due time the young bird is hatched, 

 and, aided probably by its powerful feet and claws, makes its way to 

 the surface without parental assistance ! Had such a statement been 

 made by old Marcgrave or Hernandez it would doubtless have passed 

 for a traveller's tale, but the study of Nature is continually lowering 

 our pride by showing that facts are more wonderful than fiction. 



Critics assert that even Homer sometimes nods, and we trust, 

 therefore, that we shall not greatly disparage this splendid publica- 

 tion if we point out a few examples of defective drawing which oc- 

 cur in the course of the work. In the plate of Leipoa ocellata the 

 artist has omitted to show the feet of the hindmost figure, whereas, 

 judging by the rule of proportion, a considerable part of those mem- 

 bers ought to have been in sight. There is also an inaccuracy in the 

 figure of Stipiturus malacurus, the lateral rectrices being represented 

 as curved, while, in the specimens which we have examined, those 

 feathers are quite straight. 



With the exception of these trifling defects, the plates probably 

 form as close approximations to living nature as it is possible for art 

 to attain to. 



Florigraphia Britannica ; or Engraving and Descriptions of the Flower- 

 ing Plants and Ferns of Britain. By R. Deakin, M.D. 58 Nos. 

 8vo. Sheffield. 1835-1842. 



The work which we now propose to bring before the notice of our 

 readers, having been published in a provincial town, has only recently 

 attracted our attention ; for although we well remember some of its 

 earlier numbers having been shown to us, we cannot say that at that 

 time they exhibited such a promise of usefulness as to make us con- 

 sider it as deserving of notice. Shortly afterwards we learned that 

 the work had been discontinued, from a want of commercial success 

 as we then supposed, but, in reality, from the ill-health of the author, 

 and an interval of about a year and a half having passed, it was re- 

 commenced and has since been published regularly. 



The contrast exhibited between the earlier portion and that part 

 which has appeared since the resumption of publication is such as, 

 we think, fully to justify its early neglect, for we do not consider 

 ourselves called upon to notice every book upon English botany that 



