8 
STATE OF ZOOLOGY 
of my Classification, so that our final labours will difier but 
slightly from each other. Great Britain may also congratu- 
late itself on another ornithologist, Mr. Strickland, Avho, in 
his brief criticisms on the works of others, has shown himself 
well acquainted with a subject which he proposes to treat of 
more at large. Mr. Blyth, the secretary of the Ornithological 
Society, has left London to reside in India, at the head of one 
of the chief scientific establishments ; a new observer will thus 
be added to the Hodgsons, the Sykeses, and others, to inform 
us of the Vertebrate Animals of those regions. Macclelland 
has published a Paper on the Birds and Quadrupeds of Assam, 
on the remote frontiers of China. 
Britain has contributed little or nothing to Erpetology since 
the elegant work of Mr. Bell on British Reptiles. I am only 
able to mention with praise, the short descriptions given by 
Mr. J. E. Gray, of the most interesting species in the British 
Museum, and the not very successful attempts at the classifica- 
tion of the Batracliia by Mr. J. Hogg. 
Ichthyology is there continually extended by the labours of 
Mr. Yarrell on the Indigenous Fish. Messrs. Thompson, Par- 
nell, M'Coy, and others, also continue to describe new species, 
without, however, sufiiciently studying continental works, in 
consequence of which they occasionally publish as new, species 
which are only remarkable as being found for the first time in 
that country. Allow me to mention an example of this in 
my Torpedo nohiliana, which has been reproduced under two 
difierent names. Sir William Jardine is publishing a magnifi- 
cent work on the Salmonidce, of which I have recommended 
the distribution of prospectuses. Mr. Low is bringing before 
the public, in a handsome form, the Fish of Madeira, the com- 
parison of which, with those of our seas, will supply some im- 
portant information. There are also in Britain other authors, 
who, from time to time, make known some of the rare fish, 
brought from the numerous colonies of that country. I ought 
not to pass over the ichthyological researches, exhibited in 
beautiful plates, and carefully edited letter-press, by Dr. A. 
Smith, in his work on the Zoology of South Africa, and by 
Mr. Darwin, in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, in 
8 
