A SYSTEMATIC INDEX 
TO A 
SERIES OF DESCRIPTIONS OF BIRDS, PUBLISHED BY C, J, TEMMINCK, 
IN HIS 
“CATALOGUE SYSTEMATIQUE DU CABINET D’ORNITHOLOGIE, ETC.,” 
OF THE YEAR 1807. 
Catalogue Systematique du Cabinet d’Ornithologie, et de la 
Collection de Quadrumanes, de C. J. Temminck, 8vo. Amsterdam, 
1807 , is the original title to the above little tract, which is very 
rare— and the only copy of it which I have ever seen belongs 
to Dr. Lichtenstein, at Berlin. Many of the descriptions of new 
species, which it contains, are long prior in point of date to those 
given by later authors ; but as M. Temminck followed the defec- 
tive practice of the Buffonian school, in only giving vernacular 
names to the species, the priority of their systematic designations 
belongs to others. The descriptions, however, are valuable from 
their accuracy ; and we are now indebted to Dr. Hartlaub of 
Bremen, for the following “ Concordance ,” in which this early 
work of the venerable Temminck is adapted to the present state 
of science. 
Dr. Hartlaub states, that many of Vieillot’s descriptions were 
either copied from this pamphlet, or founded on an examination 
of the same specimens ; and that most of the South African birds, 
in the collection, had been brought home by Le \ aillant, — 
H. E. Striclcland. 
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