206 * ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIEDS. 
minck’s Monographs of the GaUinaceoun Birds are clear 
and masterly, and should he taken as a pattern for all 
such dissertations. 'I'he description of the species, while 
they are free from the turgidity above aOuded to, are 
scientific and accurate, while, in the Si/iwpsis, each is 
technically characterised by a short specific diagnosis in 
Latin. The splendid folio volume, wherein all the spe- 
cies are figured, rather belongs to our iconographic divi- 
sion of ornithological works. A masterly Monograph of 
the Parrots, by the late M. Kuhl, will be found essen- 
tially necessary to every ornithologist who studies that 
beautiful, but very intricate family, since it not only 
contains many species not before characterised, but it 
serves as a systematic iiide.v to the two splendid volumes 
by Le Vaillant, subsequently noticed, upon the same 
group. The Dendrocolapti, or tree-creepers of tropical 
America, have been ably illustrated in a distinct essay by 
the celebrated traveller and zoologist, Lichtenstein ; and 
there is a monograph of the genus Larun, by Jlr. Jlac- 
gillivrey, in the Wernerian Transactions, It would, 
however, be utterly impossible, in a work of this nature, 
to enumerate all the distinct essays and papers upon 
ornithology, scattered through the voluminous transac- 
tions and scientific records of all the learned societies in 
Europe and America, since half our volume might be 
filled with their titles. In the splendid folio plates of 
the zoological subjects discovered on the three scientific 
expeditions sent out by the French Government in the 
L’Uraine, the Coquille, and the Astrolobe, are many new 
and highly curious birds, particularly in the second of these 
volumes, which records the acquisitions of M.M. Garnot 
and Lesson : these latter descriptions, fortunately for the 
generality of ornithologists, are rendered accesible to all 
by being incoi-porated in the Manuel of the last men- 
tioned naturalist. \Fe may, perhaps, be permitted, in 
this place, to mention that, in the six volumes which 
compose our two series of Zoological Illustrations, there 
are 115 plates and descriptions of birds, nearly all of which 
are figured for the first time, and arranged under their 
