208 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
third division of works belonging to this science. 
These we shall arrange under the five zoological pro- 
vinces of the world, as defined and illustrated in a 
former volume*; as, 1. Kurope ; 2. Asia; 3. Africa; 
4. America ; 5. Australia. 1 n proportion as our know- 
ledge of natural groups is' increased, we find them, 
in very many instances, as much characterised by their 
geographic distribution, as by their external forms. 
Hence the locality of a genus is now become part of its 
essential character, and saves the student infinite trouble 
when investigating the birds of any particular country. 
( 1 7.fi. ) In regard to Eurofean ornithology, it is ueerl- 
less to enumerate the very many works that have been 
published, in one shape or other, on the birds of the dif- 
ferent kingdoms. The most costly are those of Noze- 
man on the birds of the Low Countries, in four folio 
volumes ; yet the figures, by Sepp, are poor and unnatural. 
Wolf and Meyers’ Almanarh of German liirdr, in two 
octavo volumes, are valuable for many excellent observ- 
ations, but we do not possess them. The substance, 
however, of all these will be found in M. Temminck’s 
Mnntiel of the Ornithology of Europe,; while the excel- 
lent coloured figures of Mr. Gould will supersede the 
necessity of possessing any of the other expensive works 
on the birds of Europe. Our object is not to give a 
general catalogue, but to enumerate such works only as 
are either absolutely essential to an ornithological student, 
or are eminently beautiful in their execution, and there- 
fore entitled to the first jflace in a well selected library of 
natural history. In regard to the birds of our own 
country, we consider the excellent lUimtrafionx of British 
Ornithology, by Mr. Selby, quite sufficient for all pur- 
poses of accurate description or pictorial illustration. It 
is not generally known, that the letter-press to this 
otherwise costly work, forms two separate volumes in 
octavo, the price of which renders them accessible to 
Geography and Clnssification of Animals. See also Murray’s Ency- 
clopedia of Gc'('grf>l)hy, where we have treated the natural distribution of 
birds in more detail. 
