210 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
are chiefly known by the admirable work of Le Vaillantj 
whose sole object in travelling the southern parts of 
this continent was to collect specimens for the French 
and Dutch cabinets. Only six volumes of this great 
undertaking have been puhlidied, so that the whole of 
the rasorial, grallatorial, and natatorial orders are omitted. 
In tile volume of zoological plates, or atlas, to M. 
Riippel’s travels, there are a few birds of Northern 
Africa ; while some interesting materials for the ornitho- 
logy of the western coast, which we have long been 
collecting, will probably soon be put into the hands of 
the publisher. 
( 177 ). ^'he state of our knowledge of the birds of 
America offers a singidar contrast to that which we 
possess on the two last provinces. Those of the northern 
portions of this continent have been so admirably figured, 
and their habits so fully described, by the celebrated 
Wilson, that little has been left, comparatively, for 
those who have gone over the same ground. Many of 
the new species, said to be since discovered, are, in fact, 
either already named by Wilson, or are young birds, or 
females, of well known sorts. In the continuation of 
Wilson’s noble work, by the prince of Musigiiano, the 
greatest care has been taken to avoid the above errors ; 
and we believe aU the species are really new. Professor 
Nuthall has also published, as we hear, an account of 
the birds of North America in a more popular form, 
but the work is not to be had in diis country, and we 
cannot, therefore, speak of its contents or execution 
from personal knowledge. M. Audubon’s two volumes 
of letter-press may lie consulted with much advantage, 
but the scientific descriptions are destitute of that pre- 
cision and detail which might have been expected in 
these days ; and as the nomenclature is not that which 
is now in use *, it is impossible to make out the modern 
• The author states in his preface (vol. ii. p, xxvii.l, “ that he has fol- 
lowed the nomenclature of C. Lucien Bonaparte, f. e. the prince of Muaig- 
nano.” M. Audubon, however, docs not appear to be aware that the 
nomt'nclalurc he has used has been long ago repudiated by the prince 
himself, as altogether unsuiteU to the present state of ornithology : for, in 
