252 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
smaller species have been so mixed up in the General 
History of Birds with the old genera, that they have 
rather tended to impede than to advance our knowledge 
of forms and of geographic distribution ; and we know 
not where the original specimens are deposited. Ruppell 
has brought some few very interesting birds from Nubia 
and the adjacent provinces, but these, as well as the 
collection just mentioned, can only be looked on as the 
first fruits ot what might be expected from the steady 
and undivided exertions of a professed practical orni- 
thologist. It is to be hoped that the French colony at 
Algiers will tempt some of the young and intelligent 
natiuralists of that enterprising nation to explore the orni- 
thology of that protdnce, with a special reference to the 
birds found on the opposite coast of the Mediterranean. 
We have long been receiving from Senegambia and Sen- 
egal beautifully prepared skins of the splendid birds of 
those two districts, one, if not both, of which will shortly 
be illustrated in one of the most popular natural histories 
of the day.* It would be curious to know by whom these 
specimens are prepared, for they are evidently done by 
one hand, and are the best which we have ever seen sent 
for sale to this country. From Sierra Leone, and all 
the richly wooded coast of western Africa, we have, as 
yet, had nothing peculiar ; for the Sierra Leone eoat- 
sucker is also found on the banks of the Gambia. Thus, 
while tracts containing thousands of miles in this vast 
continent are absolutely miknown, its southern extremity 
might be almost said to be exhausted of its ornitholo- 
gical novelties. Not to mention Le Vaillaut, who brought 
home hundreds of species, and has published the greatest 
portion, two other travellers have more recently tra- 
versed the country in different directions, although nei- 
ther have yet given the public the results of their re- 
searches. Mr. Burchell’s birds, collected twenty years 
ago, have never been published, and Dr. Smith is still pro- 
secuting his arduous travels in districts never yet visited. 
The ornithological discoveries of the latter, we have 
* • The Naturalist’s Library. 
