SPECULATOnS IN ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 26l 
Matto Grosso, and on the confines of Peru and Chili. 
Little that is new can he expected in Paraguay, after 
the researches of Azara, even admitting the country 
Was released from the tyrannic and excluding laws of the 
priestly despot who now rules it. Chili and Peru are 
too arid and naked to excite great expectations regarding 
their ornithology, although on the banks of the rivers, 
where woods are to be found, many new species are 
likely to be obtained. The birds of Cayenne are well 
known, although no distinct work upon them has ever 
been published. Surinam and Demerara are equally 
rich ; but the first has never been well investigated, 
and although collectors have frequently gone to the 
latter, and brought away the more splendid birds, we 
are yet ignorant of the larger proportion of such whose 
plumage is not very attractive. The researches of M. 
Schomberg, however, now traversing the interior of 
Guiana, will doubtless supply this deficiency, and add 
numerous species to our systems passed over by the mere 
amateur. In conclusion, we may safely assert, that the 
most unexplored part of South America, so far as con- 
cerns its zoology, is that immense portion formerly 
called New Spain ; for it is not generally known that 
Humboldt did little or nothing regarding the ornithology 
of these tracts, which are perhaps equal to Brazil in the 
variety and beauty of its natural productions. 
(217.) We have now answered the questions with 
which we commenced this chapter; — what birds are 
Worth collecting, and where are the best to be obtained. 
The young ornithologist, and the intelligent traveller. 
Way now know in what parts of the world their atten- 
tion to ornithology is most needed, and is most likely 
to turn to profitable account. We use this latter term, 
however, not in a commercial sense. It has been a 
grievous error with many persons to suppose that the 
collecting of subjects of natural history for sale in 
England would be a source of great profit, and that, 
because they hear of a bird or a shell being sold at an 
enormous price, more specimens of tlie same would be 
B 3 
