412 Herr Badeker's and Dr. Brewer's Oological Works . 
ardour. We therefore heartily wish well to the grand undertaking 
commenced by the Smithsonian Institution, which was announced 
to our readers in our last number by Professor Baird [antea, p. 334), 
and trust it will enable our author, in a supplementary publi¬ 
cation, to fill up many of those voids, the existence of which we 
regret as much as he can. The following extract from the 
Doctor's Introduction affords a remarkable contrast to the 
results we just now laid before our readers with regard to the 
oology of these islands “ The present Part embraces the 
descriptions and illustrations of the eggs of the Order Raptores , 
and of the Tribe Fissirostres of the Order Insessores. So far as 
he [Dr. Brewer] is at present aware, these include seventy-nine 
species inhabiting North America. Of these the eggs of no less 
than twenty are still entirely unknown to him, while of those of 
eleven others he has no means of giving illustrations." That 
is to say, the deficiencies of North American as compared with 
British Oology, in this Order and Tribe, are as to ^ 2 Z , or 
more than 8*5 to 1 ! 
Lest it be thought that Dr. Brewer is one of those u faultless 
monsters whom the world ne'er saw," we must, we suppose, 
particularize a few points wherein we must join issue with his 
opinions ; but this we assure our readers we do not do without 
some diffidence. We are most inclined to complain of what we 
think is a tendency on his part to hasty generalization: thus, 
the worthy Doctor argues that additional proof of the distinctness 
of Nuttall's Buteo montanus and the B. borealis of authors is 
furnished by the differences observable in their eggs. Now, of 
the first-mentioned bird, since it appears that he has seen only 
two examples, both from the same nest, it seems hardly fair to 
assume that these represent the typical appearance of the egg; 
and, again, even if it be that they do so, and also that the 
learned author's assertion be correct, that “ they bear no resem¬ 
blance to any eggs of B. borealis " that he has ever seen, we 
cannot agree with him in his deduction, because the character 
of one of them, judging from his figure (PI. I. fig. 6), is exactly 
that often seen in the eggs of Buzzards generally, and, we take 
it, of B. borealis among them. We are not in a position to pass 
an opinion on the propriety of separating the birds specifically, 
