137 
pacious Birds , of Mac Gillivray, and the Second Edition of the Feathered Tribes 
of the British Islands , by Robert Mudie, are principally entitled to attention. The 
former of these is, more especially, a master-piece of ornithological description and 
research. We hope to see, ere long, other Orders of our British Birds delineated, 
and, in the true signification of the word, illustrated , by the same powerful, deli¬ 
cate, and experienced hand, and in language of the like commanding eloquence and 
perspicuity. Mr. Mac Gillivray’s wood-cuts, representing the heads of the various 
species of Birds of prey, are uncommonly spirited and striking : his delineations of 
the internal structure of the Buzzard and the Owl, admirable studies for the orni¬ 
thological inquirer, and models for the artist. Would that anything we can say, 
might induce Mr. Mudie, in the future editions of his deeply interesting work, to 
substitute for the painted figures, with which it is, at present, infested, some such 
accurate and impressive sketches of the external configuration, or internal anato¬ 
my, of the Feathered Tribes , as really adorn, because really illustrating, the feli¬ 
citous and masterly descriptions of Mr. Mac Gillivray. To this list may be added, 
although not, strictly speaking, a British publication, the third volume of Audu¬ 
bon’s fascinating Ornithological Biography. 
The more important works, in progress of publication during the current 
year, are the magnificent and yet unrivalled Birds of Europe by Mr. Gould; 
Meyer’s Illustrations of British Birds , a very respectable, although, assuredly, 
not a first-rate production ; and the accurate and beautifully executed British 
Oology , of our friend, Hewitson. The intellectual and enterprizing Mrs. Perrott 
has been so rudely,—we had almost said unrighteously—assailed by certain litera- 
rary shrikes, in whose crania the organs of combativeness and destructiveness 
sadly predominate over those of benevolence and attachment to the softer sex, 
that we really apprehend she must have quitted, in disgust, the field of competi¬ 
tion.* The most valuable and interesting periodicals, of which Ornithology con¬ 
stitutes an essential portion, are Partington’s British Cyclopaedia of Natural 
History ; and the masterly Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology , by Dr. 
Todd. The third and fourth numbers of the latter contain an article upon Birds 
(Aves) which must elevate its profound and accomplished author, Mr. Owen, to 
the first rank in the phalanx of living zoologists. The Outlines of Comparative 
Anatomy , by Dr. Grant—a third Part of which has recently appeared—will be 
found to supply information, alike luminous, accurate, and minute, upon the struc¬ 
ture of the Bird-Class. 
A new edition of the valuable Ornithological Dictionary , of Colonel Mon¬ 
tagu, wherein the original structure will, doubtless, be cleared from the rubbish 
/ 
* Since this sentence was written, we have received the distressing intelligence of the 
death of the accomplished and highly-gifted Mrs. Perrott, under circumstances of deep 
affliction. 
VOL. I. 
T 
