112 
REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
on to a brief consideration of the descriptions and plates contained in this inter¬ 
esting volume. Although the present volume is only the commencement of the 
Birds of Western Africa^ it contains about ninety species, many of them 
now for the first time described, and above thirty species being figured» 
Some of the descriptions are necessarily short and technical, little being 
as yet known of them but their plumage; but the accounts of others con¬ 
tain highly interesting and valuable observations. To be brief—for brief we 
must, unfortunately, be—Mr. Swainson has gathered together everything that 
could be collected from the researches of himself and others, and has arranged 
the whole in a manner which will by no means tend to detract from his fame. 
Small as is the scale of the plates, we are happy to be enabled to confer upon 
them unqualified commendation—it were invidious to compare them with the 
executions in the same line of other artists, living or dead, but we may observe, 
that, with a few trifling exceptions, they have hitherto perhaps not been sur- 
The propriety of placing the memoir and portrait of Bruce, the African Tra¬ 
veller, in the volume of which we have been speaking, may perhaps be ques¬ 
tioned, but we believe no one will be inclined to complain of the circumstance, 
w^hen they have read the life of that indefatigable man, written, we are informed, 
by Andrew Crichton, Esq., author of the “ History of Arabia A 
After the extracts we have presented to our readers from the Birds of Western 
Africa^ we presume there are few who do not feel a desire to peruse that work, 
and who, notwithstanding the limits of the series in which Mr. S. writes, do not, 
with us, look forward with pleasurable anticipations to our author’s next volume 
on the same subject. 
British Oology ; being Illustrations of the eggs of British Birds, with figures 
of each species, as far as practicable, drawn and coloured from Nature; accompa¬ 
nied by descriptions of the materials and situation of their nests, number of eggs, 
&c. By William C, Hewitson. Newcastle-upon-Tyne : Published for the 
Author, by Currie and Bowman ; W. Edwards, London. Nos. xxx. and xxxi. 
January, 1837. 
Not having hitherto had an opportunity of giving any account of the British 
Oology to our readers, we now at length propose introducing it to them in due 
form. We have before us a twin number, which appears to us fully equal to any 
of its predecessors. To address any praise of the matter or manner of the work 
to those who have subscribed to it from the beginning, would be wholly super¬ 
fluous, and we trust there are not many, calling themseles British ornithologists, 
who cannot boast of having the British Oology on their shelf. True, the price 
(3s. 6d. a number, published every alternate month) may prove a barrier to 
