eight in number,-surprizingly spirited and correct, for the period at which they were executed. The labours of many of their successors upon the same path, verily dwindle into insignificance in the splendour of these two morning-lights of British Ornithology.— Willughby was of Middleton, in the county of Warwick; and died, at the age of thirty-six, in June, 1672. Never do we pass by the old grey gate, and the moss-grown paling, which skirt the ancient domain of the Lords of Middleton, without paying homage, in the innermost recesses of the spirit, to the elevated character and talents of Francis Willughby and his illustrious friend. Stratford, boasting of her Shakespeare, may awaken the enthusiasm of the child of imagination, and attract to the shrine, sanctified by the relics of her immortal bard, the vagrant foot of the pilgrim of the muses. But the philosopher, and the man of science, will contemplate with feelings of veneration, far more deep, and lofty, and imperishable, the old mansion-house at Middleton, as the residence of Willughby, and the asylum of the enlightened, the high-minded, and uncompromising JOHN RAY, in the season of his adversity. His admirable Synopsis of Birds and Fishes (Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium), an octavo volume, was published, in London, in 1713. Upon any production of this great and good man,-the Linnæus of his country —we should deem it little less than profanation to obtrude a com ment. The first two volumes of Eleazar Albin's History of Birds, came out in 1738; and a third, in the form of a Supplement, two years subsequently. They contain, altogether, three hundred and five engravings of birds, for the most part British, and one of the bat, far more "curiously engraven" than "exactly coloured," by the Author. The descriptions of the different subjects have been largely borrowed from Willughby. The first and second volumes are enriched with " Notes and Observations," by the celebrated Dr. Derham, author of two popular publications, respectively entitled Physico- and Astro-Theology; and superintendant of a posthumous edition of the works of Ray. In the absence of Willughby's, the student will find Albins', even now, an useful book of reference. A plain copy, when it can be procured, is greatly preferable to the coloured. Edwards' Natural History of Birds, and other rare and undescribed Animals, four volumes quarto, bearing the date of 1743, with the three supplementary volumes, entitled Gleanings,—of 1751, is much superior to that of Albin, both in the literary and iconographical departments. It contains, however, but few British birds. The celebrated Ornithologie of Brisson, comprized in six quarto volumes, made its appearance, in 1760. It is illustrated with numerous and tolerably correct engravings; furnished with luminous descriptions in French and Latin; and constitutes a valuable collection of ornithological facts, frequently referred to by modern wri ters. An Abstract of it, entitled Ornithologia sive Synopsis Methodica, written in Latin, and destitute of figures, was published, in two octavo volumes, at Leyden, in 1763. The descriptions, which it contains, of the various Orders genera, species, and varieties of Birds, are singularly expressive, luminous, and concise. They are, both, admirable works for the ornithological student. The literary world was, in 1775, favoured, by Mr. Hayes, with a Natural History of British Birds, in folio, containing forty plates; which, although "accurately drawn and beautifully coloured,"-so sayeth the unassuming author,-are worth little more than the price of waste paper. Latham's General Synopsis of Birds, bearing the date of 1781, and published in four quarto volumes, constitutes a very important contribution to ornithological science; and is now rarely to be met with. Two volumes of Supplement appeared, at different periods, several years subsequently. Of Walcot's Synopsis of British Birds, which came out in 1789, we have never yet been able to procure a copy. The valuable Index Ornithologicus, of Latham,-a quarto volume,-was produced in 1790. The year 1797, was rendered memorable in the annals of woodengraving, if not of British Ornithology, by the appearance of Bewick's justly celebrated and popular work, entitled The History of * Professor Rennie, among the works of Literary Naturalists (Ornith. Dictionary, p. lvii), records the title of another production by Latham,—A General History of Birds, 10 vols. 4to. Winchester, 1828. Never having heard of the existence of such a work, and well aware that even the most renowned and vigilant authors are occasionally not over-scrupulous in the correctness of their quotations, we suspect that an error has been committed in transcribing the title, and date, of this publication. October, 1835.-VOL. III. NO. XIII. G. British Birds. This production is too well known to require comment or eulogium here. The sixth and latest edition,-two octavo volumes,―came out in 1826,—a short time previously to the decease of its highly-gifted and lamented author.* The appearance of the original edition was followed by the publication of the first volume of Donovan's Natural History of British Birds, in 1799; and by that of the first volume of Lewin's Birds of Great Britain, in 1800.† The former was completed by the appearance of a tenth volume, in 1819; and contains two hundred and forty plates of birds tolerably drawn, and sometimes prettily, although, on the whole, tawdrily coloured. Lewin's work, the eighth and last volume of which appeared in 1801, exhibits two hundred and seventy-eight figures of birds, and fifty-eight plates of their eggs, generally, with respect alike to their outline and their colouring, of miserable execution. Of the accompanying descriptions in English and French, the principal merit consists in their brevity: for nonsense is generally diffuse.— The utility of either of these costly productions, whether contemplated as works of science or of art, we acknowledge ourselves utterly destitute of the ability to comprehend. The year 1802 gave birth to Montagu's justly celebrated Ornithological Dictionary, in two octavo volumes. It is evidently the fruit of long, patient, and correct observation; and pregnant with instruction. Copies of it have now beconie exceedingly scarce. A A greater or more acceptable service could not, we conceive, be rendered to Ornithological Science in this country, than the issue of a corrected re-print of Bewick's delightful volumes. The publication of such a work in monthly numbers would, while securing an abundant sale and ample remuneration, render it accessible to all those for whose perusal and profit it would be mainly intended; and to whom the more costly productions of Selby, Gould, and Meyer, must for ever remain sealed volumes. The admirable work of Mr. Yarrell, on British Fishes, now in the course of publication, may be pointed out, as a worthy example of the form and style in which such an undertaking should be executed. Upon the “daft friend,” and enthusiastic eulogist of Bewick, this hint may not, peradventure, be thrown away. No man is better qualified, by talent and knowledge of the subject, than Mr. Dovaston, to confer this signal benefit on the good cause of popular instruction and amusement; and, at the same time, erect, with pious hand, an imperishable monument-ære vel saxo perennius,-to the memory of departed worth and genius. + Some writers would make it appear that the early volumes of this work were published in 1789. Our copy bears the date above specified; without the slightest intimation that it has attained the certainly unmerited honours of a second edition. Supplement, containing twenty-four accurate but coarse engravings, and fully sustaining the high reputation of its predecessor, followed in 1813. Of the recent Edition of this valuable work, by Professor Rennie, we shall, ere long, have occasion to speak. 66 Some time towards the close of the eighteenth century, a work, in three duodecimo volumes, entitled The Natural History of Birds, was published in London. It bears, on the title-page, neither the name of the author, nor even, by an unpardonable act of negligence, the date of publication. By the voice of common rumour, it is very confidently stated to be the production of a highly respectable gentleman of Birmingham. Whoever he be, the author has no cause to blush for the character of his intellectual progeny. It is really a very creditable performance; and contains, as promised in the titlepage, a variety of facts." Of the " one hundred copperplates" with which it is " illustrated," we are unable to pronounce an equally favourable opinion. Neither the credit of the artist nor the work would, we apprehend, have sustained much injury from their total omission; and the purse of the author or the publisher, or both, would have been marvellously benefited by it. The two duodecimo volumes of a very instructive and pleasingly-written Natural History of Birds, intended chiefly for young persons, by the highly-gifted, poetical, and consequently unfortunate, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, were published, in London, in 1807. Of the amusing and not less important British Song-Birds, of Bolton, and British Warblers, of Mr. Sweet, we are unable precisely to specify the dates. Our copy of the former unfortunately lacketh its title-page: and the latter we do not possess. Atkinson's useful Compendium of Ornithology, 8vo., London, was published in 1820; Jennings' Ornithologia, a Poem, in two parts, octavo, with copious notes, in 1828. The prose observations of the latter are, in our sober judgment, far more edifying than his wildest poetical flights, his plain and simple notes, more pleasing to our fastidious ear, than his artificial song. Science and Poetry, like certain worthy personages of our acquaintance, mightily amiable, edifying, and harmonious, when apart, make, by their ill-sorted union, but a very sorry and discordant couple. The undepraved intellectual appetite instinctively recoils from the incongruous but too fashionable admixture of the solid aliments of fact with the sweets of fiction. From this austere and sweeping sentence of condemnation, we are yet half inclined to exempt an interesting little Poem, entitled The Birds of Scotland, by Graham, author of The Sabbath; and published at Edinburgh, in 1806. It possesses the rare merit of conveying much accurate information on the habits and nidification of the north-British birds, in a strain of very sweet and even fascinating song. Compared with the pert, noisy, and passerine twitterings of Mr. Jennings' vulgar muse, the chaste and melodious outpourings of the spirit of the Scottish bard fall on the enraptured ear, like the morning-hymn of the musical thrush, or the "sweet lamentations of the solitary nightingale to the evening-star." - In our anxiety to despatch the minor brood of ornithological scribes the Warblers of their class, we have somewhat deviated from the line of history, and considerably outstripped our sober guide. We must now retrace our steps to contemplate the remnant of the Eagles. In the year 1820, appeared, in two octavo volumes, the truly scientific and valuable Manual of European Ornithology (Manuel d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Systématique des Oiseaux qui Se trouvent en Europe), of Temminck. This work, the production of a Dutchman, is written in the French language Its enlightened author seems to have zealously, and almost exclusively, devoted his life and fortune to the study of his subject; and to have visited all the more celebrated museums, and every accessible region, of Europe, in search of the requisite information. The arrangement which he has adopted, is, with very rare exceptions, that of his great predecessor, Linnæus: and his few and slight deviations are invariably dictated by sound judgment, and sanctioned by deliberate reflection. His mind is, fortunately, untainted with the fashionable rage that worse than Cholera-plague of modern science,-for inventing new systems, and forging new names, more unintelligible and discordant than, erst, the tongues which broke upon the ear of ancient Babel. These volumes, the first edition of which was published in 1815, comprehend almost every known species of European bird; and constitute an admirable text-book for the student. A new edition, with many important additions, is, we understand, on the eve of publication. Werner, a German artist, resident at Paris, commenced, some five |