the female bird from her eggs, which he intends to suck. Unable to defend them while sitting, she clings to the side; and, "with outstretched wings and forward breast," seems prepared to strike her bill into the very jaws of her enemy. Her cries have brought two others of her race to the spot: but these, not feeling a parent's solicitude, "come not boldly to the attack. On the courage of the male bird the fate of the conflict seems to depend. He is close to the serpent, aiming a deadly stroke at its eye, while his own is lighted up with a determination and courage, which seem to bespeak anticipated victory. Every part of the story is told with exquisite feeling. The artist has thrown his greatest skill in the figure of the female bird, and it is uncommonly fine.

Purple Martins building their Nest in a Gourd. (Pl. 22.) — M. Audubon seems to delight in attitudes which would set every other ornithological painter at defiance. How inimitable is the foreshortening of the upper left hand figure! the mouth appears actually open. The female bird, pluming her wing, shows the ease with which his pencil can master the greatest difficulties.

Song Sparrows. (Pl. 25.) I look on the attitude of the male, as one of the most difficult that can well be imagined. It is a complete front view of a bird, with half-expanded wings, in the act of seizing a spider immediately above its head. The ease and gracefulness of the pencilling are very striking.

Carolina Parrots. (Pl. 26.) This is a most extraordinary picture. It represents a flock of these birds, busily engaged in devouring the seeds of the cuckle-bur. These parrots

must be great favourites with the painter, or he would not have introduced them so profusely; there are no less than seven figures placed in the most varied attitudes, and all the size of life. Although not charged as such, the colouring of this plate must have cost three times the price of the others. Yet a painter would not be wholly pleased with it. Not, indeed, from any defect in the artist, but from the impossibility of keeping down the superabundant vividness of the golden and red heads of these birds. The colours in nature are so brilliant, that they defy all attempts at harmonising.

The last plate I shall dwell upon is, A Family of Redheaded Woodpeckers. (Pl. 27.) This is a peculiarly picturesque composition. The ground-work is the decayed trunk of a tree, perforated by insects, in the hollow of which the old birds have reared their young; one of the latter, hearing the arrival of the parents from a foraging party, has emerged VOL. I. No. 1.

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half way in the entrance; two others, who seem to have been on the look-out, are eagerly receiving the produce of the chase. The female bird has just returned from a distance with a ripe berry; the male is on the trunk of the tree, holding forward, in his bill, a caterpillar, which one of the young birds is impatient to seize. This happily illustrates the frugivorous and insectivorous food of this species, so different from those of the typical woodpeckers. The figure of the male bird will remind the painter of that sideshortening (to coin a new phrase), so common in the pictures of Paul Veronese, and which gives such a graceful turn to many of his best figures.

Many of the excellencies which I have already dwelt upon, will be found in the less imposing subjects; but these need not be enumerated. Nothing in this world can be perfect; and, that my judgment may not be deemed par tial, I shall touch on two or three, in which I think the painter has not been equally happy. The lower figure of Pl. 23. has the bill too much inclined upwards for the di rection of the head. The form of the bird in Pl. 30. may be natural, but is, to me, thick and displeasing. The colouring of Pl. 15. is harsh and much too vivid; and there is a heaviness in the figure of Pl. 24. which is a solitary exception to my preceding remarks. Were I, however, taxed for further criticisms, I could not increase the list, while they are so insignificant in themselves, as scarcely to deserve notice.

I have heard that M. Audubon resided twenty-five years in the woods of America, devoted to this one pursuit. Without any other testimony than the plates before me, I can well believe the fact. He must have lived with a notebook in his pocket, and a pencil in his hand. Nothing short of such a period, and of such enthusiasm, could have achieved what he has done. The same devotedness to his darling object seems to have brought him to Europe, under the hope of accomplishing what no individual fortune could do, without the support of liberality and wealth; namely, the publication of his works. As yet I feel perfectly convinced that this is done with a heavy and a serious loss to himself. Each of the numbers, of which six have appeared, contain no less than five plates, and are sold at two guineas, being an average of little more than eight shillings each! Let this price be compared with the usual charge for either publications or prints, and it becomes comparatively nothing. I can only wonder at the disregard of the author, for a remuneration even of his own expenses.

So far, therefore, I consider his work as comparatively, one of the cheapest that can be purchased.

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I have heard it mentioned, as an objection to the size of the work, that the same object could have been accomplished by bringing the subjects within the usual dimensions of illustrative publications; or what the French happily call ouvrages de luxe. This I deny. These plates do not exhibit a uniform" rivulet of margin," with a single bird perched upon the tall leafless trunk of a tree, signifying nothing," and merely put in to fill the paper. Here every object speaks, either to the senses or to the imagination. The examples I have quoted, show that histories are to be narrated, and peculiarities are to be explained. To trace such things, the painter must have "ample room and verge enough." It is this which elevates the character of his paintings, from mere matter of fact portraits, to historical representations. We feel, in short, that it is M. Audubon alone who can produce a work, which, without such advantages as he possesses, not all the united talents now in existence could supply.

It will depend on the powerful and the wealthy, whether Britain shall have the honour of fostering such a magnificent undertaking. It will be a lasting monument, not only to the memory of its author, but to those who employ their wealth in patronising genius, and in supporting the national credit. If any publication deserves such a distinction, it is surely this; in as much as it exhibits a perfection in the higher attributes of zoological painting, never before attempted. To represent the passions and the feelings of birds, might, until now, have been well deemed chimerical. Rarely, indeed, do we see their outward forms represented with any thing like nature. In my estimation, not more than three painters ever lived who could draw a bird. Of these the lamented Barrabaud, of whom France may be justly proud, was the chief. He has long passed away; but his mantle has, at length, been recovered in the forests of America.

On casting my eyes over the list of subscribers, it is with gratified feelings that I see His Most Gracious Majesty at the head. From the fine and original taste which our king seems intuitively to possess, I question whether any of his subjects are better qualified to appreciate the merits of M. Audubon. The number of nobility who have followed the example of their sovereign, as yet, are few. To the honour of the public bodies and libraries of Edinburgh, and of our own Universities, they all appear to have stepped forward as subscribers; waving their undoubted

right (hard as that right is,) to the possession of free copies. It is singular that nearly the whole of the remaining subscribers are provincial, principally from Yorkshire, Liverpool, and Manchester. This, however, may be accounted for, by M. Audubon having visited these parts of England. I conclude that in London his name and his works have not yet come into notice; that they assuredly will, ere long, I have no doubt. There is superabundant wealth, (and the liberality to use it too,) in the metropolis alone, sufficient to insure the continuation of ten such works, could they be found.

I have no personal acquaintance with M. Audubon. I never even saw him. The copy of his work, which furnished these remarks, has been lent to me. These are vouchers for my sincerity and disinterestedness. But I can appreciate genius; and I shall ever employ my poor abilities to make it known. My praise shall be well directed, and I shall then feel assured it will ultimately have weight.

W. S.

ART. II. Catalogue of Works on Natural History, lately published, with some Notice of those considered the most interesting to British Naturalists.

BRITAIN.

Wilson, William, Esq. F.R.S.E., Member of the Wernerian Natural History Society Illustrations of Zoology; being Representations of new, rare, or otherwise remarkable subjects of the Animal Kingdom, drawn and coloured after Nature: with descriptive Letter-press. Blackwood, Edinburgh. Cadell, London. Atlas 4to. Nos. I. II. III. and IV. 16s. each. The object of this magnificent work is to convey coloured representations (whenever possible, of the size of life,) of whatever animals are the most signalised by nature for their scarcity or beauty, or for any extraordinary peculiarities in their form, structure, instinctive habits, particular dispositions, or general economy of life. The plates are accompanied by detailed statements of the generic and specific characters of the animals delineated; and the representation of every separate order, or extensive natural group of the animal kingdom, is preceded by a short introductory essay, in which the general characters of that division are very delightfully explained. This we conceive to be a principal, and very important feature in Mr. Wilson's work, that every species is made to represent and illustrate the history of many others; and thus, in a condensed space, a student, while following out the history of a single species, may acquire an accurate knowledge of the essential relations of an extensive generic group. Most of our author's materials appear to be drawn from the Edinburgh Museum, a most richly stored zoological collection, of the origin, progress, and present condition of which, we hope, ere long, to provide our readers with a compendious history. The work now under review is intended mainly to illustrate the novelties of that museum; but, at the same time, the author's pages are open to efficient communications from all other quarters. Indeed his principal object seems to be to relieve the

science of natural history from the extreme aridity of its accustomed details; and, by combining the precision of a scientific treatise with the more excursive and agreeable character of a popular miscellany, to entice towards the study those who, not being especially called to it by an in-. stinctive and irresistible tendency, are apt to be dismayed by the barren technicalities of science, falsely so called.

Mr. Wilson's work, though expensive, is not high-priced by which we mean to say, that although the costly nature of the materials employed, renders the publisher's remunerating price considerable, we yet think the charge (16s. per number) very moderate. The form is that of atlas quarto; and every number contains four plates, each representing one or more subjects, according to their size; and is accompanied, as we have said, by corresponding letter-press, splendidly printed by Neill, in which the natural history of the animals delineated is amply detailed. The numbers appear at indefinite periods of three or four months, and well merit the patronage of those to whom splendid, and at the same time instructive books, form the finishing furniture of the drawing-room. In subsequent notices we shall present our readers with some characteristic examples of the author's style, and mode of treating his subjects. In the meantime, as the author of these Illustrations of Zoology is warmly impressed with a desire to extend the province of the science, and as we ourselves are now venturing to follow in a similar course, with the same object in view, we most heartily wish him success.

Bowdich, Mrs. T. Edward, widow of the late celebrated African traveller ; a lady of the most amiable disposition and elegant manners, and of great and various acquirements: The Fresh-water Fishes of Great Britain. In imperial 4to Numbers. No. I. Ackermann.

This is a production of no common merit; and we are the more anxious so to announce it, because, from its nature, it can fall into comparatively few hands, and will be seen much less than it deserves. Mrs. Bowdich, the widow of a gentleman whose narrative of the mission to Ashantee has obtained considerable celebrity, has here exhibited remarkable talent in pourtraying the fishes of our rivers and lakes. When it is mentioned that every illustration contained in each copy is separately drawn and painted by this lady, without the aid of the engraver, it will be perceived that she has undertaken a task of no slight magnitude. As the supply of a work, conducted upon such a plan, must necessarily be limited, we understand it is not contemplated to extend it beyond fifty copies, and even to proceed to that extent will call into exercise an unusual degree of perseverance.

In the classification Mrs. Bowdich has been assisted by Baron Cuvier, whose system she has adopted, and who has furnished her with the nomenclature he intends to employ in his forthcoming great work on Ichthyology.

The first and only number yet published, contains drawings of the trout, carp, roach, and bleak. The regular series of the families has been intentionally interrupted in the illustrations, for the sake of variety in each number; those least interesting to the eye being mingled with their more beautiful companions. As specimens of art we can only speak of these drawings, in common, we believe, with all who have viewed them, in terms of admiration. Each painting has been made from the living fish, immediately after it came from the water it inhabited, so that no tint has been lost or deadened, either by changing the quality of that element, or by exposure to the atmosphere. The artist has judiciously selected her subjects not from extraordinary or large specimens, but from those of a common magnitude, and has chiefly directed her attention to convey the correct shapes of the fishes, and to exhibit the brilliancy of their colours with