PREFACE. TWENTY-FOUR monthly numbers of the second series of the Magazine of Natural History' are now before the public, and from their contents a tolerably fair estimate may be formed of the character which the work is likely to maintain. in that portion of our periodical literature devoted to science, and the degree of confidence it is entitled to from those who contribute to its pages. The Editor willingly renews the conditional pledge held out in 1837, with regard to its continuation, and in one respect he may do so with greatly increased confidence, since the risk of an inadequate supply of communications, is a crisis which no longer threatens the Magazine, although one which undoubtedly existed about the time the change in the Editorship took place. Altogether indeed the circumstances under which the publication of the present series was determined on were most inauspicious. The Editor was unknown even by report to the subscribers: several of the more valuable Contributors had seceded to establish the Magazine of Zoology and Botany,' whilst another portion of them had united to establish a rival periodical, under the fallacious expectation that it would prove a source of pecuniary emolument; and no lack of solicitations and tempting proposals was wanting to win over the few who yet stood by Mr. Loudon. In this position of affairs, to have succeeded in carrying the Magazine forward and procuring for it the favourable opinion of men of undoubted scientific eminence, is a result that cannot be otherwise than gratifying to the Editor. His labor, it is true, might in a pecuniary sense, have been otherwise more profitably employed; for the encouragement bestowed in this country upon scientific periodicals is so slight, that if the question of remuneration were entertained for a moment on the part of those who are engaged in them, it would be fatal to the existence of any English journal, on the pages of which Zoology forms a leading feature. Yet it is this class of works that is turned to for information upon every new discovery in science, which is so eagerly had recourse to when the result of individual observation or research, requires rapid and universal publicity, and by which a medium of common intercourse and communication is established between the cultivators of science in every quarter of the globe. With regard to the prospects of the Magazine of Natural History,' the Editor indulges a hope that ultimately it may so far form an exception to the general rule, as to enable him to conduct it upon the strength of its own resources, without feeling that its existence is dependent upon fortuitous circumstances. If in the number of those among whom it now circulates there be any who think that its columns might supply a more regular and comprehensive report of what is passing in the scientific world, the Editor can only plead the want of power, and not that of inclination to supply this deficiency. After being carried on without interruption for nine years under the intendence of Mr. Loudon, the Magazine was threatened with the same fate that has befallen some of its contemporaries, and though this danger has been averted, the hours successfully devoted to that object have only been such as could be snatched from leisure intervals of more definite occupation. 103, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, Nov. 25, 1838. super CONTENTS. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS, With References to the several Articles contributed by each. On the Artificial Arrangement of some of the more extensive BIRD, GOLDING, M.D., F.L.S., &c. Observations on the existence of organized Saline Combina- BLYTH, EDWARD. - Page. - 398 Outlines of a New Arrangement of Insessorial Birds sessores Heterogenes On the Adult Plumage of the Female Smew 604 74 256, 314 351, 420 395 On the Plumage of the Smew, Merganser, and the Crossbill 451 Analytic Descriptions of the Groups of Birds composing the BONAPARTE, CHARLES LUCIEN, (Prince of Musignano). BOWERBANK, J. S., F.G.S., &c Geological Notice of Headon Hill, in the Isle of Wight BOWMAN, J. E., F.L.S., &c. Observations on Cuscuta Epilinum 507 BRADLEY, THOS. Observations on the Electric Eel in the Adelaide Gallery - 668 BREE, REV. W. T. On a new locality for Polyommatus Arion - 161 BREHM, REV. Dr. Observations on some of the Domestic Instincts of Birds - 399 BROMHEAD, SIR EDWARD F. Bart., F.R.S., &c. Remarks on the Affinities of Lythracea and Vochyacea BROWN, JOHN, F.G.S. On the discovery of a large pair of Fossil Horns, in Essex BURNELL, EDWARD H. Notice of the capture of a specimen of the Little Auk, at Wi- CHAMBERS, RICHARD, F.L.S., &c. 53 Catalogue of the rarer indigenous Plants growing in the neigh- 38 |