already stated) the extraordinary views of its adherents found little
favour on the continent of Europe. The purely artificial character
of the System of Linnaeus and his successors had been perceived,
and men were at a loss to find a substitute for it. The new doctrine,
loudly proclaiming the discovery of a “Natural” System, led away
many from the steady practice which should have followed the
teaching of Cuvier (though he in ornithology had not been able to
act up to the principles he had lain down) and from the extended
study of Comparative Anatomy. Moreover, it veiled the honest
attempts that were making both in France and Germany to find
real grounds for establishing an improved state of things, and consequently
the labours of De Blainville, Etienne, Geoffroy St-Hilaire
and L'Herminier, of Merrem, Johannes Müller and Nitzsch—to
say nothing of others—were almost wholly unknown on this side
of the Channel, and even the value of the investigations of British
ornithotomists of high merit, such as Macartney and Macgillivray,
was almost completely overlooked. True it is that there were not
wanting other men in these islands whose common sense refused to
accept the metaphorical doctrine and the mystical jargon of the
Quinarians, but so strenuously and persistently had the latter
asserted their infallibility, and so vigorously had they assailed any
who ventured to doubt it, that most peaceable ornithologists found
it best to bend to the furious blast, and in some sort to acquiesce at
least in the phraseology of the self-styled interpreters of Creative
Will. But, while thus lamenting this unfortunate perversion into
a mistaken channel of ornithological energy, we must not over blame
those who caused it. Macleay indeed never pretended to a
high position in this branch of science, his tastes lying in the direction
of Entomology; but few of their countrymen knew more of birds
than did Swainson and Vigors; and, while the latter, as editor for
many years of the Zoological Journal, and the first secretary of the
Zoological Society, has especial claims to the regard of all zoologists,
so the former's indefatigable pursuit of Natural History, and
conscientious labour in its behalf—among other ways by means of
his graceful pencil—deserve to be remembered as a set-off against
the injury he unwittingly caused.
It is now incumbent upon us to take a rapid survey of the ornithological works which come more or less under the designation Faunae. of “Faunae”;[1] but these are so numerous that it will be necessary to limit this survey, as before indicated, to those countries alone which form the homes of English people, or are commonly visited by them in ordinary travel.
Beginning with New Zealand, it is hardly needful to go further back than Sir W. L. Buller's beautiful Birds of New Zealand (4to, New Zealand. 1872-1873), with coloured plates by Keulemans, since the publication of which the same author has issued a Manual of the Birds of New Zealand (8vo, 1882), founded on the former; but justice requires that mention be made of the labours of G. R. Gray, first in the Appendix to Dieffenbach's Travels in New Zealand (1843) and then in the ornithological portion of the Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. “Erebus” and “Terror,” begun in 1864, but left unfinished from the following year until completed by Mr Sharpe in 1876. A considerable number of valuable papers on the ornithology of the country by Sir W. L. Buller, Drs Hector and Von Haast, F. W. Hutton, Mr Potts and others are to be found in the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute. Sir W. L. Buller's Supplement to the Birds of New Zealand (1905-1906) completes the great work of this author.
Passing to Australia, we have the first good description of some of its birds in the several old voyages and in Latham's works before Australia. mentioned. Shaw's Zoology of New Holland (4to, 1794) added those of a few more, as did J. W. Lewin's Natural History of the Birds of New South Wales (4to, 1822), which reached a third edition in 1838. Gould's great Birds of Australia has been already named, and he subsequently reproduced with some additions the text of that work under the title of Handbook to the Birds of Australia (2 vols. 8vo, 1865). In 1866 Mr Diggles commenced a similar publication, The Ornithology of Australia, but the coloured plates, though fairly drawn, are not comparable to those of his predecessor. This is still incomplete, though the parts that have appeared have been collected to form two volumes and issued with title-pages. Some notices of Australian birds by Mr Ramsay and others are to be found in the Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales and of the Royal Society of Tasmania.
Coming to British Indian possessions, and beginning with Ceylon, we have Kelaart's Prodromus faunae Zeylanicae (8vo, 1852), and Ceylon. the admirable Birds of Ceylon by Captain Legge (4to, 1878-1880), with coloured plates by Mr Keulemans of all the peculiar species. It is hardly possible to name any book that has been more conscientiously executed than this. Blyth's Mammals and Birds of Burma (8vo, 1875)[2] contains much valuable information. Jerdon's Birds of India (8vo, 1862-1864; reprinted 1877) is a comprehensive work on the ornithology of the peninsula. A very fairly executed compilation on the subject by India. an anonymous writer is to be found in a late edition of the Cyclopaedia of India, published at Madras, and W. T. Blanford's Birds of British India (1898) remains the standard work. Stray Feathers, an ornithological journal for India and its dependencies, contains many interesting and some valuable papers.
In regard to South Africa, besides the well-known work of Le Vaillant already mentioned, there is the second volume of Sir South Africa. Andrew Smith's Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa (4to, 1838-1842), which is devoted to birds. This is an important but cannot be called a satisfactory work. Its one hundred and fourteen plates by Ford truthfully represent one hundred and twenty-two of the mounted specimens obtained by the author in his explorations into the interior. Layard's handy Birds of South Africa (8vo, 1867), though by no means free from faults, has much to recommend it. A so-called new edition of it by K. B. Sharpe apiieared in 1875-1884, but was executed on a plan so wholly different that it must be regarded as a distinct work. C. J. Andersson's Notes on the Birds of Damara Land (8vo, 1872), edited by J. H. Gurney, was useful in its day, but has been superseded by the more comprehensive and extremely accurate volumes, the Birds of Africa, by G. E. Shelley (1900-1907), and the German work on the same subject by Anton Reichenow (1900-1905).
Of special works relating to the British West Indies, C. Waterton's well-known Wanderings has passed through several editions since West Indies. its first appearance in 1825, and must be mentioned here, though, strictly speaking, much of the country he traversed was not British territory. To Dr Cabanis we are indebted for the ornithological results of Richard Schomburgh's researches given in the third volume (pp. 662-765) of the latter's Reisen im Britisch-Guiana (8vo, 1848), and then in Léotaud's Oiseaux de l'île de la Trinidad (8vo, 1866). Of the Antilles there is only to be named P. H. Gosse's excellent Birds of Jamaica (12mo, 1847), together with its Illustrations (sm. fol., 1849) beautifully executed by him. A nominal list, with references, of the birds of the island is contained in the Handbook of Jamaica.
[An admirable “List of Faunal Publications relating to North American Ornithology” up to 1878 has been given by Elliott North America. Coues as an appendix to his Birds of the Colorado Valley (pp. 567-784). Special mention should be made of the following works most of which have appeared since that time: S. F. Baird, T. M. Brewer and Robert Ridgway, History of North American Birds: The Land Birds (3 vols., Boston, 1875), The Water Birds (2 vols., Boston, 1884); Elliott Coues, Check List of North American Birds (Boston, 1882), Key to North American Birds (Boston, 1887), Birds of the Northwest, U.S. Geological Survey, Misc. pubs., No. 3 (1874) and Birds of the Colorado Valley, ibid. No. 11 (1878); Robert Ridgway, Manual of North American Birds (Philadelphia, 1887); Frank M. Chapman, Color Key to North American Birds (New York, 1903); Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America (ibid., 1895) and The Warblers of North America (ibid., 1907), with notable coloured illustrations by L. A. Fuertes and Bruce Horsfall; Dr. A. K. Fisher, Hawks and Owls of the United States in their Relation to Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bull. No. 3 (Washington, 1893), a very important work; D. G. Elliot, Gallinaceous Game Birds of North America (Mew York, 1897) and Wild Fowl of the United States and British Possessions (1898), and Robert Ridgway's learned and invaluable Birds of North and Middle America, published by the Smithsonian Institution, Bull. No. 50 (Washington, 1901 sqq.). Among contemporary writers in a more popular style are John Burroughs (q.v.); Herbert K. Job and A. R. Dugmore who have done much remarkable work in bird photography; Dallas Lore Sharp, Bradford Torrey, E. H. Parkhurst, Mrs Florence Merriam Bailey, Olive Thorne Miller (Mrs Harriet Mann Miller) and Mrs Mabel Osgood Wright. Alexander Wilson's American Ornithology, originally published between 1808 and 1814, has gone through many editions including those issued in Great Britain, by Jameson (4 vols. 16 mo, 1831), and Jardine (3 vols. 8vo, 1832). The former of these has the entire text, but no plates; the latter reproduces the plates, but the text is in places much condensed, and excellent notes are added. A continuation of Wilson's work was issued by Bonaparte between 1825 and 1833, and most of the later editions include the work of both authors. The works of Audubon, and the Fauna Boreali-Americana of Richardson and Swainson have already been noticed, but they need naming here, as also do Nuttall's Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada (2 vols., Boston, 1832-1834; 2nd ed., 1840); and the Birds of Long Island (8vo. New York, 1844) by J. P. Giraud, remarkable for its excellent account of the habits of shore-birds. The Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club was published from 1876 to 1884, when it was superseded by The Auk. A bi-monthly, Bird-Lore, established in 1899, is edited by Frank M. Chapman. A recent valuable work is that of Mary B. Beebe and C. W. Beebe, Our Search for a Wilderness (New York, 1910) which deals with the birds of Venezuela and British Guiana, while Central America is fully treated in the comprehensive and beautiful Biologia Centrali-Americana of F. du Cane Godman and O. Salvin (1898-1905). X.]
Returning to the Old World, we have first Iceland, the fullest—indeed the only full—account of the birds of which is
- ↑ A very useful list of more general scope is given as the Appendix to an address by Mr Sclater to the British Association in 1875 (Report, pt. ii. pp. 114-133).
- ↑ This is a posthumous publication, nominally forming an extra number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society; but, since it was separately issued, it is entitled to notice here.
