Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/27

17 numbering among its supporters almost every American ornitholo gist of repute, its editors being Messrs Allen, Coues, Ridgway, Brewster, and Chamberlain. Returning to the Old World, among the countries whose Orni thology will most interest British readers we have first Iceland, the fullest indeed the only full account of the Birds of which is Faber s Prodromus dcr isldndisdi.cn Ornithologic (8vo, 1822), though the island has since been visited by several good ornithologists, Proctor, Kriipcr, and Wolley among them. A list of its Birds, with some notes, bibliographical and biological, has been given as an Appendix to Mr Baring-Gould s Iceland, its Scenes and Sagas (8vo, 1802); and Mr Shepherd s North-west Peninsula of Iceland (Svo, 1867) recounts a somewhat profitless expedition made thither expressly for ornithological objects. For the Birds of the Freroes there is Herr II. C. Miiller s Fser oerncs Fuglcfauna (Svo, 1862), of which a German translation has appeared. 1 The Ornithology of Norway has been treated in a great many papers by II err Collett, some of which may be said to have been separately published as Norgcs Fuylc (Svo, 1868 ; with a supplement, 1871), and The Ornithology of Northern Norway (Svo, 1872) this last in English. For Scandinavia generally the latest work is Herr Collin s Skandinavicns Fugle (Svo, 1873), being a greatly bettered edition of j the very moderate Danmarks Fugle of Kjan-bblling ; but the orni thological portion of Nilsson s Skandinavisk Fauna, Foglarna (3d ed., 2 vols. Svo, 1858) is of great merit; while the text of Sundevall s Svcnska Foglarna (obi. fol., 1856-73), unfortunately unfinished at his death, and Herr Holmgren s Skandinaviens Foglar (2 vols. Svo, 1866-75) deserve naming. Works on the Birds of Germany are far too numerous to be recounted. That of the two Naumanns, already mentioned, and yet again to be spoken of, stands at the head of all, and perhaps at the head of the "Faunal" works of all countries. For want of space it must here suffice simply to name some of the ornitholo gists who in this century have elaborated, to an extent elsewhere unknown, the science as regards their own country : Alturn, Baldamus, Bcchstein, Blasius (father and two sons), Bolle, Borggreve, whose fogel-Fauna von Norddcutschland (Svo, 1869) contains what is practically a bibliographical index to the subject, Brehm (father and sons), A r ou Droste, Gatke, Gloger, Hint/, Alex ander and Eugen von Homeyer, Ja ckel, Koch, Kb nig-Wart- hausen, Kriiper, Kutter, Landbeck, Landois, Leisler, Von Maltzan, Bernard Meyer, Yon der Miihle, Neumann, Tobias, Joliann Wolf, and Zander. 2 Were we to extend the list beyond the boundaries of the German empire, and include the ornithologists of Austria, Bohemia, and the other states subject to the same monarch, the number would be nearly doubled ; but that would overpass our pro posed limits, though Herr von Pelzeln must be named. 3 Passing onward to Switzerland, we must content ourselves by referring to the list of works, forming a Bibliographia Ornithologica Helvetica, drawn up by Dr Stolker for Dr Fatio s Bulletin de la Societe Ornitho- logiquc HJuissc (ii. pp. 90-119). As to Italy, we can but name here the Fauna d Italia, of which the second part, Uccclli (Svo, 1872), by Count Salvador!, contains an excellent bibliography of Italian works on the subject, and the posthumously published Orni- tologia Italiana of Savi (3 vols. Svo, 1873-77). 4 Coming to the Iberian peninsula, we must in default of separate works depart . from our rule of not mentioning contributions to journals, for of the former there are only Col. Irby s Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar (Svo, 1S75) and Mr A. C. Smith s Spring Tour in Portugal 5 to be named, and these only partially cover the ground. However, Ur A. E. Brehm lias published a list of Spanish Birds (Allgem. deutsche Naturhist. Zcitung, iii. p. 431), and 2 lie Ib iy con tains several excellent papers by Lord Lilford and by Mr Sauuders, the latter of whom there records (1871, p. 55) the few works on Ornithology by Spanish authors, and in the Bulletin de la Societe Zoologiquc dc France (i. p. 315; ii. pp. 11, 89, 185) has given a list of the Spanish Birds known to him. Returning northwards, we have of the Birds of the whole of France nothing of real importance more recent than the volume 1 Journal fur Ornithologie, 1869, pp. 107, 341, 381. One may almost say an English translation also, for Major Keilden s contribution to the Zoologist for 1872 on the same subject gives the most essential part of Herr Muller s infor mation. 2 This is of course no complete list of German ornithologists. Some of the most eminent of them have written scarcely a line on the Birds of their own country, as Cabanis (editor since 1853 of the Journal fur Ornithologie), b insch, llartlaub, Prince Max of Wied, A. 15. Meyer, Nathusius, Nehrkorn, Keichcnbach, Ileiclienow, nnd Sclialow among others. 3 A useful ornithological bibliography of the Austrian-Hungarian dominions W;is printed in the Verliandhingen of the Zoological and Botanical Society of Vienna for 1878. by Victor Hitter von Tschusi zu Schmidhofen. A similar bibliography of Russian Ornithology by Alexander Brandt was printed at St Petersburg in 1877 or 1878. 4 A useful compendium of Greek and Turkish Ornithology by Drs Kriiper and llartlaub is contained in Mommsen s Griechische Jahrzeiten for 1875 (Heft III.). For other countries in the Levant there are Canon Tristram s Fauna and Flora of Palestine (4ro, 1884) and Capt, Shellev s Handbook to the Birds of Egypt (Svo, 187. ). 5 In the final chapter of this work the author gives a list of Portuguese Birds, including besides those observed by him those recorded by Prof. Barboza du liocago in the Gazeta ifeJica de Lisboa, 18(51, pp. 17-21 Oiscaux in Yieillot s Fauna, Franqaise (Svo, 1822-29) ; but there is a great number of local publications of which Mr Saunders has furnished (Zoologist, 1878, pp. 95-99) a catalogue. Some of these seem only to have appeared in journals, but many have certainly been issued separately. Those of most interest to English orni thologists naturally refer to Britanny, Normandy, and Picanly, and are by Baillon, Benoist, Blandin, Bureau, Canivet, Chesnon, Degland, Demarle, De Norguet, Gentil, Hardy, Lemetteil, Lemon- nicier, Lesauvage, Maignon, Marcotte, Nourry, and Tasle, while perhaps the Ornithologic Parisicnne of M. Rene Paquet, under the pseudonym of Neree Quepat, should also be named. Of the rest the most important are the Ornithologie Prorencalc of Roux (2 vols. 4to, 1825-29) ; Risso s Histoire naturcllc .... dcs environs de Nice (5 vols. Svo, 1826-27) ; the Ornithologie du Dauphine of Bouteille and Labatie (2 vols. Svo, 1843-44) ; the Faune Mcri- dionaleot Crespou (2 vols. Svo, 1844) ; the Ornithologic dc la Saroic of Bailly (4 vols. Svo, 1853-54), and Lcs Richesscs ornithologiqucs du midi dc la France (4to, 1859-61) of MM. Jaubert and Barthulcmy-Lapommeraye. For Belgium iicFaunc Beige of Baron Belgium. De Selys-Longchamps (Svo, 1842), old as it is, remains the classical work, though the Planches colorucs dcs Oiscaux de la Bclgique of M. Dubois (Svo, 1851-60) is so much later in date. In regard to Holland we have Schlegel s De Vogcls van Ncderland (3 vols. 8vo, Holland. 1854-58 ; 2d ed. , 2 vols., 187S), besides his Dc Dieren van Ncder land : Vogcls (Svo, 1861). Before considering the ornithological works relating solely to the Europe ii British Islands, it may be well to cast a glance on a few of those general, that refer to Europe in general, the more so since most of them are of Continental origin. First we have the already-mentioned Manuel d Ornithologic of Temminck, which originally appeared as a single volume in 1815 ; 6 but that was speedily superseded by the second edition of 1820, in two volumes. Two supplementary parts were issued in 1835 and 1840 respectively, and the work for many years deservedly maintained the highest position as the authority on European Ornithology indeed in England it may almost without exaggeration be said to have been nearly the only foreign ornithological work known ; but, as could only be expected, grave defects are now to be discovered in it. Some of them were already manifest when one of its author s colleagues, Schlegel (who had beeii employed to write the text for Susemihl s plates, originally intended to illustrate Temminck s work), brought out his bilingual Revue critique dcs Oiscaux d Europe (Svo, 1844), a very remarkable volume, since it correlated and consolidated the labours of French and German, to say nothing of Russian, ornithologists. Of Gould s Birds of Europe (5 vols. fol., 1832-37) nothing need be added to what has been already said. The year 1849 saw the publication of Degland s Ornithologic Europccnne (2 vols. 8vo), a work fully intended to take the place of Temminck s; but of which Bonaparte, in a caustic but by no means ill-deserved Revue Critique (12mo, 1850), said that the author had performed a miracle since he had worked without a collection of specimens and without a library. A second edition, revised by M. Gerbe (2 vols. Svo, 1867), strove to remedy, and to some extent did remedy, the grosser errors of the first, but enough still remain to make few statements in the work trustworthy unless corroborated by other evidence. Meanwhile in England D"r Bree had in 1858 begun the publication of The irdi (5 vols.). on the "Especes 11011 observers en Belgiqne, being supplemen tary to that of his above named. In 1870 Dr Fritsuh completed his Naturgcschichte dcr Vogcl Europas (8vo, with atlas in folio); and in 1871 Messrs Sharpe and Dresser began the publication of their Birds of Europe, which was completed by the latter in 1879 (8 vols. 4to), and is unquestionably the most complete work of its kind, both for fulness of information and beauty of illustration the coloured plates being nearly all by Mr Keulemans, or when not by him from the hardly inferior hand of Mr Neale. In so huge an undertaking mistakes and omissions are of course to be found if any one likes the invidious task of seeking for them; but many of the errors imputed to this work prove on investigation to refer to matters of opinion and not to matters of fact, while many more are explicable if we remember that while the work was in progress Ornithology was being prosecuted with unprecedented activity, and thus statements which were in accordance with the best information at the beginning of the period were found to need modification before it was ended. As a whole European ornitho logists are all but unanimously grateful to Mr Dresser for the way in which he performed the enormous labour lie had under taken. Coming now to works on British Birds only, the first of the British present century that requires remark is Montagu s Ornithological Isles. Dictionary (2 vols. Svo, 1802 ; supplement 1813), the merits of which have been so long and so fully acknowledged both abroad and at home that no further comment is here wanted. In 1831 c Copies are said to exist bearing the date 1S14. XVIIT. - 3