,-Sinqp the time 7of Linne however, great attention has been
paid to American Ornithology, and*' very numerous' contributions
made 0 the - Fauna of the United States#* particularly in the
standard worlds of Pennant and Latham. As all' these are
embodied in Latham’s vast compilation, the Index Ornithologicus,
we shall take that, as our guide. We there find that no less
than four hundred and-$ixty-four species are set down as North
Aiheri.can! It is hardly necessary to remark how greatly surcharged
with nominal species this number must be, when we
consider that after the lapse of many years, and the addition of
•so many genuine species; by Wilson an d ; ourselves, the number
we admit Is still short* of four hundred. * A. work professing id
Review with *care the North Aiherican part of Latham’s Index,
species by species, on the plan of our “ Observations on the
Nomenplature ^ f ' Wilson’s Ornithology,” is still a desideratum;
‘and -if exectited with accuracy and judgment, would be as advantageous
to scieiice, as arduous for the naturalist who should
Undertake it. For the present, leaving what we have to say
•kop.Qftrning the watfer bitds «to the volume?, wherein they are to
be especially treated of, we shall content ourselves with stating,
that out qff Latham’s ‘four hundred apd .sixty-four species; two
hundred and» sixty-nine ace land b ird s.. Of these, one hundred
and fifty at most' are admitted by us, and «though it would not be
.difficult to ■ prove nominal about sixty, there will still remain
about sixty othters,.?’whose habitaEt is false, or which’ are riot
sufficiently investigated. vSuch is the state of things to which
we calshtfiejattention^of ornithologist^/
HoweVer this may be, »Wilton only described two h u n te d arid
severity species, bf wJpch#one hundred arid, seventy-nine were
land bjrds. Sixteen more ^re added in the first volume of, this*,
pork. The second and thifd will contain an addjtioriajssixteen,
after which thei?e yet remain fiy'e' others whose existence wrihhve
ascertained, making a total of"two hundred arid sixteen.*
The large size and importance of soriie of the birds given in
the two present volumes, among which arc three Hawks and four
Grouse, have obliged us to distribute the sixteen new species that
they contain* together with nirie others, of which two only are
reduced, upon twelve plates. It therefore rested with our publishers
to issue one large, or two smaller volhmes, and the latter
course is that which they have thought proper to adopt.
* These may all be found in our Synopsis q f the Birds o f the United States, and
•Appendix, published in the? Annals o f the Lyceum qf Natural History of New-York,
Vol.IL
C