NOTICE. ON presenting to the English reader, through the medium of a popular periodical, the first European edition of a work of which America has just cause to be proud, the publishers have a few words of explanation to offer regarding the improvements they have adopted. It will be seen, from the Memoir of Wilson in the present volume, that his portion of the American Ornithology consists of nine volumes quarto, the descriptive part of the concluding volume having been drawn up by Mr George Ord, of Philadelphia. In 1825, Mr Ord was again employed to prepare new editions of the seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, and made considerable additions: in 1828, three supplementary volumes, by Charles Lucian Bonaparte, appeared. * The present edition will comprise not merely the whole of Wilson's work, including the improve * Prince of Musignano, son of Lucien Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon. ments of Mr Ord, but also the continuation of Bonaparte, and will still farther be enhanced in value by the revisal of the whole, and its arrangement, in a scientific manner, by Professor Jameson. This arrangement will not only render the work of more easy reference than the original edition,which, from its irregular mode of publication, was never arranged, —but will also, it is hoped, ensure its being used as an ornithological text book in our universities, and also in our schools. Hitherto, no companion or guide has been published to the beautiful collection of American birds in the museum of the University of Edinburgh: the present work will be found to answer the purpose, both on account of its scientific form, and the constant reference, by the editor, to the birds of the New World, preserved in that splendid cabinet of natural history. It remains only to be added, that the notices of the Turkey Vulture, p. 3, the Black Vulture, p. 10, the Great-Footed Hawk, p. 51, and the Raven, p. 231, having been transferred from the ninth volume of Wilson, are consequently written by Mr Ord. Other articles of his are pointed out where they occur in the course of the work. EDINBURGH, April, 1831. |