PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.
MR. YARRELL (who has succeeded the late Mr. BENNETT in the Secretaryship of the Zoological Society) is following up his /its- tory of British Fishes by a History of British Birds, correspond- ing with that admirable work in size, style, and price. Mr. Beres History of British Quadrupeds, now nearly completed, and his intended History of British Reptiles, will form altogether a beau- tiful and uniform series of popular and scientific accounts of the animal creation known in this country, which it will only require a similar work on British Insects, such as Mr. Kum( or Mr. SAMMIE LLB could give us, to complete.
The birds will be divided into five principal orders, according to the modern system of ornithology, commencing with the Rap- tores, or Birds of Prey, each order being subdivided into families;
and the several species will be traced through all the various countries where they are found, thus showing the extent of their range. This work will contain a greater number of British birds than has yet been included in any other, and all the species will be illustrated by wood-engravings ; two, and in some instances even three figures, being given to exhibit the changes consequent on age, sex, or season. The drawings are all original, and made, whenever it is practicable, from the life—by whom it is not stated. The specimens in the first part are exquisite in point of execution: the birds seem alive, and the form and markings of the plumage are given with the most delicate accuracy and a high degree of artistical skill and force. The wood-engravings, by Tgonson, as far exceed those of Bewlex, as finished line engraving does etching.
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