enjoyed of making a decision, I do not hesitate to state that Audubon is the author of the book to which his name is attached; and that the second volume will not fall short of the first in purity, vigour, and originality of style; and that it will contain the additional experience and observation of three of the most active years of his life.

Some details of the habits and pursuits of this gentleman may not be uninteresting to your readers, and will account for the manner in which he has been enabled successfully to carry on so large, expensive, and laborious a work as that which is now in the progress of publication.

He rises with the earliest dawn, and devotes the whole of the day, in intense industry, to his favourite pursuit. The specimens from which he makes his drawings are all from nature; carefully noting the colours of the eye, bill, and legs; measuring, with great accuracy, every part of the bird. Where differences exist, either in the sexes or young, several figures are given on the same plate: sparing no labour in retouching old drawings or in making new ones, in all cases where he conceives there may be a possibility of making an improvement. In this way, he has already succeeded in figuring nearly the whole of the birds necessary to complete his splendid and important work.

He keeps a journal, and regularly notes down every thing connected with natural history. This journal is always kept in English: a language which, it must be acknowledged, he writes very correctly, when it is taken into consideration that he spent nearly the first seventeen years of his life in France. Besides this, he keeps separate journals, in which he notes every thing that he learns each day on the habits of every bird. In all his travels, he carries these journals with him; and he never suffers business, fatigue, or pleasure to prevent him each evening from noting down every interesting observation. In this way, a mass of information has been accumulated from year to year. When he sits down to write the history of a bird (which is usually in the evening), he first reads over all the memoranda which he has made with regard to its habits; and he is generally able to write an interesting paper on the subject in the course of the evening. At some leisure moment this is again reviewed and corrected: the scientific details he leaves to the last. In America there are few private or public libraries that can furnish a writer on ornithology with all the information he is desirous of obtaining on this subject. Mr. Audubon does not hesitate about consulting with other naturalists in regard to all that may be written or known on the birds of America. He wishes to

render his work as perfect as the experience and knowledge of man, in the present state of his information, can make it; and he endeavours to obtain all the additional light that industry or enquiry can shed on the subject. In obtaining this kind of assistance from those whose knowledge of books enables them to afford it, he does not conceive that he is the less entitled to the claim of the authorship of a work, the whole design of which (the most important feature in its execution), together with the composition, is altogether his

own.

When Wilson, the highly talented American ornithologist, first commenced his invaluable work, he did not hesitate to apply to his scientific friends for all the information they were able to afford him. In his letter to Bartram, dated May 21. 1804, found in the 36th page of his Life, by his friend and biographer Mr. Ord, we find Wilson using the following language "I send you a few more imitations of birds for your opinion, which I value beyond that of any body else. Please to send me the names of the birds."

Now, although Wilson received all the aid which the observations and reading of his friend could afford him, yet it would be the height of injustice to his memory and his well-merited fame, to assert that Bartram was the author of his work. Let us be as just to Audubon as we are to his predecessor, and we shall not withhold from him the merit of being the author of his Ornithological Biography.

If the idea is entertained abroad, that the character and acquirements of Mr. Audubon are not estimated in his native land, or that his splendid publication is not appreciated here, it is most certain that the impression is altogether erroneous. The United States, although comparatively a new country, and possessing but few men of very large fortunes, duly appreciate the value of his work, and the merits of the individual.

Since his last return to America he has already received sixty-one subscribers to his work, with very little exertion on his part. It has been added to the library of Congress, and the legislatures of many of the states have become subscribers. The government has allowed him and his attendants the free use of all our public vessels in every part of the United States. Honours have been conferred on him by the learned societies of our land, and the attentions which have been bestowed upon him, by the most intelligent men in our country, are such as have never been conferred upon any former naturalist.

The additions already made to American ornithology by

the labours of Audubon are immense: suffice it to say, that he has added upwards of one hundred species not figured by Wilson. Some of these have been described in the valuable continuation of Wilson's work by Bonaparte. Still, with these deductions, there will be an immense number of new birds published in the work of Audubon, for a knowledge of which the public will be solely indebted to his zeal, industry, and experience. Amongst other interesting discoveries made by him may be noticed a new heron, and an eagle, the largest in the United States; two species of pigeon, a hummingbird, and a considerable number of the genera of the Muscícapa, Troglodytes, Sylvia, and Fringilla.

His services alone, in correcting the errors into which his predecessors had fallen, from the want of opportunities such as he has enjoyed, are invaluable, and will be duly appreciated by the lovers of natural history. It may be interesting to your readers to notice a few of these. In his recent visit to Labrador, to which inhospitable region he was led solely by his ardent zeal for the advancement of science, he has ascertained that the Làrus marìnus and the Làrus argentatöìdes are the same bird in different stages of plumage. In the Làrus minutus and L. capistràtus, a similar mistake had occurred. The Ardea Peálei of Bonaparte proves to be the young of the A'rdea ruféscens, as ascertained by Audubon in the highly interesting ornithological region of Florida; the figure of Wilson of the Rállus crépitans, given as the adult bird, proves to be that of a new species found in the freshwater marshes of our southern country, and the Fálco Lagopus is only the immature bird of the Sáncti Johannis.

In addition to this, the visits of Audubon to the breedingplaces of many other of our rare birds, in the extreme north and south of our country, have enabled him to investigate their habits more fully, and to describe them more correctly, than had ever been done before.

If the enquiry be made, what prospect there will be of the continuation of this work, in case the author should not live to complete it, I am happy to say that its publication is secured beyond the fear of accidents. The drawings of the birds. for the whole work are nearly completed; the materials for their history are collected and recorded; and there exists sufficient acquirement in the members of his interesting and talented family to carry on the work.

Let the literary world but award to Audubon the justice which he merits; let the public continue to be indulgent and liberal, and this work cannot fail to prove a very important acquisition to the natural history of America, nor to reflect the

highest credit on the liberality of the British public, that has hitherto so efficiently aided him in the publication of it, nor to establish an abiding monument to the fame of its author, whilst it must continue to be selected as the chosen companion of those who delight in the contemplation and investigation of the phenomena of nature, in one of the most interesting departments of her works.-John Bachman. Charleston, Dec. 31. 1833. [Received Feb. 7.]

The Common Redwing is a resident Species in the extreme North of Scotland and in the Isles. (Mr. Blyth, in VI. 516.)I should feel obliged to Mr. Blyth if he would state its locality, and whether he has had personal opportunities of examining it in its summer haunts, as, I believe, this bird has hitherto generally been looked upon in the light of a stranger, merely paying us a visit during the winter season. I can assure Mr. Blyth it is not a summer resident on the eastern coast of Scotland or in the Orkney Islands, although Dr. Barry says, in his History of the Orkney Islands, book iii. p. 316., 2d edit., " it may be seen in Hoy for the most part of summer, and always in harvest; where it probably builds among the shrubs in the valleys." At least, I could not discover this bird, during an extensive excursion through these islands and a great part of the Highlands in the summer of 1831; my principal object being that of inspecting the habits and nidification of the different birds that resort thither. The only instance recorded of the redwing's breeding in the British Islands is in Montagu; who says, "Mr. Bullock found a nest in the Island of Harris in the Hebrides." The solitary instance. here mentioned must invalidate the idea of those heard by W. L. (VI. 218.) being identical with the redwing, unless their locality is changed since Mr. Bullock's visit; or, otherwise, he must have found their nests in greater abundance than he appears to have done.

I suspect that the young of the missel thrush (Turdus viscivorus) has very often been mistaken for the redwing, as they congregate towards the end of the summer. I saw, during the month of August, at least a hundred assembled together, and at first thought they were a flock of fieldfares or redwings; but, on a closer examination, I discovered my mistake. They certainly must migrate. The fact of their migrating is mentioned in V. 581.

Montagu says further of the redwing, "It is said to breed in Norway and Sweden." Bewick says only the latter country. Mr. Hewitson, who visited Norway last summer, did not find it there, although he saw its congener, the fieldfare (Turdus pilàris); and in his British Oology, Nos. xiv. and xv., says, "it

is the most abundant bird in Norway, and is generally diffused over that part which we visited, breeding (so contrary to the habits of other species of the genus Turdus with which we are acquainted) in society; 200 nests or more being frequently within a very small space." Possibly some of the readers or correspondents of the Magazine, who may be personally acquainted with the Western Islands, will favour us with a more minute description of the nest, eggs, and general habits of the redwing.-J. D. Salmon. Stoke Ferry, Norfolk. [See p. 144.]

The Black Viper. (VI. 527., VII. 76.)- Mr. Bree's remarks (in VII. 76.) do not disincline me to repeat my former assertion, that I believe that there is but one species of poisonous reptile in England, namely, Vipera Bèrus. The black viper is an extreme variety, but every intermediate shade exists.-E. N.D. Feb. 1834.

Criticisms on some Species of Insects published in Wood's “Index Entomologicus," and in Stephens's " Illustrations of British Entomology." As the correction of errors must be acceptable to every impartial person, I point out some which occur in Wood's Index Entomologicus and in Stephens's Illustrations of British Entomology, which Mr. Wood takes for his guide; and as there are many figures which I do not understand, I shall be glad to have them explained, to prevent my being led further astray:-Wood, plate 1. fig. 3. Is this the true Eu-> ropòme? or Philódice? and on what authority does it appear: as British? Plate 1. fig. 4. Is this the true Chrysothome? and in what does it differ from Eléctra (or Edusa)? Plate 1.. figs. 8. 10. 12. Chariclèa, Mètra, and sabéllica: Why are these distinct from brássica, ràpæ, and nàpi?- Plate 2. fig. 53. spìni? Is this the true spìni? The late Mr. Haworth told me he had one from the cabinet of the late Captain Lindegret; but it had no head. Mr. Sparshall has a Thecla, quite new, and distinct from Mr. Haworth's.-Plate 2. fig. 67. looks like Aléxis (the common blue). Wood gives it as Dórylas, and 67. (or 69. ?) &, and 67. (or 69.?) 9, as Alexis; but the is figured with a border of black spots in the second wings, which is not common in Aléxis; 68. Icàrius, and ; and 70. E`ros, & and what is the distinction between these four? - Plate 2. fig. 58. &, and plate 3. fig. 58.

: Hippothoë. Mr. Haworth told me that they came out of an old cabinet, and were said to have been taken near Faversham. I had and from the late Mr. Latham, which were from Captain Lindegret's cabinet; whence, probably, all the supposed British specimens also came. - Plate 2. fig. 72., plate 3. figs. 73. and 74. Agéstis, Salmacis and ?, and