White Stork-Ciconia alba, Bellon-Cicogne blanche, Fr.-Cicogna bianca, It.-Weisser Storch, G. A very good figure, representing an adult, half the natural size. Spends its winter in Egypt

and North Africa, visits Europe in spring, but seldom ventures so far as the British isles. Common in the swamps of Holland, Germany, Prussia, France, and Italy. Breeds on the tops of houses, steeples, chimneys, trees, &c., the nest consisting of a "cumbrous mass of sticks and coarse materials." Lays three pale yellow eggs. Feeds on aquatic insects and reptiles.

Pigmy Dunlin-Tringa subarquata, Temm.-Bécasseau cocorli, Fr.-Rothbauchiger Brachel, G. Pretty figures, of the natural size, but that on the left hand is somewhat stiff. Frequents the shores of Europe, Africa, and North America. Rare in England. Feeds on insects, Worms, crustacea, and mollusca. Builds near the edge of the water, and lays four yellowish-white eggs, spotted with

brown.

Blackeared Chat-Saxicola aurita, Temm.-Traquet oreillard, Fr. The plate before us represents the male in the spring and winter plumage; more life might, we think, have been instilled into the figures, and they might have been placed in more natural and pleasing attitudes. Inhabits the hilly portions of southern Europe; in the north of Italy it is stated to be of more common occurrence than the Russet Chat. Of its nidification nothing certain is known.

Sandwich Tern-Sterna cantiaca, Gmel.-Terne caugek, Fr.— Sterna di-becca-nera, It.-Sandwische Terne, G. An adult and a young bird of the first year, natural size. The figure of the former is admirably executed, but we should pronounce the legs of the youngster to be rather stiffly set on. Is found on most of the coasts of the old world, and is common in some parts of Britain. It is one of our largest Terns, and is seldom seen in fresh water. Lays its two or three whitish eggs, marbled with brownish-black, on the bare rock or on the shingly shore. The young birds want the jet black head which characterizes the adults of both sexes.

Tree Redstart-Phoenicura albifrons, Blyth-Rouge-queue demurailles, Fr.-Volgarama muraiola, It.-Baum Rothschwanzen, G. It is a remark we have long made that this species is never well delineated, and the plate of Mr. Gould, representing a male and female, natural size, is certainly no exception to the rule, however much we may be disposed to admire the style of the engraving and colouring. The male is really a disgrace to a work like the Birds of Europe. But people are generally inclined to think fa

VOL. VI., NO. XIX.

L

vourably of their own performances, and we dare say our author considered his Redstarts well worthy of a place in his work when he had drawn them. All the Redstarts are confined to the old world, and the habits of the present species are well known to our ornithological readers.

Redlegged Chough-Fregilus rufipes, Auct.-Coracias sonneur, Fr.-Coracia di montagna, It.-Stein Corak, G. A very fair figure of the adult male, rather less than the natural size, but somewhat tame. The Swiss Alps, the Himalaya, and the rocky portions of the lofty mountains of Europe, are its favourite localities. In England it occurs in Cornwall, Devonshire, Glamorganshire, the Isle of Anglesea, and the Isle of Man. The late Dr. Latham informs us that a pair were shot, a few months ago, near Andover, in Hampshire. Breeds in the crevices of the cliffs, the nest consisting of sticks, lined with wool and hair. Eggs, three or four, greenishwhite, spotted with green and grey. Feeds on insects, grain, and berries, and is easily tamed.

Collared Turnstone-Strepsilas collaris, Temm.-Tournepierre à collier, Fr. An adult male and a young bird are figured. They are well drawn, but they might have been engraved in a better style. Inhabits Norway, the shores of the Baltic, Africa, America, Melville Island, and parts of Britain. - Feeds on insects, mollusca, and crustacea, which it finds amongst the stones on the sea-shore. The plumage of the female is less brilliant than that of the male.

Here endeth our analysis of the sixth part of the Birds of Europe, on the completion of which we beg to offer a few general observations on the character of the work. To commence then, like a true critic, with the faults. The figures appear to us to be in general too tame, the forms in many cases too thick and dumpy, and the execution in too soft, smooth, and subdued a style. This is especially observable as regards the Falconida, the Haw Grosbeak, and others; and the attitudes are too often far from natural. We marvel, too, that the author has not introduced the nests and eggs into the plates, which might easily have been done in the majority of instances. But if our perhaps too severe judgment has succeeded in scraping together a few faults, how infinitely heavier will the excellencies prove in the balance. When we consider that we had before no work containing good representations of European birds, and when we remember that Mr. Gould's delineations equal, if not surpass, anything of the kind that has hitherto been produced, the philosophic ornithologist ought to be truly grateful to our author for the admirable history of them here laid open to him. It is of a

convenient size, and will, of course, ever rank amongst the most splendid contributions to ornithological science. We are given to understand that only a few copies of the Birds of Europe remain unsubscribed for. We shall return to this subject in our next number, and hope to be able to present our readers with a critical analysis of two parts in each succeeding publication.

SOME REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPEARE.

V.-MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

MRS. JAMIESON, in her inimitable character of Beatrice, has so completely depicted the character of Benedict that one must possess almost a supernatural sight to discover any new feature. Beatrice and Benedict are so essentially similar that to think of one is to think of both. Twin stars of the zodiac, who owe their brilliance to their approximation-an "ingeniorum cos," as Burton expresses it, to each other. The only difference between them is owing, perhaps, more to the reader's prejudices than to any dissimilarity in the characters of Signior Montanto and Ladie Disdain.

Though Beatrice be the prima donna of wit and gaiety, and, as Mrs. Jamieson remarks, incomparable with the fine lady of modern comedy, yet that such a character belongs naturally to all women cannot be denied; the smart repartee, the sparkling satire, is peculiar to the sex; it arises out of the delicacy of their organization-a defensive weapon with which nature has endowed them. That few ladies are Beatrices is, perhaps, more the fault of selfish man than any incapacity in themselves. Holding the power by the most despotic of all titles, that of hereditary, he subdues the intellect of woman into a form and quality agreeable to his own inclinations. Thus, because man is too dull to encounter the nimble and sparkling wit of woman, he disables her by a mental restriction of the worst kind, and under the plea of modesty, becomingness, propriety, and all those terms included in the word amiability, she is taught, from childhood, to restrain every light-hearted word, lest she be betrayed into rudeness-every ingenuous repartee, lest it degenerate into pertness. Like the beautiful statue of Memnon, that seems no longer re-animated by the presence of its deity, every brilliant thought is concealed, every kindling emotion is suppressed, and wit, the most enlivening, reserved merely as a penalty for impertinence.

Even with Beatrice and Benedict, however favourably Mrs. Jamieson excuses Benedict, he is no match for dear Ladie Disdain :with him wit is, in great part, an acquirement, and no little does he owe to the celerity of his circulation. Benedict is constitutionally smart, with fine humour, and just enough waywardness to be agreeable. Beatrice is sexually witty; her fancies cluster in her mind brilliant as dew-drops in the sun-a grotto radiant with the light of its own thousand gems. Benedict was, happily, born with a wide capacity for enjoyment, a heart the bravest and the most sensitive; one who can cry and curse at the same moment-the slave of affections that he would conceal by ridiculing. Were Benedict and Beatrice insensible to love they would satirize it less ; they are both ashamed of their own propensities. Extravagance springs not from indifference; they are too excessive in their aversions to be careless of the object.

Benedict and Mercutio are similar in many points-lively, humourous, and satirical; but Benedict is not so refined. There is a sullenness in Benedict, in Mercutio there is a perennial cheerfulness. It is not too much to say that the most miraculous genius of Shakspeare is an image of the All-creative Deity. No other embodied mind could ever approach him in the universality and individuality of his genius. Like the infinite shades of the human countenance, which, however similar, are never the same, Shakspeare has distinguished every character by a peculiarity differing from every other; so that, however resemblant, they are never identical. Benedict is inferior to Beatrice: had she been coupled with Mercutio, she would have been silenced by the innate consciousness of his intellectual superiority. Mercutio could never have loved Beatrice-she must have loved him. Benedict turns misogynist from love; and after all, though they may be "too wise to woo peaceably," yet that Benedict will not escape the "predestinated scratched face" I do not think. I rather believe that a Beatrice, as a wife, however "pleasant-spirited," would soon feel less witty and more fond, and that a Benedict would become, if not uxorious, yet a tender, quiet-spoken husband

"Supremely blest if to their portion fall
Health, competence, and peace."

W.

[We are reluctantly compelled to limit the "Remarks on the Philosophy and Observances of Shakspeare" to the above brief sketch of Signior Montanto. In our next number we shall, however, have the pleasure of presenting our readers with a continuation of the series.-EDS.]

AN ACCOUNT OF TWO NEW CRUSTACEA FROM THE TRANSITION AND CARBONIFEROUS STRATA.

AMONG all the relics of former worlds, there is, perhaps, none that has more exercised the ingenuity of both naturalists and geologists, in the determination of its original and perfect form, than the remains of a crustaceous animal belonging to the transition strata known by the various names of Entomolithus paradoxus, Trilobite, and Dudley Locust. The earliest appearance of this fossil is in the Llandilo Flagstone, from which it extends upwards, through most of the intervening strata, into the Fullers' Earth, according to Mr. Parkinson, which is a formation above the Lias, and beyond which it becomes perfectly extinct. It seems to have been almost the sole representative of the extensive class of crustaceous animals through all this numerous series of rocks, whose deposition (to judge from the thickness of some of the layers, which are above five hundred feet) must have occupied immense periods of time. Trilobites belong to the class of Entomostraceous crustacea of Cuvier, and to the order of Pacilopoda, so termed from the varied form of their locomotive apparatus, some of which serve for feet or swimming organs, and the others, being furnished with fringed appendages, perform the office of gills. The other Entomostracea, with which the Trilobites are associated in certain of the strata, belong to the genera of Cypris, Eurypterus, and Limulus, which last possesses considerable analogy to certain genera of Trilobites. To omit the hypotheses of other distinguished naturalists and geologists, as Cuvier, Audouin, Goldfuss, and A. Brongniart, &c., Dr. Buckland (Bridgewater Treatises, No. 6) has endeavoured, with great success, to elucidate the structure of the Trilobites by a reference to their affinities in the genera Serolis, Limulus, and Branchipus; and as one of the fossils I am about to describe is analogous, in some respects, to these animals as well as to the Trilobites, it will be necessary to give some account of them before instituting a comparison between them and the specimen. For if we assume the recent genus Serolis as the type of this class of animals, we appear to pass gradually from its more perfect structure to the rudimentary form, (at least, apparently such,) of the Trilobite, through the intermediate genera of Limulus and Branchipus. The Serolis (ibid., pl. 45, fig. 6), in size and general appearance, resembles a small Crab. It is furnished with antennæ or horns, and with two claws. Its eyes are placed upon its back, and, like those of most of the animals I am describing, resemble the com