fisheries, and is too glaring an impofition to pass long without amend ment. The custom-house fees in Scotland are become a nuisance to the adventurers, and fo heavy as to abforb the greateft part of the bounty, especially on fmall vefels. This also calls aloud for redress.” In page 179 we are told that A man of refpectability, named Mac Bride, and now in London, declares, that he faw 18 barrels of fresh herrings given for one barrel of falt to the mafter of a fmack, and three barrels for one fhilling fterling. The owners judging this trifle better than to allow them to rot without falt, as has been the cafe before. An intelligent minifter in SKYE told the author, that he had seen heaps upon heaps rotting on the shore, and, until carried off to dung the ground, no man durft país by on the leeward of them for the rotten offenfive effluvia emitted from the fish." When we reflect on the lofs and difgrace which this nation muft ftill fuffer, while the Dutch continue to draw perhaps millions annually from our very fhores; while a part of the nation live in the loweft ftate of wretchedness for want of the means of employment, and in fituations the most favourable for fishing; and this, while we are giving bounties to encourage a fifhery at many thousand miles diftance; we ourselves, as well as the author, find it difficult to write coolly on the fubject. The immenfe quantities of fish which frequent the coafts of the Hebrides exceed all conception : From the vaft multitude of fowls about St. Kilda, we are fure that the fish must be very plenty there. Let us for a moment, fays the Rev. Kenneth Mac Aulay, minifter, who acted as miffionary there, confine our attention to the confumption made by one fingle fpecies of the numberlefs fowls that feed on the herring. The folan goofe is almoft infatiably voracious; he flies with great force and velocity; toils all day with very little intermiffion, and digefts his food in a very fhort time; he difdains to eat any thing worfe than herrings or mackarel, unless it be in a very hungry place, which he takes care to avoid or abandon. We fhall take it for granted that there are an hundred thousand of that kind round the rocks of St. Kilda, and this calculation is by far too moderate, as no less than twenty thousand of them are killed yearly, including the young ones. We fhall fuppofe that the folan goofe fojourns in these feas for about feven months of the year, and that each of them deftroys five herrings in a day, a fubfistence by no means adequate to fo greedy a creature, unless it were more than half fupported of other fishes. Here we have one hundred thousand millions of the fineft fishes in the world devoured annually by one fingle fpecies of the St. Kilda birds. On the west fide of the long ifle the very whales might be harpooned with ease and fafety, instead of going to Greenland,' (or, the author might have added, to the South Seas!) in quest of them, at much heavier expences, and greater danger, annually. 5 • The The most critical time for harpooning them is, when they are feen devouring the herring by great mouthfuls, and each gap they make is conftantly filled with fresh fupplies, withing to fly beyond danger but cannot for the thick bank before them, as they stand pent up in lochs, by the heavy ftorm. And the ftrongeft whale dares not pierce through them; feeing he could not move his fins for the immenfe throng, much less rife to the furface to breathe; therefore the monster is feen behind the herring, like a horfe eating at the face of a hayrick.'— Even with a hatchet and fword, Mr. Campbell of Scalpay killed a large one, who had followed the fhoal of herrings too far into a narrow creek.' This tract abounds with ftrong ideas and ftatements of facts, which are well entitled to the attention of the Managers of the British Fifhery, and might be very useful to the Ministers of our Government. ART. XI. Mufcum Leverianum. Containing fele&t Specimens from the Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, Knt. With Defcriptions ⚫ in Latin and English by George Shaw, M. D. F. R. S. published by James Parkinfon, Proprietor of the above Collection. 4to. Vol. I. containing Five Numbers, confifting of 65 coloured Plates. 11. 15. each Number. Sold at the Museum, Surrey End of Blackfriar's Bridge. THE Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever may juftly be confidered as reflecting peculiar honour on the countrys and the care which has been taken in the preservation of so vaft an affortment of the products of nature, with the continued additions which are making to it, muft be allowed to place in a very honourable point of view the exertions of the present proprietor. 1 It had long fince been fuggefted, by zealous admirers of natural hiftory, that a collection fo diftinguifhed fhould be made moré generally ufeful by having its moft curious and interefting fubjects fcientifically defcribed; and indeed, when we confider the parade with which the contents of fome foreign museums, of far inferior confequence, have been difplayed to the public, we cannot but be furprized that fuch a work as the prefent should have been fo long delayed. At length, however, the pleafing task has been undertaken; and with much attention, and at a great expence, it has been delivered to the public in the form of feparate numbers. The fubjects confift in general of the rarest and most elegant fpecimens in the collection. Several of them have never before been either figured or defcribed, and were of course entitled to more particular attention. Dr. Shaw has, throughout, given the defcriptions in Latin, and English; and the profeffed intent feems to be to combine amusement amufement with inftruction. In confequence, while the generic and specific characters, which are conducted with much accuracy, are of themselves fufficient for the mere systematic naturalift, the general or popular defcriptions afford the more pleating account of the various particulars relative to the hiftory and manners of each animal. We may take, as an example, the MOCKING THRUSH; which is thus described * : GENERIC CHARACTER. • Bill ftout, obtufely carinated at top, bending a little at the point, and flightly notched near the end of the upper mandible. Noftrils oval and naked, Tongue flightly jagged at the end, • Middle toe connected to the outer as far as the first joint. SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &C. Thrush of a lead-coloured brown above, whitish beneath. Raii. Synops. p. 64. No. 5. p. 185. No. 31. Catefb. Car. 1. pl. 27. The nightingale, fo uniformly admired as the pride of the European woods, and fo celebrated from the earliest ages for its fupereminent mufical powers, continued to bear the palm of melody from the rest of the feathered tribe till the discovery of the western hemifphere. At that period the knowlege of the animal world was increafed in all its branches by a vast variety of new and interesting species; many of which exceed in fingularity of form all that the old Continent had difplayed. The opoffums, fo remarkable for the extraordinary manner in which they bear their young about them, long after the period of exclufion, were then first difcovered: the pipa, or toad of Surinam, which in a manner directly oppofite, bears its young in numerous cells on its back, was another object of wonder to the naturalis of Europe while among birds, the prodigious fize of the condor, which feizes and carries off theep, and even attacks and deftroys the larger cattle, opposed to the diminutive race of humming-birds, fome of which are far less than feveral infects, and adorned with colours which no art can exprefs, called forth all that admiration which philofophic inquirers must ever feel at new and curious difcoveries in the history of nature. Among birds poffeffed of mufical powers, a fpecies of thrush was found to exift, to whofe voice even the warblings of the nightingale were judged inferior. It is remarkable that many of the highly gay and brilliant birds of America are deftitute of that pleafing power of fong which gives fo peculiar a charm to the groves and fields of Europe; and an elegant poet has beautifully expreffed the fuppofed fuperiority of our own island in this respect : We give the English only, for the fake of comprising the article within as narrow a compafs as poffible; referring to the volume for the Latin part of the defcription, "Nor Nor envy we the gaudy robes they lent The mufic however of the nightingale has always been confidered as plaintive or melancholy, and fuch as conveys ideas of diftrefs. • Flect noctem, rameque fedens, miferabile carmen Integrat, et maftis late loca queftibus implet. Darkling fhe wails in fadly-pleafing ftrains, And melancholy mufic fills the plains. < But the notes of the bird now to be described are of a livelier na. ture, a bolder strain, and of a more varied richness and force of tone. It fings both by day and night, and generally feats itself on the top of some small tree, where it exerts a voice fo powerfully ftrong, and fo fweetly melodious, as to charm even to rapture those who listen to its lays. If we may rely on the atteftations of thofe who have refided' on the western continent, all the thrilling sweetness, and varied modulations of the nightingale, muit yield to the transcendent mufic of the songster of America. Exclufive of its own enchanting note, it poffeffes the power of imitating thofe of most other birds; nay it even carries this propenfity fo far as to imitate the voices of various other animals, as well as different kinds of domestic founds. This wonderful bird is as undiftinguishable by any peculiar gaiety of appearance as the European nightingale. Its general colour is a pale cinereous brown; the wings and tail deeper, or inclined to blackifh; the under part of the body is nearly white, and the two exterior feathers of the tail are of the fame colour, with dark margins; the bill and legs are black; the covert feathers of the wings are flightly tipped with white, and fome of the fhorter or fecondary wingfeathers are white alfo, forming a mark of that colour on the wing. It is nearly the fize of the common or fong-thrufh, but of a more delicate fhape. Of this bird there is a smaller variety, which has a white line over each eye; this, by fome authors, (and amongst others by Linné,) is made a diftin&t fpecies. Mr. Pennant, however, has regarded it merely in the light of a variety. It has also been feen with a fpotted breast, which probably is the ftate in which it appears before it has attained its full plumage. This bird is an inhabitant of all the warmer parts of America, and is found as far North as the United British States. It chiefly frequents moift woods, and feeds principally on the different kinds of berries.' Another description fhall be taken from that of the Trochilus Ornatus, or RUFF-NECKED HUMMING-BIRD. GENERIC CHARACTER. • Bill flender and weak, in some strait, in others incurvated. Noftrils minute. Tongue very long, formed of two conjoined cylindric tubes, mifile. REV. JAN. 1795. E < Toes, Toes, three forward, one backward. Tail confiling of ten feathers. SPECIFIC CHARACTER, &c. Pennant. Strait-billed, brown, humming-bird, with ferrugineous creft, gold-green throat, and elongated neck-feathers on each fide. Tufted necked humming bird. Lath. Synops. p. L'oifeau mouche dit le Hupecol de Cayenne. Pl. Enl. 640. f. 3. The brilliant and lively race of humming-birds, fo remarkable at once for their beautiful colours and diminutive fize, are the peculiar natives of the American continent, and, with very few exceptions, are principally found in the hottest parts of America. Their vivacity, fwiftnefs, and fingular appearance unite in rendering them the admiration of mankind; while their colours are fo radiant, that it is not by comparing them with the analagous hues of other birds that we are enabled to explain with propriety their peculiar appearance, but by the more exalted brilliancy of polifhed metals, and precious ftones: the ruby, the garnet, the fapphire, the emerald, the topaz, and polished gold, being confidered as the moft proper objects of clucidation. It is not however to be imagined that all the fpecies of hummingbirds are thus decorated; fome are even obfcure in their colours, and instead of the prevailing fplendor of the major part of the genus, exhibit only a faint appearance of a golden-green tinge, flightly diffufed over the brown or purplish colour of the back and wings. The genus is of a very great extent, and in order that the fpecies may with greater readinefs be diftinguifhed, it has been found neceffary to divide them into two fections, viz. the curve billed and the ftraitbilled. It is under the latter of thefe divifions that we muft rank the fpecies here reprefented, which is one of the rareft of the whole tribe, and is a native of Cayenne. In fize it is nearly equal to the trochilus colubris, or commen red-throated humming-bird, fo often feen in the United British States, but its colours are far different. The upper parts of the body are green gold; the under parts, except the throat, are brownish, gradually becoming white on the lower part of the abdomen: the head is ornamented with a large upright, and fomewhat compreffed creft, of a delicate filky appearance, and of the richest ferruginous or reddifh colour. The long wing-feathers and tail are of a coppery brown; the rump white. On each fide the neck are fituated feveral long feathers ftanding out in the manner of a ruff, which give a moft fingularly beautiful afpect to this fpecies; thefe feathers are of a reddish brown, each terminated by a golden-green expanded tip, and the bird is faid to have the power of raifing er depreffing them at pleafure. The throat is golden green, which in particular lights, changes into brown: the bill and egs are blackish.'. The above fpecimens may be fufficient to enable our readers to form a general idea of the work; and we fall only farther obferve |