in the ferruginous plumage of the tawny owl, or characteristic variety, there remains no adequate reason for supposing it distinct. On examination, we have found satisfactory evidence of this variation. In the late edition of Buffon, by Sonnini, the Aluco owl is described as characterized by a ferruginous tinge; and a similar observation is made by Daudin, in his ornithology. As nothing material occurs to us to remark in the remaining genus of accipitrine birds, or in any of the genera of the six succeeding orders, many of which are almost exclusively composed of foreign species, we shall pass to the Gralle, or eighth order of the system. Several important observations have been made in the natural history of this numerous tribe, since the publication of the first edition of Mr Stewart's work, chiefly through the labours of the late Colonel Montagu, who did much to elucidate the ornithology of Great Britain. The Ardea cinerea of Linnæus is the female, not a variety, as Mr S. supposes, of the Ardea major, or common heron. In 1805, Montagu ascertained, that the little white heron (Ardea equinoctialis), was a visitant of Britain. The specimen in his collection was shot on the most southern promontory of Devonshire, near the coast. The same author, in his supplement, mentions the occurrence of an apparently nondescript species, which he has named the freckled heron (Ardea lentiginosa). This bird was shot in Dorsetshire, in 1804. It is most probably the female of some species already known as native to Europe, of which the sexual distinctions are undescribed. Besides these, several other rare species have been found in Britain, viz. the Gardenian heron (A. gardeni), the African heron (A. caspica), the night heron (A. nycticorax and grisea), and the Sguacco heron (4. comata.) Since the first publication of Mr Stewart's work, the Pigmy Curlew, one of the rarest of European birds, has been shot in England. It is preserved in the Liverpool Museum; and after an accurate inspection of the specimen, we feel perfectly of Montagu's opinion, that it is not a Numenius, buta Tringa. Its discoverer was probably misled by the slight arcuation of the bill, which, however, is not more deflected than in some other species of sandpiper. In succeeding systems it should therefore be distinguished by the name of Tringa pigmea. There is a species described by Pennant and Latham, under the name of Brown Snipe, found in their time only on the coast of New York. A bird in the collection of Montagu so greatly resembles the description given by these authors, that there is little doubt of its being the same species. It was shot on the coast of Devonshire in the month of October. The Red Breasted Snipe (Scolopax noveboracencis), is a rare species, of which several are recorded as having been shot in Britain. The most recent instances of this kind, of which we are aware, are the two birds procured by Mr Foljambe in 1812. Mr Stewart describes a bird called the dunlin, under the name of Scolopax pusilla. We are at a loss regarding the species, as there is great confusion in the references made to it in the ornithological works to which we at present have access. Is the S. pusilla distinct from the Tringa alpina of Lin.? Mr S. has continued the Jadreka snipe (S. limosa), and the Red Godwit (S. lapponica), as distinct species. Montagu received a specimen from Lord Stanley, which is in a state of plumage intermediate between these two species, and which, when considered along with those circumstances which had formerly caused some doubts as to their specific distinction, satisfactorily proves that they are really the same. The Cambridge Godwit (S. cantabrigiensis), given by Mr S. as a distinct species, is considered by the other ornithologists of the day as merely the young of the Red-shank (S. calidris.) As we have already exceeded the limits which have been necessarily assigned to this article, we must delay our further observations until next month. Modern Greece. A Poem. 8vo. London, Murray, 1817. In our reviews of poetical productions, the better efforts of genius hold out to us a task at once more useful and delightful than those of inferior merit. In the foriner, the beauties predominate, and expose while they excuse the blemishes. But the public taste would receive no benefit from a detail of mediocrity, relieved only by the censure of faults uncompensated by excellencies. We have great pleasure in cailing the attention of our readers to the beautiful poem before us, which we believe to be the work of the same lady who last year put her name to the second edition of another poem on a kindred subject, "The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy," namely, Mrs Hemans of North Wales. That the author's fame has not altogether kept pace with her merit, we are inclined to think is a reproach to the public. Poetry is at present experiencing the fickleness of fashion, and may be said to have had its day. Very recently, the reading public, as the phrase is, was immersed in poetry, but seems to have had enough; and excepting always that portion of it who are found to relish genuine poetry on its own intrinsic account, and will never tire of the exquisite enjoyment which it affords, the said public seldom read poetry at all. It was very natural for poets in their finer sympathies, to be lured into the mistake that, like themselves," the million" loved "music, image, sentiment, and thought," with a love "never to die." They did not observe that the attachment was greatly too sudden to give reasonable hopes of constancy. For more than two hundred years the best poetry in Europe was to be found in our own country; yet a very small portion of the educated classes seems ever to have taken any warm interest in these treasures. How few have read Chaucer or Spencer, or studied Shakespeare, except in the theatre. Upon what multitudes has Milton thrown away his lofty strain,-Dryden his fire,-Pope his exquisite polish,-Thomson his music and grace, and his exquisite and impassioned descriptions of nature. Poetical excellence addresses itself to higher tastes and finer sensibilities than are bestowed on the bulk of mankind; and to all who are not so endowed, it is a very tiresome sort of pastime. An era however approached. "The Lay" converted thousands, and "Marmion" tens of thousands, and the whole world read poetry. Had Mr Scott given out the same quantity of poetical thoughts and images, in poems constructed like "The Task," or "The Pleasures of Hope," his readers would not have numbered one for a hundred; yet the accessary ninety-nine, attract ed by the seductive form in which he has actually appeared, firmly believe that they have all been regularly imbued with a taste for genuine poetry. The whole secret is, that Mr Scott gave to the world a series of brilliant romances, and turned into this newmade channel all who ever in their lives read and relished fictitious compositions. All the poets, good and bad, forthwith wrote metrical romancesfrom the time of Gertrude of Wyoming to that of Lalla Rookh; and to the exhibition of human passion and action in well-conceived plots and catastrophes, more than to any change in their mere poetry, is to be imputed that powerful stimulus which several of the masters of the present day have succeeded in applying to the formerlyrather-languid feelings of the public. There needs not the fine imagery, the exquisite metaphors, the delightful al lusions of genuine poetry to do this. There is no want of excitability in the multitude, by pathos skilfully ad ministered;-the electrical effects of sympathy in the theatre prove it: but these emotions are not imputable ne cessarily to the poetical form in which the popular sentiments are conveyed. A justly admired author has lately shewn, that this can be done in a very powerful manner in a prose narrative. It is impossible to work such effects by mere song, with all its imagery and all its eloquence. But so little is that excitement which the bulk of readers covet necessarily connected with poetry, that these read. ers have tired even of romances in a metrical form, and are regarding all their late rythmical favourites alike, with that sort of ingratitude with which repletion would lead them to regard a banquet when the dishes are removing from the table. But this is no proof that these great poets have forfeited their title to be admired. They are fixed orbs, which stand just where they did, and shine just as they were wont, although they seem to decline to the world which revolves the opposite way. But if the world will turn from the poet, whatever be his merit, there is an end of his popularity, inasmuch as the most approved conductor of the latter is the multitude, as essentially as is the air of the sound of his voice. Profit will also fail, from the lack of purchasers; and poetry, high as it may intrinsically seem, must fall, commercially speak ing, to its ancient proverbially unprofitable level. Yet poetry will still be poetry, however it may cease to pay; and although the acclaim of multitudes is one thing, and the still small voice of genuine taste and feeling another, the nobler incense of the latter will ever be its reward. Our readers will now cease to wonder, that an author like the present, who has had no higher aim than to regale the imagination with imagery, warm the heart with sentiment and feeling, and delight the ear with music, without the foreign aid of tale or fable, has hitherto written to a select few, and passed almost unnoticed by the multitude. With the exception of Lord Byron, who has made the theme peculiarly his own, no one has more feelingly contrasted ancient with modern Greece. The poem on the Restoration of the Louvre Collection has, of course, more allusions to ancient Rome; and nothing can be more spirited than the passages in which the author invokes for modern Rome the return of her ancient glories. In a cursory but graphic manner, some of the most celebrated of the ancient statues are described. Referring our readers with great confidence to the works themselves, our extracts may be limited. The Venus restored to Florence is thus apostrophized: There thou, fair offspring of immortal "Souls of the lofty! whose undying names Rouse the young bosom still to noblest aims; Oh! with your images could fate restore Your own high spirit to your sons once more; Patriots and heroes! could those flames return, That bade your hearts with Freedom's ar dours burn; Then from the sacred ashes of the first, burst! With one bright glance dispel th' horizon's gloom, With one loud call wake Empire from the tomb; Bind round her brows her own triumphal crown, Lift her dread Egis, with majestic frown, The poem more immediately before us is of much greater length, and, we are inclined to think, of higher merit than its predecessor. The measure is like the Spencerian, though different. The experiment was bold, but it has not failed in the author's hands; and the music is upon the whole good. We would willingly quote largely from this poem, but have already outwritten our limits. We have seldom been more delighted than we were with the first nine stanzas, and cannot resist giving the 8th and 9th. VUL "Where soft the sunbeams play, the zephyrs blow, "Tis hard to deem that misery can be nigh; Where the clear heavens in blue trans parence glow, Life should be calm and cloudless as the sky; -Yet o'er the low, dark dwellings of the "But thou, fair Attica! whose rocky bound All art and nature's richest gifts enshrined, Thou little sphere, whose soul-illumined round Concentrated each sunbeam of the mind; Who, as the summit of some Alpine height Glows earliest, latest, with the blush of day, Didst first imbibe the splendours of the light, And smile the longest in its lingering ray; Oh! let us gaze on thee, and fondly deem The past awhile restored, the present but a dream." The reader must have recourse to the poem for much that follows in the same strain. The following description is not exceeded, in that force and brilliancy of poetic painting which sets the object before us, by any poetry of the age; the passage is introductory to some fine allusions to the Elgin Marbles, which adds much to the elegance of the poem. LXXIV. "Still be that cloud withdrawn-oh! mark That fane, august in perfect symmetry, That round thee spread their deep ethe- And art o'er all thy light proportions throws The harmony of grace, the beauty of repose. And lovely o'er thee sleeps the sunny glow, reign, And on thy sculptures, as they smile, bestow Hues that the pencil emulates in vain. Then the fair forms by Phidias wrought, unfold Each latent grace, developing in light, Catch from soft clouds of purple and of gold, Each tint that passes, tremulously bright; And seem indeed whate'er devotion deems, While so suffused with heaven, so mingling with its beams. no LXXVI. But oh what words the vision may pour tray The form of sanctitude that guards thy shrine ? Ewing's Geography, 12mo, pp. 300; and Ewing's New General Atlas, roy. 4to. Edinburgh, Oliver & Boyd. THE attention paid to the study of Geography is one of the greatest improvements in the modern system of education. Children are now acquainted with the names and positions of the different quarters and countries of the globe, at an age when their parents had scarcely learned to read. It is a study in which they generally take pleasure. Their imagination delights to expatiate over distant regions, and their curiosity is naturally excited by whatever is peculiar to climates and countries different from their own. To give to this curiosity its due direction, and to impart such information as may at once interest and improve the juvenile mind, is a task which requires considerable judgment, and to facilitate which should be the principal object in elementary systems of geography. This object Mr Ewing professes to have had in view in the system now before us; and for the manner in which he has pursued it, he is entitled to the gratitude both of the students and teachers of that useful science. His plan we think judicious; and the information, which, with much industry, he has collected in his notes, cannot fail to be extremely useful, both in fixing the names of places more deeply on the pupil's memory, and in storing their minds with useful knowledge; while, by directing their attention to the proper objects of curiosity, it lays a broad foundation for their future improvement. The account of the Solar System, given in the Introduction, is correct and perspicuous, and is well elucidated by the accompanying notes. This part of the work we think particularly valuable. We know the difficulty of imparting to young pupils any accurate idea of the relative magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of the planets; yet, without some knowledge of these, geography cannot be properly understood. We know, too, that many who undertake to teach geography, are nearly as ignorant of the planetary system as their pupils; and to such persons the short but clear account of it given by Mr Ewing cannot fail to be extremely acceptable. To remove every difficulty out of the way of teachers who may not have had much experience, Mr Ewing has sketched out a method of instruction, which, being varied of course according to circumstances, may be found of considerable advantage. We approve highly of the plan of having a vocabulary at the end of the work, comprehending such names as are liable to be erroneously pronounced, divided, and accented, according to the usual mode of pronunciation. We should have liked, however, to see this vocabulary more copious :-in one or two instances the accent is improperly placed. In a work which comprises within so narrow a compass such a variety of materials, it is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid defects. There are some things of importance omitted which should have found a place, and some things inserted which might have been left out. These imperfections may be amended in a future edition.-As it is, the work is highly creditable to the industry and judgment of its author. A New General Atlas has been published by Mr Ewing to correspond with his Geography; and we can very confidently recommend it as by far the most elegant and accurate which we have seen on a similar scale. One decided advantage it possesses over all other atlasses now in use-the advantage of having the boundaries of the European territories accurately delineated, as settled by the Treaty of Paris and the Congress of Vienna. Harrington, a Tale; and Ormond, a Tale; in 3 vols. By MARIA EDGEWORTH, &c. London, Hunter, &c. 1817. Ir is a very common opinion, that when an author has continued to write long, he must either vary the nature of his subjects, or exhaust his invention; and be reduced to the necessity of repeating, in different forms, what he has said before, or of tiring his reader by dull and meagre productions, in the hope that his former celebrity may give them currency. We have heard fears expressed, that Miss Edgeworth might have written herself out; and that even her fertile pen might be able to produce nothing in future worthy of her well-earned reputation. For our own parts, we must take to ourselves the credit of saying, that we never en |