THE work now before us was published in periodical numbers, and was at first intended to be comprized in four volumes containing about 100 plates. These it was supposed would be sufficient to comprehend all the more common and abundant British fishes, together with a selection of such of the rarer species as the author by his own exertions and through the medium of his friends should, be able to procure. The undertaking met with that encouragement from the public which it well deserved, in consequence of which Mr. Donovan resolved to enlarge his original plan by a fifth volume in which should be included all the subjects of which the Ichthyology of Britain is composed. In the mean time however new acquisitions crowded in so fast, that the author, not chusing to trespass further on the indulgence of his subscribers, found himself after all obliged to make a selection; in doing which he has wisely determined to omit a few of the commonest and best known species, that thereby room might be afforded for the introduction of the rarer and most recently discover

ed.

In order to compose a work truly worthy of public favour, and free from the errors which in various instances preceding writers had fallen into, Mr. Donovan resolved to introduce no species that he had not an opportunity of himself describing from nature, and that no labour or expence should be spared in making the drawings from live or at least unstuffed specimens, there being no other class of natural objects that lose so much of their charateristic colours even by a very short exposure to the

air,

Besides the more agrecable oc cupation of describing and figuring the several species as they presented themselves to his notice, there devolved on the author the ungrateful though very necessary duty of criticising his predecessors, and pointing out the instances in which they have erred either from misinformation or carelessness. This trying task Mr. D. has performed, in our opinion, so as to entitle him to great praise for his knowledge, acuteness and good manners: he never goes out of his way to bring an accusation, but whenever the representations of other writers contradict his own observations, he states the difference in a plain manly way, leaving the decision to the good sense and experience of his reader.

A work composed of such materials, and in such a spirit, can never loose its value, and we doubt not that the elegant volumes now before us will be looked upon by every competent judge as worthy of a place among the classics of Natural History.

We proceed to point out to the reader a few of the principal arti

cles.

Centriscus scolopax, the Snipe or Trumpet-fish now for the first time makes its appearance as a native of the British sea, two instances having recently occurred of its capture on the coast of Devonshire and Cornwall.

Cyclopterus Montagui. This is a beautiful and very minute species discovered on the Southern coast of Devonshire by Mr. Montague, and communicated by him to Mr. Donovan. It bears a nearer re semblance to C. liparis than to any other known species, but in the separation of the two posterior

fins from the tail, and especially in the structure of its sucker, it exhibits characters that decisively entitle it to rank as a new species. Labrus Cornubius; this beautiful but very rare British fish was discovered on the coast of Cornwall by Mr. Jago, who communicated a drawing of it to Ray, by whom it was inserted in his synopsis of fishes. It does not appear to have fallen under the personal inspection of any naturalist since that period except Mr. D., who recently procured a fine specimen taken off the Lizard point in Cornwall, from which the present figure and des. cription were taken.

Sparus Dentex this fish was caught in the spring of 1805, at Hastings, and transmitted to Mr. D. which is the first known instance of its inhabiting the British seas.

Labrus Tinea. From an examination of several species of this beautiful fish Mr. D. has satisfactorily proved that the Ballan Wrasse of Pennant is not a distinct species but merely a variety of the above.

Pleuronectes Flesus. The figure here given is very instructive, representing a variety often taken in the Thames, partly brown and partly rose coloured, which together with Mr. D's own observations on the identical specimen from which Dr. Shaw drew up the description of his Pleuronectes roseus, shews that this supposed new species is only a variety of the common flounder.

White-Bait. The observations of Mr. Donovan with respect to this hitherto doubtful species are very satisfactory. After stating the descriptions given of it by Mr. Pennant, Dr. Shaw, and Dr.Turton, he thus proceeds.

"Our observations commenced with stating the white bait to be the genuine offspring of the shad, and consequently of the clupea, instead of cyprinus genus;

as the preceding authors consider it. This we shall have little difficulty in determining. To speak with indecision on oubt is needless: when we deliver an opia point that admits of not the slightest nion merely, it is becoming to express it with diffidence ; but indecision and diffidence are misapplied to matters removed beyond the possibility of doubt, and such is the fact exactly with regard to the white-bait. "Every circumstance considered, we can. not avoid concluding, that much of the prevailing errors respecting the white-bait has originated from the incautious observ. ations of Mr. Pennant on this subject; that this author never saw the white-bait: and that succeeding naturalists, too impli citly relying upon his observations, have been inadvertently precipitated into those errors which the most casual examination of the fish in question would have enabled them to detect. If, however, contrary to this suggestion, Mr. Pennant ever did exa mine the fish, his specimens must have been either in a most imperfect state, or his inves tigation of it unpardonably hasty and negli gent. His figure conveys no just idea of the fish, and his critical animadversions are laboriously intricate and defective. He white bait" neither belongs to the shad tells us, among other particulars, that the nor the sprat, as is evident from the num ber of branchiostegous rays, which in those are eight, in this (the white-bait) only three." This remark is incorrect: the branchiostegous rays were uniformly eight in number in at least fifty specimens we examined, with a view of ascertaining the fact exactly. The fish represented in our plate as just emerging above the sur face of the water to seize its prey, has the gill membrane expanded, in order to ren der those branchiostegous rays apparent. The number of those rays determines at once that it cannot be of the Cyprinus genus, which is distinguished by having only three such rays, instead of eight.—Mr. Pennant further remarks, that it is impossible to class this fish with certainty;" but in what respect this ambiguity consists it is not easy for us to say. The whitebait certainly possesses every criterion cf the species, as evidently as the parent, or full grown fish. Its outline is the same, the fins are alike; it exhibits the same serrations on the abdomen, and cleft on the snout; and what is even remarkable in a fish of this small size, the lateral range of

dusky spots are perceptible through the beautiful silver scales, as in the larger fish. It exhibits in a word a most perfect but diminished figure of the common shad, not a solitary character excepted."

Squalus Cornubicus. In this article it is shown that the Porbeagle Shark and the Beaumaris Shark are the same; the opinion that they were distinct species having arisen from the figure given by Mr. Pennant, which differs materially from the original drawing sent to him by

Mr. Davies, who has since communicated the very same drawing to Mr. Donovan.

Raja Radiata, a new and hitherto undescribed species of Ray caught on the North coast of Britain, aud now in the possession of Mr. D.

Pleuronectes variegatus,-a new species, taken in the year 1807, differing from the common Sole in its variegated colour and much larger scales.

THE reputation of the Linnæan Society, in consequence of the meritorious labours of its members, is now so high, that we consider ourselves as bestowing no mean praise on the volume before us, when we say, that it is worthy of the illustrious body whence it has originated. We shall, therefore, without further preface, lay before our readers as full a detail of its various contents as our plan will admit of, and the respective merits of the several memoirs appear to claim.

1. The genus Apion of Herbst's Natursystem considered, its Charicters laid down, and many of the Species described. By the Rev. Willium Kirby, F. L. S.

There is a large tribe of minute coleopterous insects, which in their perfect state are found more or less on almost every leafy vegetable, and are characterized by a projecting rostrum, into which the antennæ are inserted. Of these insects Linnæus composed his genus Curculio, with the exception of a few species, which he transferred to that of Atelabus. But as the number of species thus circumstanced has by recent observers been increased to a very great degree, and as certain differences in the forms of their antennæ, together with other distinguishing characters, are sufficiently obvious, it

is both more convenient, and, on the whole, more consonant to nature, to consider with Fabricius the Linnæan character of Curculio as indicating rather an order than a genus. Influenced by these considerations, Herbst has separated from the Linnæan Curculiones a' considerable number of species, which he has erected into a new gcnus, named by him Apion. The characters of this genus have not, however, been laid down by its inventor with all the requisite precision; and, as Mr. Kirby has of late paid much attention to the Curculiones and their cognate genera, and has moreover added many species of his own discovery, he has undertaken in the present elaborate memoir a particular inquiry into the characters both of the genus and of the specics of which it is com. posed,

Mr. Kirby considers the genus Apion as intermediate between Curculio and Atelabus, excluding from the former every species, the antennæ of which are not broken, that is, the ten last joints of which do not form an angle with the first, which is also by far the longest. The following is the excellent summary given by Mr. K. of the essen tial, artificial and natural characters of this genus.

Marille sub rostri apice
insertæ, retractæ, bre-
vissima, si plices, in-
curvæ, acutæ.
Lingua, unà cum valvulis

pa pisque quatuor, intra
rostrum latitans haud
conspicua.
Antenna rostro insidentes capi-
tatæ, nitidiusculæ, pilosulæ,
11-articulata: articulis duo-
bus baseos crassioribus; pri-
mo clavato elongatiori, se-
cundo conico, proximis sex
brevissimis æqualibus ex co-
nico rotundatis seu subturbi-
natis, ultimis tribus majori-
bus, arctissimè connexis ca-
pitulum ovato-lanceolatum
acutum formantibus.
Oculi laterales, rotundi, con-
vexi, reticulati.

Nucha glaberrima, retractilis. Gula tumidula, glaberrima, retractilis.

TRUNCUS angustus, teretiusculus. Thorax, trunci dorsum, punctu latissimus.

Pectus, trunci pars prona antica, suturâ nullâ a thorace distinctum.

Sternum acutum integrum, inter

Pedes elongati, cursorii, ante-
riores intermediis, interme
dii posterioribus sub-bre-
viores: apophysi seu cox
biarticulatæ; articulo primo
conico majori, secundo ob
conico minori, insidentes;
anteriores duo seu manus
pectori inserti antrorsum
tendunt, posteriores autem
quatuor ex epigastrio prove.
nientes anum versùs.
Femora clavata.

Tibia subcompressæ, tenues, a
basi sensim crassiores, apice
inermes.

Tarsi omnes 4-articulati, subtus pulvinati:articulis duobus pri mis conicis, penultimo majori obcordato bifido, ultimo minuto ascendente glabro unguiculato: unguiculis duobus incurvis.

Scutellum minutissimum, subtri angulare.

Elytra rigida, acuta, convexa, sulcata vel striata: striis exterioribus et interioribus sæ piùs posticè confluentibus. Ala membranaceæ, corpore longiores, transversè plicatæ: plicis tribus; anticè binervia: nervulis longitudinali bus, basi et apice approxi matis.

ABDOMEN Ovatum: segmentis 5 seu 6; duobus anticis majoribus, intermediis angustissimis, ultimo longiori acuto.

Obs.-Mas vix a feminâ differt, nisi rostre breviori et paulò crassiori.

LARVA apoda, anticè subtus loco pedum tuberculis tribus utrique instructa, mollis, annulata, plicatu*.

The rest of the paper is occupied by a detailed description of 60 species, many of which are new, accompanied by critical observations worthy of the elaborate accuracy of the learned author.

2. Description of several marine Animals found on the South Coast of Devonshire, By George Montague, Esq. F. L. S.

The Ornithological Dictionary, the Testacca Britannica, and various excellent papers in the former volumes of the Linnæan Transactions, evince the diligence and accuracy of Mr. Montague, and his successful researches into several departments of British zoology. Having applied himself particularly to the study of living animals in their native situatious, he has been enabled to correct the errors of former naturalists, and to add to the common stock a large collection of new, curious, and important discoveries. The present memoir is an additional proof of active and well directed investigation, and of the rich haryest which yet awaits the researches of British naturalists in their own country. It contains the following new species, described from the living animals, and illustrated by well executed figures; together with other known species, now for the first time ascertained to be natives

of the British shores. Cancer tumefactus

denticulatus

Cancer Astacus subterraneus

stellatus gibbosus.

Ampitrite infundibulum
Terebella tentaculata
Nereis pinnigera
Holothuria pentactes.

If we take into consideration the magnitude and beauty of the animal, the most remarkable of these new species is the Amphitrite infundibulum, the description of which we shall extract as a specimen of the whole.

"Body long; joints numerous, distant, of an orange colour annulated with whitish; fasciculi very small; branchiæ ob

scure at the base of the tentacula a scalloped membrane tentacula two, semicircular when spread, and nearly uniting into a regular circle; these are each composed of about thirty-seven rays, connected by a transparent web, except at the points, which turn a little inwards; the outside of and of a purple colour, darkest at the tips these singularly beautiful arms is smooth, of the rays, the inside is most elegantly ciliated with two rows of fimbriæ along each ray, of a chesnut colour shaded to a purple near the centre: mouth purple, the lips bordered with chesnut.

"This animal is capable of the most