SCIENTIFIC.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 237, 15 August 1872, Page 5

SCIENTIFIC.

The Home News has the following paragraph with reference to the position which this colony holds in the scientific world :—: — New Zealand may be congratulated on having outstripped the other Colonies in the race for scientific honors. Even Canada, with all the resources at her command, has proluced nothing at all comparble with the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. " Now we have before us something of a far more ambitious kind, namely, a complete life history of the birds of New Zealand, adapted to the present advanced state of ornithological science and most beautifully illustrated with colored plates. We learn from the prospectus that Dr Bull* r's work will comprise an introductory treatise on the ornithology of New Zealand, a concise diagnosis of each bird in Latin and English, synoptical lists of the nomenclature, and a popular history and description of all the known species, and will contain colored illustrations, by Keulemans, of all the more interesting or characteristic forms. It will be published in five parts, each containing not less than seven colored lithographs, compiising altogether about seventy figures of New Zealand birds. The general introduction and the index will be issued with the concluding part. The size will be large quarto ; price of each part 15s. Part I. ot this bo k, containing seventy-two pages of letter-press, has already appeared, and is now ready for issue to subscribers. Before the next mail leaves we hope to see a second part published. Meanwhile, we may state that Dr Buller's work has met with a most favorable reception in scientific quarters, and promises to reflect much credit on the colony which has produced it. Out of an edition of 500, nearly 350 copies are already subscribed for, "and the list includes nearly all the scientific men of note, and of some distinguished patrons of science. There is little doubt that before the last page of the book leaves the press, the who!e edition will have been subscribed for.