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XXII. Observations on the Natural Affinities that connect the 
Orders and Families of Birds. By Nicholas Aylward Vigors, Esg. 
M.A. F.L.S. Communicated by the Zoological Club of the 
Linnean Society. 
Read December 3, 1823. 
Ox looking back to the progress of zoology since it first began 
to be cultivated, it may be observed, that the steps by which it 
has advanced to its present comparative state of excellence have 
been more rapid within the last few years than during the entire 
period of its antecedent existence as a science. ‘The vast acces- 
sions which have been made to our knowledge of animal life 
within the present century by the zeal and industry of scientific 
travellers; the copious fields of investigation which have been 
opened to the naturalist by the extended relations of European 
commerce and colonization ; the assistance which has been afford- 
ed by the sister science of geology, in adding the remains of a 
former world to enrich the stores and supply the deficiencies of 
the present, have increased the materials of zoology to an extent 
which the most sanguine views of its earlier cultivators could 
scarcely have anticipated. But it is not so much in the addi- 
tional dignity which has been conferred on the science by this 
copious accumulation of facts and materials, that its improve- 
ment consists, as in the mode of investigation to which it gave 
rise, and the comprehensive views which it necessarily imparted. 
In the infancy of the science, the knowledge of individual spe- 
YOL. XIV. 3 F cies, 
