236 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



The true Sjstematist is the greatest of them, and amongst the greatest of 

 men, but comes, unfortunately, very rarely ; scarcely more than one in a cen- 

 tury. All men, or nearly so, seem capable of analysis, but true talent for 

 generalization or synthesis is one of the rarest and most precious of the 

 gifts of God. Inferences and occasional insights are accorded even to the 

 most humble, but in all those beautiful and sublime Sciences which have 

 their immediate origin in the observation of Nature, generalizations of any 

 considerable value, or the inference of laws, are not easy nor likely to be pro- 

 claimed with any flippant dogmatism, The true and faithful man of genius 

 is too surely appalled by the immensity of attempting, as Gcethe happily ex- 

 presses it, " to think over again the great thoughts of the Creator." 



The works of Prof. P. L. S. Miiller seem to have been much overlooked in 

 later times, though he was evidently well known, and is cited freely by his 

 contemporaries.* He is quite a voluminous author and translator, though 

 few of his works relate to Ornithology, those being, so far as I know, only 

 such as are cited at the head of this paper, and especially his edition of the 

 Systema Naturae. His Supplemental Volume of this edition contains a large 

 number of descriptions of species, generally abridged from other authors, 

 and binomial names given for the first time. Throughout his edition Prof. 

 Miiller avails himself largely of Van Houttyn's fine edition of the Systema 

 Naturae, from which he copies nearly all his plates, and also of Boddaert's 

 abridgement of the same, and from both of which (in the Dutch language) 

 he freely translates. The latter is his main authority for his additional spe- 

 cies. To the former I shall have occasion to allude in a future paper, but 

 Boddaert's abridgement I must here further mention, on account of its imme- 

 diate connexion with Prof. Midler's Supplementary Volume. 



In 1772, Dr. P. Boddaert commenced in Holland the publication of an 

 abridgement of the Systema Naturae of Linna?us, under the title " Kortbegrip 

 van het Zamenstel der Natuur, van der Heer C. Linnseus, met zeer veele 

 zoorten vermeerdert door P. Boddaert Med. Doct.," of which I have seen one 

 volume only, of 550 pages, octavo, containing the classes Mammalia and 

 Aves. In this work Dr. Boddaert gives all of the species of Quadrupeds and 

 Birds contained in the twelfth edition of the " Systema Naturae, " with the 

 scientific names of Linnaeus carefully stated, and with abridged descriptions 

 in the Dutch language. He adds to those Linnaean species many others, 

 mainly from Edwards, Catesby and Buffon, but especially the last named, 

 citing constantly " Buff. Hist. Nat. Ois," the volume and page frequently, and 

 always the plate of that distinguished author's great work universally known 

 as "Planches Enlumine:es." To the species added by him he does not (in 

 this work) give scientific names, but contents himself with popular names 

 only, which are generally translations into Dutch of those given by other 

 authors, and especially of the French names of Buffon. 



It may not be improper to state, though without immediate connection 

 here, that subsequently, in 1783, Dr. Boddaert gave scientific names himself 

 to many of the species described and figured by Buffon, and of which he had 

 previously given condensed descriptions in his " Kortbegrip." The title of 

 this subsequent work is "Table des Planches Enlumineez d'Histoire Natur- 

 elle de M. D'Aubenton. Avec les denominations de MM. de Buffon, Brisson, 

 Edwards, Linnaeus et Latham, precede d'une Notice des Principaux Ouvrages 

 Zoologiques enluminees, par M. Boddaert, Med. Doct." Utrecht, 1783, 1 vol., 

 small folio, 83 pages. Many of the names proposed by him in this work, and 

 which are now generally adopted, are anticipated by those of Prof. Miiller. 



In 1773, the author now before us, Professor Philipp Ludwig Statius Miiller, 



* Donndorff, Zoologische Beytriige, Leipzig 1795, constantly gives " Miiller Natursyst." as his 

 first authority. Cite;l also constantly in Martini's ' : Allgemeine Geschichte der Natur," in Mar- 

 tini and Otto's edition of Buffon, in Goeze's " Europaische Fauna," and hy various other authors. 



[Oct. 



