Mr. Bell on a new Genus of Igtianidee. ^05 



gra<lually encreasing knowledge of those which yet remain, may 

 at length be sufficient to indicate to us the harmony and perfec- 

 tion with which the grand whole was conceived and produced. 



It is only however by carefully examining and accurately re* 

 cording every isolated individual that may be discovered in our 

 researches, that any steps can be taken towards the attainment of 

 this, the grand object of every true Naturalist ; and in this point 

 of view every newly discovered species is of importance, especi- 

 ally when appearing in a form differing essentially from any 

 hitherto observed, although its immediate relations may not be 

 at once accurately defined or understood. There are in fact 

 occasionally seen certain deviations from any known groups of 

 animals, and from any forms with which we were before ac- 

 quainted, which claim even for a single species, a distinct place 

 in our attempts at arrangement : and if this separation he made 

 upon sufficient grounds, and with scientific views, it generally 

 happens that subsequent discoveries, by filling up the hiatus, 

 tend to establish such a distribution. It is Witli this impression 

 that I feel myself called upon to consider the subject of this 

 paper, as belonging to a separate type in point of structure, from 

 those with which, according to the strict rules, not of Linnaeus^ 

 but of Linneans, it would have been more closely associated. It 

 is not my intention to occupy a moment in endeavouring to esta- 

 blish the necessity of applying new generic terms to designate 

 those minor groups, or those new and distinct forms, whicli, in 

 the present State of zoological knowledge, crowed upon us at every 

 step : this has been already so well and so unanswerably done 

 with regard to ornithology by my friend Mr. Vigors, one of the 

 most enlightened zoologists in this country, as to render any farther 

 attempts unnecessary ; as the same arguments which "he has ad- 

 duced, in his own favourite department, are equally available in 

 every other. I would only observe, that, if there be in the whole 

 range of Zoological Science one department which requires this 

 kind of reform more than another, it is that to which my present 

 gfcrt)ject belongs, the J^Wf;p%5?d?«, namely, of Linnieus. 

 - Although therefore the species I am now about to describe 

 must be considered as belonging to the family of i^mnidcPy a 



