TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, 



I. Remarks on the Comparative Anatomy of certain Birds of Cuba, 

 with a view to their respective Places in the System of Nature 

 or to their Relations with other Animals. By W. S. MacLeay, 

 Esq., M.A., F.L.S. Communicated by the Zoological Club of 

 the Linnean Society. 



Read Nov. 21, 1826; and April 17, 1827. 



1 HE daj'^ is now happily gone past when zoologists thought 

 that the infinite variety of animals which inhabit this globe 

 owed their origin to the unsuccessful efforts of Nature before 

 she could attain the human structure as her term of perfection. 

 Nor is the grand object of comparative anatomy now conceived 

 to be the reference of every animal structure to man, — a mode 

 of viewing Nature that tends to point out distinctions rather 

 than affinities, — but to be the formation of such a collection of 

 recorded facts of comparative organization, as may determine 

 in some degree the use of the various organs ; and above all, 

 may lead us to the better knowledge of the natural arrangement 

 of the animal kingdom. For comparative anatomy, indepen- 

 voL. XVI. B dently 



