408 External Changes in Birds, 



utility could there be, what purpose could be effected, by 

 separate and distinct races of beings, created obviously in 

 direct relation to particular localities, being distributed into 

 even groups of a limited number, like the celebrated groves 

 of Blenheim, " nodding at each other ?" If the quinary 

 system be universal, as some would have, pervading all 

 creation, how is it that the stars and planets do not revolve in 

 groups of five ? Or why even do not animals mostly produce 

 their young by fives, or multiples of five ? The absurdity 

 is, indeed, too great to be dwelt on. If we examine, too, the 

 writings of even the most eminent advocates of this strange 

 theory, we continually meet (as might be expected) with 

 divisions apparently made for mere dividing sake, that the 

 requisite number of groups might be filled up ; and, on the 

 other hand, with examples equally glaring of the most dissi- 

 milar forms being brought under one general head, that the 

 same particular number should not be exceeded. Thus, in 

 Mr. Selby's in many respects very valuable and useful " Bri- 

 tish Ornithology" while the closely allied linnets and siskins 

 are placed in separate subfamilies, between the types of which 

 no supergeneric character of the least importance can be 

 descried, we find the buntings actually arranged in a sub- 

 family of which the larks are typical ; and, in another division, 

 of like value, among his Sylviadse, four genera (Parus, Ac- 

 centor, Setophaga, and Calamophilus) grouped together, which 

 have hardly a single character in unison that is not common 

 to the whole Dentirostres, and which, certainly, are but very 

 distantly allied. To adduce additional instances must be 

 superflous : a system which can admit of such very arbitrary 

 arrangements can have but a faint title indeed to be designated 

 the " only natural one." 



It is unnecessary now any longer to detain the attention of 

 the reader by further prefatory observations ; nor would it be 

 worth while here to offer any remarks on the progress of 

 plumification, the which might be better introduced as occa- 

 sion may require ; but I shall forthwith proceed to point out 

 what I conceive to be of very great importance towards the 

 classification of birds according to their true affinities, the 

 different changes of plumage and appearance to which various 

 groups of them are subject, confining myself, for the most 

 part, to those upon which I can speak quite positively, from 

 having myself had opportunities of witnessing them. On 

 this enquiry there is, indeed, hardly any guide to go by, but 

 direct personal observation ; for though, in the books the 

 greater number of these changes of appearance in the feathered 

 race have been often mentioned, it is seldom that the precise 



