THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 105. SEPTEMBER 1856. 



XVIII. — Attempts at a Natural Arrangement of Birds. 

 By Alfred R. Wallace. 



If we examine the varied form and structure of Birds with a 

 view to their natural arrangement^ we see as it were intuitively, 

 that certain well-marked groups exist, which can be distinctly 

 separated from the class, can be easily defined, and will contain 

 species which are more nearly related to each other than to any 

 other birds. Such are the Swimmers and Waders, which together 

 may be called Water Birds, and of the propriety of the separation 

 of which from the whole of the Land birds there has never been 

 a difference of opinion among naturalists. Again, among land 

 birds the Accipitres or Baptores of naturalists, containing the 

 Hawks, Vultures, and Owls, form a well-marked group, all the 

 members of which are undeniably related among themselves, 

 but are separated as it were by a chasm from all other birds; 

 for we consider the supposed affinity of the Owls with the Goat- 

 suckers to be quite incorrect ; those birds resembling each other 

 only in a few unimportant particulars, while in all essential 

 points of structure they widely dififer. A third group which can 

 also be readily distinguished and separated from the rest, is that 

 of the Rasores or Gallinacese. The Pigeons are generally in- 

 cluded in this order ; but in that case a definition of Gallinacese 

 becomes impossible, as so many of their most marked pecu- 

 liarities do not exist in the Columbae. It is however extra- 

 ordinary, that though the Pigeons possess more characters which 

 connect them with Perching birds than with Rasores, yet it is 

 more easy to conceive their connexion by intermediate links with 

 the latter than with the former ; for it has never yet been pointed 

 out what particular family or genus of Perching birds makes the 

 least approach to a Pigeon. We therefore conceive that the 

 Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xviii. 13 



