484? Nomenclature in Systematical Arrangements. 



Plectrophanes nivalis ; secondly, Emberiza f nivalis ; and, 

 thirdly, Plectrophanes nivalis. In the latter instance, which 

 I conceive to be infinitely the best, Emberiza becomes a 

 family. Perdix and Zetrao appear equally entitled to the 

 same rank. " , ^V jj 97 £ •onrz/fiib vd ^\i fflo'il isri 



Touching all divisions, whether such really exist in nature, 

 or whether they are exclusively of our own inventing for 

 purposes of convenience, those now in use appear partly re- 

 ferable to nature, partly to human invention. As instances, 

 in Mammalia the union of cetaceous fishes with the genuine 

 tetrapods [quadrupeds], though borne out by a few decided 

 anatomical concords, has always appeared to me exceedingly 

 unnatural; for what, in those, has become of the hinder ex- 

 tremities, so constant in the terrene Mammalia ? Again, the 

 union of the marsupial animals, also, on a single anatomical 

 concord, appears excessively artificial. The class Birds ap- 

 pears natural; but the division Scansores, as resting on a 

 single character, appears artificial. AH this requires a 

 master's hand to remodel; it is a subject well worthy of Mr. 

 Jenyns's close attention. r'ytthw p.nvneL .*iM boH 



We find a number of birds alike in external appearance, 

 and alike in habit: that is, they eat the same food ; they fly 

 and run in the same manner; they build their nests in the 

 same places, and of the same materials ; they lay eggs of the 

 same shape and colour ; they seek each other in love ; they 

 reproduce their like, and their offspring again reproduce 

 their like; indeed, the same round of reproduction goes on 

 unaltered for ages, probably since the first creation of the 

 kind. Such a group is, properly speaking, a species ; and is, 

 I believe, universally admitted as such. When we find two, 

 three, four, or more of such species closely resembling each 

 other in the conformation of their characteristic and variable 

 parts, also in food, mode of running, flying, and nearly in 

 size (this last is of considerable importance), yet differing in 

 some slighter characters, as the disposition of colour, the 

 song, &c, then a group formed of these species is a genus : 

 as examples, Pringilla cce N lebs and Montifringilla ; Pringilla 

 domestica and montana. The willow wrens, and many other 

 little groups, are natural and decided divisions; and if genus 

 be, as I should think it ought to be, the next division after 

 species, then these are genera. Pringilla, iWotacilla, Embe- 

 riza, Xetrao, Perdix, jfVcrea, &c, are higher divisions, because 

 they each include six or eight such groups : these, then, are 

 families. A group of such families is an order, as Grallae, 

 Gallinae, &c. ; and a group of such orders a class, as A^ves. 



Allow me, Sir, in conclusion, to express a hope that our 



