14 Mr. Swain son on the Typical Perfection 



long, indeed, as the world of science is distinctly informed that 

 the arrangement of the one is the result of analysis, and that 

 of the others is theoretical, no mischief is done : on the con- 

 trary, the doubts which would be expressed upon the latter, 

 particularly by an able and candid writer, will frequently lead 

 to important discoveries. At all events, we should know how 

 to apportion our confidence ; which would certainly be greater 

 upon that group which had been analyzed, than upon those 

 which rested upon mere theory. The inventor of an artificial 

 system has no occasion to lay his reasons before the public ; 

 but those who propose natural arrangements are imperatively 

 bound to candour upon these points. Since no name, how- 

 ever great, no style, however persuasive, or no theory, how- 

 ever captivating, can be of the least weight when unsupported 

 by analysis. 



The consequences which have resulted from this anxious 

 desire to generalize, are no where more conspicuous than in 

 the existing arrangements of the Anatidse ; a family of birds 

 to which our attention has been recently directed, as form- 

 ing a considerable portion of the ornithological collections made 

 by Dr. Richardson, and described in the second volume of 

 the ' Northern Zoology,' now almost ready for publication. 

 This family, whose geographic range is chiefly in the temperate 

 and arctic latitudes, has long excited the attention of European 

 ornithologists. The species are numerous, and the modifica- 

 tions of form so many, that no one group of ornithology of 

 equal extent, except, perhaps, the Falconidffi, has been so 

 much divided into genera and sub-genera. Upon the value of 

 these minor divisions, there is, of course, much diversity of 

 sentiment, the inevitable consequence of an opinion almost 

 universal among naturalists, that nature knows no other defi- 

 nite distinctions than those which separate species. The truth 

 of this, however, has already been questioned * ; and it will be 

 my object, upon this occasion, to prove that the views of Mr. 

 Macleay, in regard to his definition of the term genus, (as 

 exemplified by him in those of ScarabcEus and Phanceus,) are 



* Mr. Macleay's Examination, &c. Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 406. 



