CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 5 



cussions respecting them will continue to be keenly engaged 

 in until men clearly perceive that instead of fighting in earnest, 

 they are merely beating the air. What is a genus ? " The first 

 collocation of species in a system." An order ? " The last or 

 most general group in a class." What constitutes a genus ? 

 " Certain palpable resemblances." But what are they I " Come, 

 let us go on, and you shall see." There is no need of quarrel- 

 ling about genera. Let us be courteous : what you call a 

 genus, allow me to consider as a family ; let it be a tribe with 

 another, and an order in the system of a fourth. No classifica- 

 tion of birds has ever been generally adopted ; and none has 

 stood for twenty years. And w^hy ? Because no system-maker 

 ever acquired a clear perception of all the phenomena of nature. 

 Without the wisdom of a Solomon, and the longevity of a 

 Methuselah, with many other advantages to boot, no ornitholo- 

 gist will ever arrange the ten thousand species which probably 

 exist in the world, in an order conformable to the plan of their 

 creation. Then let us just understand that all systems must 

 be arbitrary ; that a genus, if it be any thing at all, is some- 

 thing as shado\^y as one of Ossian's ghosts ; that a naturalist 

 who has studied birds, and described their structure, form, and 

 manners, adds to our knowledge, although he may not choose 

 to impose upon species the newest and most fashionable names ; 

 and that the first principle in the classification of natural ob- 

 jects is, that species alone exist in nature. 



It must be very obvious that to acquire a general knowledge 

 of birds, a person must examine many species, and not only 

 those that much resemble each other, but those that differ in 

 the greatest degree. Whether at one time, or at difterent 

 times, he must at some time look to the details of the internal 

 structure, inspect the outer parts, attend to the actions and 

 habits, and thus discover the faculties and relations of the ob- 

 jects. But many may be desirous of forming an acquaintance 

 with birds, without the hope, or even the desire, of inventing a 

 system, or of describing all the species of a country ; and some 

 may content themselves with studying a few, and with being 

 able to refer a particular bird to its place in a system or cata- 

 logue, to discover its name, and thus by reading its history as 



