212 Recently j^ubUshed Ornithological Works, 



Gallinae, Geranomorphse, Limicolsej Gavise, Tubinares, He- 

 rocliones, Stenagopodes, Anseres^ Pygopodes, Impennes, 

 Crypturi, and Ratitae. This, we suppose, is a kind of com- 

 promise between the old Grayian system and the new scheme 

 based upon Huxley's ideas lately put forward in ' The Ibis ' 

 and elsewhere. Now, as we all know, it is impossible to 

 express the complications of natural affinities in a linear 

 series ; but we do not see that the transfer of the three (obvi- 

 ously allied) orders Herodiones, Steganopodes, and Anseres to 

 the lower position here assigned to them from that given to 

 them in the system just alluded to possesses any advantages. 

 At the same time it entirely destroys the symmetry of the 

 great Schizognathine series, into the middle of which these 

 Desmognathse are thus thrust. 



Again, we cannot understand Mr. Sharpens reasons for 

 rejecting the old-fashioned Linnean term Passeres. now 

 generally in use for the mighty army of " small birds." The 

 " Passeriformes " of Garrod and Forbes contain half the 

 families placed by Mr. Sharpe in the " Picariae,'' the other 

 half of the Picarians being designated " Piciformes" f. It is 

 quite a new and erroneous employment of the term " Passeri- 

 formes " to use it as an equivalent to Passeres. We trust, 

 therefore, that this very obvious error will not be persisted in. 



Mr. Sharpe does not, in the present arrangement, give 

 any subdivisions of his Passeriformes, i. e. Passeres. But as 

 he puts the non-Oscinine families at the end, we suppose 

 that he recognizes the value of the great discoveries of Johann 

 Miiller as regards the variation of the Passerine organs of 

 voice. Such being the case, it is manifestly incorrect to 

 place the Tyrannidse between the Dendrocolaptidae and the 

 Formicariidse. The two last-named groups and the nearly 

 allied Pteroptochidse are the only known families of birds 

 that possess the very singular structure of the lower larynx 

 denominated by Miiller " tracheophonine," and must be kept 

 together by all those who in any way recognize the employ- 

 ment of the variations of laryngal structure in the classifi- 

 cation of the Passeres. 



* See P. Z. S. 1874, p. 21.5, 



