46 DICTION AR V OF BIRDS 



part of the subject later, there is here no need to say more of them. In 

 the following year another set of hints — of a kind so different that 

 probably no one then living would have thought it possible that they 

 should ever be brought in correlation with those of Nitzsch — are con- 

 tained in a memoir on Fishes contributed to the tenth volume of the 

 Annales du Museum d'histoire naturelle of Paris by Etienne Geoffroy St.- 

 Hilaire in 1807.^ Here we have it stated as a general truth (p. 100) 

 that young birds have the sternum formed of five separate pieces — one in 

 the middle, being its keel, and two " annexes " on each side to which the 

 ribs are articulated — all, however, finally uniting to foi'm the single 

 "breast-bone." Further on (pp. 101, 102) we find observations as to the 

 number of ribs which are attached to each of the " annexes " — there being 

 sometimes more of them articulated to the anterior than to the posterior, 

 and in certain forms no ribs belonging to ^one, all being applied to the 

 other. Moreover, the author goes on to remark that in adult birds 

 trace of the origin of the sternum from five centres of ossification is 

 always more or less indicated by sutures, and that, though these sutures 

 had been generally regarded as ridges for the attachment of the sternal 

 muscles, they indeed mark the extreme p)oints of the five primary bony 

 pieces of the sternum. 



In 1810 appeared at Heidelberg the first volume of Tiedemann's 

 carefully-wrought Anatomie und Naturgeschichte der Vogel — which shews 

 a remarkable advance upon the work which Cuvier did in 1805, and in 

 some respects is superior to his later production of 1817. It is, however, 

 only noticed here on account of the numerous references made to it by 

 succeeding writers, for neither in this nor in the author's second volume 

 (not published until 1814) did he propound any systematic arrangement 

 of the Class. More germane to our present subject are the Osteographische 

 Beitrdge zur Naturgeschichte der Vogel of Nitzsch, printed at Leipzig in 

 1811 — a miscellaneous set of detached essays on some peculiarities of the 

 skeleton or portions of the skeleton of certain Birds — one of the most 

 remarkable of which is that on the component parts of the foot (pp. 

 101 - 105) pointing out the aberration from the ordinary structure 

 exhibited by Caprimulgus (Nightjar) and Cypselus (Swift) — an aberration 

 which, if rightly understood, would have conveyed a warning to these orni- 

 thological systematists who put their trust in Birds' toes for characters on 

 which to erect a classification, that there was in them much more of 

 importance, hidden beneath the integument, than had hitherto been 

 suspected ; but the ■warning w^as of little avail, if any, till many years 

 had elapsed. However, Nitzsch had not as yet seen his way to proposing 

 any methodical arrangement of the various groups of Birds, and it was 

 not until some eighteen months later that a scheme of classification in 

 the main anatomical was attempted. 



This scheme was the work of Blasius Merrem, who, in a communica- 

 tion to the Academy of Sciences of Berlin on the 10th December 1812, 

 and i^ublished in its Abhandbmgen for the following year (pp. 237-259), 



1 In the Philosojohie Anatomique (i. pp. 69-101, and especially pp. 135, 136), 

 ■which appeared in 1818, Geoflfroy St.-Hilaire explained the views he had adopted at 

 greater length. 



