INTRODUCTION 75 



sternum of Birds {Ann. Sc. Nat. Zoologie, ser. 4, vi. pp. 5-15). The con- 

 siderations are not very striking from a general point of view ; but the 

 author adds to the weight of evidence which some of his predecessors had 

 brought to bear on certain matters, particularly in aiding to abolish the 

 artificial groups " Deodactyls," " Syndactyls " and " Zygodactyls," on 

 which so much reliance had been placed by many of his countrymen ; 

 and it is with him a great merit that he was the first apparently to 

 recognize publicly that characters drawn from the posterior part 

 of the sternum, and particularly from the " echancrures," commonly 

 called in English " notches " or " emarginations," are of comparatively 

 little importance, since their number is apt to vary in forms that 

 are most closely allied, and even in species that are usually associated 

 in the same genus or unquestionably belong to the same Family,^ while 

 these " notches," sometimes become simple foramina, as in certain Pigeons, 

 or on the other hand foramina may exceptionally change to " notches," 

 and not unfrequently disappear wholly. Among his chief systematic 

 determinations we may mention that he refers the Tinamous to the Rails, 

 because apparently of their deep " notches," but otherwise takes a view of 

 that group more correct according to modern notions than did most of his 

 contemporaries. The Bustards he would place with the " Limicoles," as 

 also Dromas (Crab-Plover) and Chionis, (Sheathbill). Phaethon (Tropic- 

 bird) he would place with the " Larides " and not with the " Pelecanides," 

 which it only resembles in its feet having all the toes connected by a web. 

 Finally Divers, Auks and Penguins, according to him, form the last term 

 in the series, and it seems fit to him that they should be regarded as form- 

 ing a separate Order. It is a curious fact that even at a date so late as 

 this, and by an investigator so well informed, doubt should still have 

 existed whether Apteryx should be refeiTed to the group containing the 

 Cassowary and the Ostrich. On the whole the remarks of this esteemed 

 author do not go much beyond such as might occur to any one who had 

 made a study of a good series of specimens ; but many of them are 

 published for the first time, and the author is careful to insist on the 

 necessity of not resting solely on sternal characters, but associating with 

 them those drawn from other parts of the body. 



Three years later in the same journal (xi. pp. 11-145, pis. 2-4) M. 

 Blanchard published some Becherches sur les caraderes osMologiques des 

 Oiseaux appliquees a la Classification naturelle de ces animaux, strongly 

 urging the superiority of such characters over those drawn from the bill or 

 feet, which, he remarks, though they may have sometimes given correct 

 notions, have mostly led to mistakes, and, if observations of habits and 

 food have sometimes afi'orded happy results, they have often been decep- 

 tive ; so that, should more be wanted than to draw up a mere inventory 

 of creation or trace the distinctive outline of each species, zoology without 

 anatomy would remain a barren study. At the same time he states that 

 authors who have occupied themselves with the sternum alone have often 



■^ Thus he cites the cases of Machetes jpugyiax and Scolopax nisticula among the 

 "Limicoles," and Larus cataractes among the "Larides," as differing from their 

 nearest allies by the possession of only one "notch" on either side of the keel (c/. 

 suprd, page 4^). 



