8o DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 



have since proceeded from him, may be said in the words he himself has 

 applied {torn. cit. p. 271) to the work of another labourer in a not distant 

 field : — " This is amodel paper for unbiassed observation, and freedom from 

 that pleasant mode oi swpiyjsmg instead oi ascertaining v^h&t is the true nature 

 of an anatomical element." ^ Indeed the study of this memoir, limited 

 though it be in scope, could not fail to convince any one that it proceeded 

 from the mind of one who taught with the authority derived directly from 

 original knowledge, and not from association with the scribes — a convic- 

 tion that has become strengthened as, in a series of successive memoirs, 

 the stores of more than twenty years' silent observation and unremitting 

 research were unfolded, and more than that, the hidden forces of the 

 science of Morphology were gradually brought to bear upon almost each 

 subject that came under discussion. These different memoirs, being 

 technically monographs, have strictly no right to be mentioned in this 

 place ; but there is scarcely one of them, if one indeed there be, that does 

 not deal with the generalities of the study ; and the influence they have 

 had upon contemporary investigation is so strong that it is impossible to 

 refrain from noticing them here, though want of space forbids us from 

 enlarging on their contents. ^ Moreover, the doctrine of Descent with 

 variation is preached in all — seldom, if ever, conspicuously, biit perhaps, 

 all the more effectively on that account. There is no reflective thinker 

 but must perceive that Morphology is one of the lamps destined to throw 

 light on the obscurity that still shrouds the genealogy of Birds as of other 

 animals ; and, though as yet its illuminating power is admittedly far from 

 what is desired, it has perhaps never shone more brightly than in Parker's 



^ It is fair to state that some of Parker's conclusions respecting Balieniceps were 

 contested by J. T. Reinhardt [Overs. K. D. Vicl. Selsk. Forhandlinger, 1861, pp. 135- 

 154 ; Ibis, 1862, pp. 158-175), and it seems to the present writer not ineffectually. 

 Parker replied to his critic [Ibis, 1862, pp. 297-299). 



^ It may be convenient that a list of Parker's principal works which treat of 

 ornithological subjects, in addition to the two above mentioned, should here be given. 

 They are as follows : — In the Zoological Society's Transactions — On the Osteology 

 of the Gallinaceous Birds and Tinamous, v. pp. 149-241 ; On some Fossil Birds from 

 the Zebbug Cave, vi. pp. 119-124 ; On the Osteology of the Kagu, vi. pp. 501-521 ; 

 On the iEgithognathous Bii-ds, Pt. I. ix. pp. 289-352, Pt. II. x. pp. 251-314. In the 

 Proceedings of the same Society — 1863, On the systematic position of the Crested 

 Screamer, pp. 511-518 ; 1865, On the Osteology oi Microglossa alecto, pp. 235-238. In 

 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society — 1865, On the Structure and 

 Development of the Skull in the Ostrich Tribe, pp. 113-183 ; 1869, On the Structure 

 and Development of the Skull of the Common Fowl, pp. 755-807 ; 1888, On the 

 Structure and Development of the Wing of the Common Fowl, pp. 385-398. In the 

 Linnean Society's Transactions— Oii the Morphology of the Skull in the Wood- 

 peckers and Wrynecks, ser. 2, Zoology, i. pp. 1-22 ; On the Structure and Development 

 of the Bird's Skull, torn. cit. pp. 99-154 ; 1891, On the Morphology of the Gallinacem. 

 In the Monthly Microscopical Jourrud for 1872, — On the Structure and Development 

 of the Crow's Skull, pp. 217-226, 253 ; for 1873, On the Development of the Skull in 

 the genus Turdus, pp. 102-107, and On the Development of the Skull in the Tit and 

 Sparrow Hawk, parts i. and ii., pp. 6-11, 45-50. In the Cunningham Memoirs of the 

 Royal Irish Academy, No. vi. (Dublin : 1890), On the Morphology of the Duck and 

 Auk Tribes. There is beside the great work published by the Ray Society in 1868, 

 A Monograph mi tlie Structure and Development of the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum, 

 of which pp. 142-191 treat of these parts in the Class Aves ; and the first portion of 

 the article ' Birds ' in the Encycl. Brit. ed. 9, iii. pp. 699-728. Nearly each of this 

 marvellous series is copiously illustrated by figures from drawings made by the author. 



