INTRODUCTION gj 



Turdoid Passeres," having a wing witli ten primaries, the first of which 

 is always more or less markedly reduced in size, and to this 21 Families 

 are allotted ; B. "Tanagroid Passeres," having a wing with nine primaries, 

 the first of which is fully developed and usually very long, and contain- 

 ing 1 Families ; and C. " Sturnoid Passeres," having a wing with ten 

 primaries, the first of which is " rudimentary," with only 4 Families. 

 The remaining Families, 10 in number, which are not normally 

 acromyodian are grouped as Series D. and called " Formicaroid Passeres." 

 In The Ibis for 1880 (pp. 340-350, 399-411) Mr. Sclater made a 

 laudable attempt at a general arrangement of Birds,^ trying to harmonize 

 the views of ornithotomists with those taken by the ornithologists who 

 only study the exterior ; but, as he explained, his scheme is really that 

 of Huxley reversed,^ with some slight modifications mostly consequent 

 on the recent researches of Parker and of Garrod, and (here may be 

 added) a few details derived from the author's own extensive knowledge 

 of the Class. Adopting the two Subclasses Carinatse and Ratitae, he 

 recognized 3 "Orders" as forming the latter and 23 the former — 

 a number far exceeding any that had of late years met with the ap- 

 proval of ornithologists. First of them comes the Passeres, of which 

 Mr. Sclater would make four Suborders :— (1) the Acromyodi normales of 

 Garrod under the older name of Oscines, to the further subdivision of 

 which we must immediately return ; (2) under Huxley's term Oligomyodi, 

 all the Haploophonse, Heteromeri and Desmodactyli of Garrod, compre- 

 hending 8 Families — Oxyrhamphidse,^ Tyrannidse, Pipridse, Gotingidse, 

 Phytotomidse, Pittidse,^ Pldlepittidse, and Eurylsemidse ; * (3) Tracheophonae, 

 containing the same groups as in the older scheme, but here combined 

 into 3 Families only — Dendrocolaptidse, Formicariidee and Pteivptochidse ; ^ 

 and (4) the Acromyodi abnormales of Garrod, now elevated to the rank of 

 a Suborder and unhappily called Pseudoscines. With regard to the 

 Acromyodi normales or Oscines, Mr. Sclater takes what seems to be the 

 only reasonable view, when he states that they " are all very closely 

 related to one another, and, in reality, form little more than one group, 

 -equivalent to other so-called families of birds," going on to remark that 

 as there are some 4700 known species of them "it is absolutely necessary 

 to subdivide them," and finally proceeding to do this nearly on the 

 method of Sundevall's Tentamen, merely changing the names and position 

 of the groups in accordance with a plan, of his own set forth in the 

 Nomenclator Avium Neotrop)icalium, which he and Mr. Salvin printed in 

 1873, making, as did Sundevall, two divisions (according as the hind 

 part of the " tarsus " is plated or scaled), A. Laminiplantares and B. 

 Scutiplantares — but confining the latter to the Alaudidae alone, since the 

 other Families forming Sundevall's Scutelliplantares are not Oscinine, nor 



^ An abstract of tliis was read to the British Association at Swansea in the same 

 year, and may be found in its Report (pp. 606-609). 



^ A matter of no moment whatever, provided that the ascending or descending 

 order be preserved throughout, and not intermixed as slovenly writers are wont. 



** Not recognized by Garrod. 



* To these Mr. Sclater has now ( Cat. B. Br. Mus. xiv. p. 2) added Forbes's Xeniddie. 



® Mr. Sclater has since admitted {op. cit. xv. p. 2) the Coriopophagidm of Garrod 

 .{Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 452). 



