no DICTION AR Y OF BIRDS 



hangers-on about the character of which there can any longer be room to 

 hesitate, there can be little risk in setting them apart. Next comes a 

 category of groups in which differentiation appears not to have been 

 carried so far, and, though there may be as little doubt as to the associa- 

 tion in one Order of the greater number of forms commonly assigned to 

 each, yet there are in every case more or fewer outliers that do not well 

 harmonize with the rest. Here we have such groups as those called 

 Fygojjodes, Gavise, Limicolse, Gallinx, Columbse, Anseres, Herodiones, 

 Steganopodes and Accipitres. Finally it has been sought to establish two 

 groujjs of types presenting characteristics so diverse as to defy almost any 

 definition, and, if it were not almost nonsense to say so, agreeing in little 

 more than in the differences. These two groups are those known as 

 Picarix and Aledorides ; but, while the majority of Families or genera 

 usually referred to the former plainly have some features in common, the 

 few Families or genera that have been clubbed together in the latter make 

 an assemblage that is quite artificial, though it may be freely owned that 

 with our present knowledge it is impossible to determine the natural 

 alliances of all of them.^ 



That our knowledge is also too imperfect to enable systematists 

 successfully to compose a phylogeny of Carinate Birds, and draw out 

 their j^edigree, ought to be sufficiently evident. We can point to some 

 forms which seem to be collaterally ancestral, and among them perhaps 

 some of those which have been referred to the group ^^ Aledorides" just 

 mentioned ; and, from a consideration of their Geographical Distribution 

 and especially Isolation, it will be obvious that they are the remnants of 

 a very ancient and more generalized stock which in various parts of the 

 world have become more or less specialized. The very case of the New- 

 Caledonian Rhinochetus (Kagu), combining features which occasionally 

 recall the Eurypyga (Sdn-Bittern), and again present an unmistakable 

 likeness to the Limicolse, or the Eallidee, shews that it is without any very 

 near relation on the earth, and, if convenience permitted, would almost 

 justify us in placing it in a group apart from any other, though possessing 

 some characteristics in common with several. 



If we trust to the results at which Huxley arrived, there can be 

 little doubt as to the propriety of beginning the Carinate Subclass with 

 his Dromseogyiathce, the Crypturi of Illiger and others, or Tinamous, for 

 their resemblance to the Ratitse is not to be disputed ; though it must be 

 borne in mind that their mode of development is not known, and that 

 this may, when made out, seriously modify their position ; but of the 

 sufficient standing of the Crypturi as an Order there can hardly be a 

 question." 



1 It should have been stated (page 9) that this heterogeneous assemblage called 

 an "Order" by Temuiinck, was adapted from Illiger's Family of the same name 

 founded in 1811, and then including in addition Cereopsis ; but in neither group was 

 there a siugle Cock-like bird. The Alectrides of Dumeril in 1806 consisted of the 

 Bustards and Gallinx. 



2 We have seen that Huxley would derive all other existing Carinate Birds from 

 the Drommognatliee ; but of course it must be understood in this, as in every other 

 similar case, that it is not thereby implied that the modern representatives of the 

 Dromseognathous type (namely, the Tinamous) stand in the line of ancestry. 



