90 



THE OSPREY. 



tion than the result of scientific deduction, but 

 a very h)n<c time must elapse before we can 

 realize a classificatioTi which is the best expres- 

 sion of niorpholo}4'ical facts. Meanwhile the 

 ccuiventional a^'reeuient in question, it appears 

 to me, will be the most convenient for all. 



I have little doubt that before the time comes 

 to combine the sii;natures of the new work in 

 volumes, the Ornithi>loffists' Union will have 

 modified their present classification. There is, 

 it is no secret, much difference of opinion 

 among- the members of the executive committee 

 respecting- various questions of taxonomy and 

 nomenclature, and the opinion of one of the 

 number maj' have a value outweig-hing- all the 

 others in some cases. Nevertheless, the weak 

 points of any one may be appreciated by several 

 better than by the one, and for that reason I 

 would be dispo.sed to adopt the verdict of the 

 majority as being as near right as any other 

 for the time being. I am aware that there are 

 and doubtless will remain weak points. For ex- 

 ample, the present sequence from the Auks to 

 the Thrushes is quite arbitrary, and is simply 

 the result of turning- upside down the old 

 scheme in which the Thrushes were placed 

 highest on account of a fanciful metaphysical 

 conception and assumption. Of course the 

 proper way to arrang-e the sequence would be to 

 determine what group is the most g-eneralized, 

 commence with that, and proceed onward by 

 approximation of those groups successively 

 most nearly related. I doubt, however, whether 

 ■we will obtain all the requisite data for such a 

 work in time to u.se them. 



.WINE OKDEHS. 



But there is one set of facts which we can 

 feel sure of ni>w, and which the American Or- 

 nitholog'ists' Union owes to itself and the scien- 

 tific community at large to attend to. The cat- 

 alogue of the Union preserves the old fashioned 

 "orders'" and "families" in its latest issue, in 

 spite of what the individual members must 

 know and realize. The attribution to the so- 

 called orders of birds of that rank is a sin 

 against classification, as well as the truth, which 

 should not be persisted in. It involves mis- 

 statements and wrong generalizations, which 

 give an entirely erroneous idea of the character 

 and relaticniship of the class under considera- 

 tion. The class is remarkable above all other 

 vertebrates for its intense morphological homo- 

 geneity, that is. clo.se resemblance to each other 

 in structure. The differences between the ex- 

 tremes of the living- species are less than those 

 between the g-roups of the reptilian orders of 

 turtles, or lizards, or serpents, or than those be- 

 tween the suborders of Primates (if we include 

 therein the Lemurs), or those of Carnivores or 

 Cetaceans. I would scarcely recognize any 

 orders among living birds — certainly not more 

 than two. It is questioned by some whether 

 we ought to recognize the Birds as a class, 

 a few, such as Cope, Steinmann and Dcklerlein, 

 regarding- the g'-roup as a niere division of 

 Sauropsids or reptiles; but, although I recognize 

 the slight differences, I am not prepared to deny 

 class rank to the feathered vertebrates. 



I have been told that we had to recognize 

 orders because there is no other category which 

 could be used for the groups so called. I would 



not pull down without an attempt to repair the 

 damage done thereby and therefore make a sug- 

 gestion. For provisional purposes, the orders 

 of most ornithologists niigrht be desig-nated as 

 suborders and the so-called suborders would 

 have about the value of superfamilies. The 

 superfamily is a category which I first u.sed for 

 aggreg'-ations of mammalian families of less 

 than subordinal value in 1871, and since then it 

 has been employed in the classification of many 

 orders and classes. In ornithology Stejneger 

 skilfully applied the superfamily as early as 

 1.S8.S. and almost all of his groups so designated 

 appear to me to be well restricted and therefore 

 worthy of retention. 



NATUKAI. SKI.KCTION ,4MONr, BIKDS. 



One of the most remarkable features in zool- 

 ogy is the manner in which nature has selected 

 from the hosts of birds which must have had their 

 day. I have heard the statement several 

 times that nature was limited in her .selection 

 by the exigencies of the case and that the par- 

 ticular type manifest in the living forms was 

 the o?ily one fitted by structure and environing 

 conditions for aerial life. The bats and the 

 pterodactyles as well as the Archa?opterygids 

 (tailed birds of the Jurassic age) and other 

 toothed birds are evidences of the potentiality 

 of nature, clearly demonstrate that she was not 

 confined to a special type of birds, and hint at 

 what might have been. Nevertheless, the cul- 

 mination of the type in the specialized class 

 which siu-yives, and further in the very special- 

 ized group of singing birds or Oscines shows 

 that the group is specially fitted for accommo- 

 dation to present conditions, A culmination of 

 like degree is seen in no other class of verte- 

 brates, and the development of the characteris- 

 tic in birds is therefore especially notc7Vortliy 

 and deserves to be expressed in the most promi- 

 nent manner possible. But, on the contrary, 

 every device seems to have been adopted to con- 

 ceal the truth. First, the primai"y divisions of 

 the class have been named orders (or even sub- 

 classes) and then the o.scine birds have been dis- 

 tributed among- numerous families. 



When we inquire what are the characters of 

 the orders, we find that they are distinguished 

 by superficial features only and those of very 

 slight value, such as, whether the legs are short 

 or long:, whether the toes are webbed or free, 

 whether the hind toe is connected with the in- 

 ner or not, and whether the bill is hooked or 

 straight. 



To appreciate the sliglit importance of such 

 characters, it is only necessary to pass in re- 

 view a good series, and we find the variation is 

 of such a nature that a character which is u.sed 

 for ordinal purpose may be manifest else- 

 where in the representative of another "order" 

 otherwise contrasting with it. For example, 

 two genera that may be related even, the Secre- 

 tary bird of Africa, generally referred to the 

 h'liptorfs. and the Seriema of South America, 

 usually referred to the Hi'iodiones. belong- 

 nearly as much to one order as the other; Ules- 

 ilfS resembles "the Helioiniihcs in its head, the 

 Penelopes and Curassows in body, and especial- 

 ly its wings, and the Pigeons in its feet," and 

 was placed by Gray, Bonaparte and Hartlaub 

 in the family Mcgapodiidcr and associated by 



