THE OSPIIEY. 



169 



supials, it may be added, is not even an essen- 

 tial one, several Opossums, for example, being' 

 destitute of the appendage. 



Man was excluded not only from the class, if 

 Matumals, but from the Animal Kingdom! He 

 avers (p. 7) that •"there is not merely an innate 

 repugnance, but a disgust and abhorrence in 

 every human being", ignorant or enlightened, 

 savage or civilized, against the admission of 

 this relationship"! He asks (p. 74 1, "Does man, 

 then, stand as the sole representative of a Mam- 

 miferous order". He answers (p. 75), "Man is 

 entirely exclude:! irom the Primates I,., and 

 consequently from the entire circle of the animal 

 kingdom". 



This specimen of his "philosophy" and theo- 

 li igy will suffice. 



The five orders adopted in the volume were 

 Quadrumana, Ferae, Cetacea, CJngulata and 

 G-lires. Three of these were marred by the in- 

 trusion of Marsupials and Monotretnes, the 

 latter being thrust into the ""tribe" of the 

 "K lentates", which was. with gross impro- 

 priety, considered as a subdivision of Ingu- 

 lata. " 



Swainson th nig-ht that Megalonyx "affords a 

 beautiful link of connection between the Pachy- 

 dermes and Edentates". As a corollary follows 

 the proposition (p. 199): "The disi ovi i \ ol this 

 animal, in short, sets at rest the scruples of • 

 who have imagined that extinct animals formed 

 no part of the circular plan pursued in the crea- 

 tion of existing races". 



In the new volume he admits more than one 

 creation. Apropos of the extinct mammals of 

 the Eocene basin of Paris, he indulges in some 

 remarkable reasoning". 



He erroneously took it for granted that the 

 extinct fc r.ns were related to each other and 

 formed a natural group and assumed that they 

 "were semi-aquatic quadrupeds" and that "the 

 ploughed fields, the sultry plain, or the beaten 

 road, would have been certain death to these 

 water-loving" quadrupeds"; consequently, that 

 "they would have been utterly unserviceable to 

 the wants of man". The intense belief in the 

 subordination of Nature to Man then finds ex- 

 pression. The ancient animals were extermi- 

 nated mainly to make room for the Ruminants 

 and Man. but not entirely so! 



In estimating this work, it need only be re- 

 called that de Blainville, as far back as 1822. had 

 divided the class into two subclasses and, in 1834, 

 into three, the Monodelphes, Didelphes and 

 Ornithodelphes, and that classification still 

 stands. The order of Marsupials had been 

 adopted by all competent mammalogists for 

 some time. Swainson's ignorance of anatomy 

 and his contempt for its importance prevented 

 him from utilizing the data that had been 

 acquired. 



In 1835 Swainson lost his excellent wife. He 

 felt severely this bereavement: "No husband 

 could have been happier during- twelve years," 

 he exclaims. 



Swainson's next work was "On the Natural 

 History and Classification of Birds", which was 

 in two volumes and published in 1836 and 1837 

 respectively. A long history of ornithology 



was given and the groups considered from his 

 peculiar point of view. 



The birds constitute the second or "subtypi- 

 cal" class of vertebrates and are themselves 

 divided into five orders— a typical (Raptores), a 

 sttbtypical (Insessores). and three aberrant col- 

 lectively, however, representing another circle. 

 As an example of Swainson's graphic mode of 

 representation, his scheme of the major groups 

 of birds is exactly reproduced here from the end 

 of "Part iii" and [vol. 2. p. 200) opposite the com- 

 mencement of "Part iv. Synopsis of a Natural 

 Arrangement of Birds." The prime divisions 

 of all the orders except Insessores are desig- 

 nated as families: those of the Insessores as 

 tribes and each of the tribes is broken up into 

 five families. 



AVE3. 



Coly> r .fad& 



Tetraoilidae. 



iculopuiidiV. 



Charadriatttt 



His Insessores included almost all the true 

 Passerine birds and some of the Picarian. The 

 oscine or acromyodan and clamatorial or meso- 

 myodau forms were not at all distinguished, hut 

 completely intermixed and dispersed among the 

 unnatural tribes and families. 



The five tribes are subdivided into families 

 a s fi .] ]. iws: 



Tin- Dentirostres have Eaniada?, Merulidae 



= Turdidas], Sylviadae, Ampelida and Musci- 

 capidae. 



The Conirostres are Corvidae, Sturnidae, Frin- 

 gillidae, Musophagidae and Buceridae. 



The Scansores embrace Ramphastidae, Psitta- 

 cidae, Picidae, Certhidae and Cuculidae. 



The Tenuirostres are Meliphagida j , Cinny- 

 ridae, Trochilidae* Promeropidae and Paradis- 



id.i'. 



The Fissirostres are extended to Meropida;, 

 Halcyonidae, Trogonidae, Caprimulgidae and 

 Hirnndinidae. 



Most of these families are far from having 

 the same limits as those bearing the same names 

 nowadays. No demarcation was made between 

 the clamatorial and oscine birds; indeed, to get 



