OUTLINE 



OF A 



SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF THE CLASS OF BIRDS. 



BY PROFESSOR W. LILLJECORG, OF UI^ALA. 

 [From proceedings of Zoological Society of London, for January, 1SG6.] 



[The following article is believed to present the later views of some of the best systematic 

 ornithologists in reference to the classification and arrangement of the higher divisions of birds, 

 such as have been adopted in the main by the highest authorities. It is essentially the same 

 as has been followed in the recent rearrangement of the mounted birds in the museum of 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



The article, as written in the original Swedish, was translated some years ago by Professor 

 Jillson, then of the United States Patent Office, for publication in the annual report of the 

 Institution, but the MSS. was mislaid in the hands of a gentleman to whom it was intrusted 

 for the purpose of revision, and never found. The present paper is of later date, and pre- 

 sented in an English dress to the Zoological Society of London, early in ]866, by the author. 

 The tables, originally in Latin in this communication, have Ijeen translated into English by 

 Professor Gill. — J. Hexuv.J 



LITERATURE. 



We may particularly mention Chr. L. Nitzsch,* C. J. Siindevall.t G. R. 

 Gray, I J. Cabauis,§ a;id C. L. Bonaparte,|| among tliose that of late years have 

 devoted their attention to the classification of birds. John Mliller ^ has given 

 an important contribution to this classification by his treatise on the apparatus 

 of singing in the larynx inferior in a great number of Passeres. 



The contribution given by Nitzsch certainly contains only a very short and 

 incomplete review of the class of birds ; but it has, notwithstanding, a particu- 

 lar scientific value from its attracting attention to the importance that the caro- 

 tides communes of the birds have in their classification. 



The ornithological system given by Sundevall has the merit of being baJed 

 upon a careful and particular examination of the exterior characters of the 

 birds, and of, for the first time, calling attention to the importance of the wing- 

 coverts in classification, and exhibits a correct idea of the designating charac- 

 ters in the nature of the birds. The structure of the wings generally has been 

 minutely described in the treatise on these organs, and its importance as regards 



* Observationes de Avium arteria carotide communi. Halse, 1829. (Appendix to a pro- 

 gramme by Prosector Fridericus Blumius Ictus.) 



t Omithologiskt system (Transactions of the Royal Academy of Science of Sweden, for 

 the year 1835, (printed 1836,) p. 43.) Over foglarnas wingar (ibid, for the year 1843, 

 (printed 1844,) p. 303.) Svenska foglarna, 1856. 



t A List of the Genera of Birds, (London, 1841.) The Genera of Birds, (London, 1844-49.) 



<i Ornithologische Notizen (Wiegmanu's Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte, 1847, vol. i, pp. 186 

 and 308.) Museum Heineanum, (Halberstadt, 1850-63.) 



II Conspectus genenim a\ium (Leyden, 1850-57;) Conspectus systematis omithologias 

 (Aunales des Science Naturelles, 18.57 .' ;) Tableaux parall^liques des ordres Linndens, An- 

 seres, Gralhe, et Grallinaj, (Paris, 1856.) (Extract from Comptes Rendus des Seauces de 

 rAcadeuiiedes Sciences;) besides several other treatises in different magazines. 



U Abhandlungen der konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaftcu zu Berlin, 1.847, p. 321. 



