CLAIMS OF OOLOGY TO BE AN EXACT SCIENCE. 235 
upon morphological reasoning, is by no means univer- 
sally followed. The author of a standard work just being 
issued places the Ant Thrushes at the head of the Class, 
whereas these have hitherto been regarded as belonging to a 
low and aberrant group of Passerine birds. But the con- 
troversy is not restricted to the discussion of that family 
which has attained the highest stage of avine development. 
Mr Eugene W. Oates, who is deservedly recognised as one 
of the foremost ornithologists of the day, insists upon the 
near relation of the Tits to the Crows; yet, as Professor 
Newton points out, “beyond having a few carnivorous pro- 
pensities in common, it is ditficult to define the analogy.” 
In justice to Mr Oates, however, it must be remembered 
that in the Tits, as well as in the Crows, the adult plumage 
is attained without the bird having to pass through any 
pronounced transitional change—a taxonomic point of such 
importance that it is seized upon by Professor Newton as 
one of the chief reasons why the Crows should be placed at 
the top of the avine tree. Quite recently Professor Mivart 
published a classification, for which, as he admits, he is con- 
siderably indebted to Dr Bowdler Sharpe; yet the latter, 
who is at present engaged in writing a standard and autho- 
ritative work on the systematic classification of birds, has, in 
the only volume yet published, materially altered the opinions 
which, presumably, he held a year or two ago. I could give 
numerous other instances of the wide differences of belief 
which, even at the present day, exist among authors regard- 
ing the classification of birds ; but, lest I weary you, I shall 
content myself with quoting but one more example. A certain 
accomplished Fellow of this Society, in a contribution given 
by her to the Zoological Society of London, boldly took it 
for granted that the near affinity of the Swifts to the 
Humming-birds was a subject about which there could pos- 
sibly be no dispute. Now, while this assumption is hardly 
likely to be challenged by the oologist, it is one which is 
far from being admitted by the ornithologist. In Professor 
Mivart’s classification, to which I have already alluded, the 
Humming-birds are placed among the Passeres, that is to 
say, in a different Order from the Swifts; and the distin- 
guished American ornithologist, Dr Shufeldt, severely criti- 
