114 THE OREGON NATURALIST. 



Better send yon appli ation for niein- germ develops, and becomes more com- 

 bershipto the OoloKisfs Association, to plicated in structure bv the formation 

 President Trostler at once, as the yearly <• •■ , " u r i • u 

 report- will soon be made and vou want "^ '"^^"^ ^"^ P^''*^' ^'^^^ °^ ^^'"^^^ ^^'^ 

 to have a haTid in their work. su.-cessively differentiated and special- 

 ized, it gradually ri»es hiirher in the 



An immature wood ibis was shot near f?c^'« of beiii}:. 



Seekonk, R. I. lately. First record for It nil) lie obvious that every ulterior 



Rhode Island? Bird was mounted at i„„(iitication presupposes inclusion of 



Critchley's establishment in this citv. ., • „ ,. ,.. . , 



•' all prior ones: to( a white winged cross- 



^ , , . . . bill, to be itself, must t>e a "loxian, 



Is the hair-worm a parasite of the ,■ • -u- • • • ^ 



,;nWt?_.Qn„»«ero-^ K^aV. o.,.i.o,.„o Iringdiine, oscHie, passerine, carinate, 



modern, avian vertibrate animal. The 



more cliaracters, of all grades, that 



any bin s share in common, the 



more closely are they related, and 



{Continued from page 89.) conversely, obviously, the possession 



We have said that a "character" in of more or fewer "characters" in com- 



zoological language, means any point or mon. result in greater or less degrees 



cricket? — Suggested by an exchange. 



Principles of Classifioation. 



C. C. PURDUM, M. D. 



feature which may be perceived and of likeness. To carry any scheme 

 described, and utilized in comparing the of classification into practical effect, 

 similarities and separating the differ- naturalists have found it neces.sary to 

 ences between each animal. Thus the invent and apply a system of gruuping 

 condition of the tarsus and larynx, as objects whereby the like may come to- 

 spoken of in previous papers, are "char- gether and the unlike be separated, 

 acters" which can be used in describing Thev have also deemed it expedie^in to 

 individ'ial birds, or in selecting a name give names to all these groups, of what- 

 for a group of birds. , ever grade, such as class, Order, family, 

 Embryci.Lrical characters are thc'se genus, species, etc. ; and to st mp each 

 afforded b\' the bird during the time it such group with the value of its grade, 

 is developing in the egg, from the lowest in order that it may become current 

 stage of the germ to the fully developed among naturalists. Of course this coin- 

 chick. These embryological characters age is entirely arbitrary until it be- 

 are of the utmost significance, for it has comes sanctioned and fixed by common 

 been conclusivelv demonstrated that consent. It can not be too thoroughly 

 the germ of the higher organisms goes understood that — natura non faclt 

 through a series of developmental salt us — Nature makes no bounds, and 

 changes which, at each successive step although she does not skip from one 

 in its development, causes it to resemble gmup to a higher by a stride, neither 

 the adult state of animals lower than does she make her way by imperceptible 

 itself. In so many words then, the his- degrees of advancement. Rut howevpv 

 tory of the evolution of every individual arbitrary they may be, however obscure 

 bird, illustrates the history of the may be their bounderies, groups we 

 changes which birds have collectively must have, and groups of different 

 undergone. Such stages of any embryo grades, to express different degrees of 

 therefore, give us glimpses of those evo- likeness of the objects examined and so 

 lutionary processes which have affected classify them. I can not be too bold in 

 the group to which it belongs. As the assuring the reader that no such thing 



