THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 5 



being rich, successfully for his time. With him appear the 

 first gleams of systematic classification. He divides Birds 

 into Land Birds and Water Birds, and each of these di- 

 visions are separated into sub-divisions. His work was one 

 of great merit. He died without publishing his volumes and 

 his friend Ray saw them through the press. Ray then con- 

 tinued these subjects adding his own investigations; he, also, 

 died without publishing his results, these were published by 

 Dr. William Derham, 1713 



We come now to a lull of nearly a century in Ornithologi- 

 cal writings, when the master mind of Li.nx^eus appears. 

 Carolus or Charles Linnaeus was a Swede, born at Ras- 

 halt May 24, 1707, and he showed a remarkable fondness for 

 Nature from a very early age. His way was full of difficul- 

 ties, but he persevered, and the light which his genius threw 

 upon science claims for him a position which will ever remain 

 an exalted one. The divisions which he established were 

 based upon form, and all those external and striking peculiar- 

 ities even now make so prominent by many observers, and 

 Avere as follows : Accipitres, Pice, Anseres, Grall.e, 

 Gallix.e, and Passares. These orders were almost en- 

 tirely characterized by the shapes of the feet and of the bill. 

 LiNX.EUs' works ran through many editions. The twelfth, 

 1766, was fiis last. The thirteenth, 1788, was compiled by 

 John Gnielin. It might, even now, be justly called in ques- 

 tion as to which of the two were the better and more perfect. 

 But the spirit of LiXN^us had cast its spell over a subject 

 which was, thenceforth, never more to remain inactive- 

 M. T. Brunnich, 1754-63, wrote extensively upon Ornitho- 

 logical subjects, though he gave us no definitely improved 

 classification. He was of Danish extraction. Mark Catesby 

 1754-71, ranks high as an original investigator in our colonial 

 Natural History. He described all that he could find of inter- 

 est in our South-eastern Atlantic States. M. J. Brisson, 

 1763-69, ])roposcd a classification based upon " the toes and 

 their membranes, the bill, and the feathers of the legs." He 



