THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 13 



wrote chiefly detached papers upon special subjects, but for 

 clearness of judgment and depth of thought he obtained 

 through them a wide eminence. The systematic ending of 

 femily names in id^ is attributed justly to him. He formed 

 a classification to suit himself and it was a good one, hoping, 

 as so many of his predecessors had done, that he had estab- 

 lished the true relations between Birds. He joined what had 

 before been styled the normal and aberrcmt groups, and, tak- 

 ing the formation of the fo.)t for clasping or non-clasping 

 as a basis, he changed the order of the orders so that the Raj)- 

 tores and the Luessores comprised the former, and the Rasores, 

 the Grallatores, and the Natatores the latter. He has been 

 much noted by Ornithologists of the present day for many 

 advanced ideas'^; but his system still failed to establish perma- 

 nent ''typical" forms. Messrs. A. G. Keyserling and 

 J. H. Biasius, 1840, are names generally associated together, 

 although much good work was done by each individual sepa- 

 rately.'' They really first presented us with an extensive use 

 of the TARSAL COVERING and its various modifications as we 

 now employ them in our descriptions. The scheme was af- 

 terwards elaborated by Cabanis. Two other gentlemen now 

 formed a valuable combination, investigating in a new field, 

 these were P. J. Van Beneden, 1845, and Carl Vogt, 1851. 

 Both were active in promoting those embryological inves- 

 tigations which are now so generally adopted, and which were 

 .so fully and so clearly set forth by L. Agassiz. J. Cabanis, 

 1847, has really assisted our classifiers more than many are 

 willing to acknowledge, though a great deal of the 7iew mate- 

 rial which is credited to him is, in reality, the property of 

 those who came previous to him ; thus he really perfected 

 much hitherto rudimentary knowledge. He incorporated into 

 his system the various markings of the tarsal envelope, 

 and added to them the gradations in size of the principal 

 primary quill feathers of both the wing and of the tail. 

 He also used the characters of the " larynx inferior," said 

 to be borrowed from Muller, a Danish naturalist. We owe 



