16 THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 



a modificatioD of his most careful and excellent suggestions. 

 Thomas H. Huxley, 1867, the eminent English scientist, 

 ill u system ol" liirds which he has tabulated in his volume on 

 the Anatomy of the Vertebrate Animals, for the purpose of in- 

 cluding the general field of fossil as well as recent Ornithol- 

 ogy, has laid out a very comprehensive plan. He has com- 

 bined and drawn deductions from former writers, changed 

 many of the already existing relations of the characters, made 

 prominent many osteological features, and taken for his two 

 grand divisions the " Aves Carinatoi "' and " Aves Ratitce " of 

 Merrem. He has also added a few special anatomical 

 distinctions. Admii-able as this system is it is a system rather 

 for the scientific student whereby to study relations than for 

 the every-day working naturalist or bird-collector. The 

 prominence still given to the groupings of Professor Lillje- 

 BOEG speaks highly to its credit. A. H. Garrod, about this 

 time, presented us with some very valuable features to add to 

 our distinguishing characteristics between the various groups 

 of Birds. He patiently worked upon the muscular relations, 

 which had hitherto been of little import in classification. We 

 are greatly indebted to him for his eilorts in this direction. 

 The magnificent work of Baird, Bre^ver, and Ridgevray, 

 it is safe to say, will not soon be duplicated ; issued in five 

 splendid volumes, it has really done for North American Birds 

 a work of permanent good. It is both technical and popular, 

 though rather expensive for the majority of students in this 

 most fascinating branch of study. This work, with the indi- 

 vidual Ornithological writings of these same gentlemen, has 

 far out-distanced any modern competitors for Ornithological 

 honors in America at the present day, at least as far as accuracy 

 in scientific detail and reliability are concerned. Several very 

 choice works upon Birds have appeared, from time to time, 

 besides those we have mentioned above, some very recently, 

 amongst which may be especially mentioned " Special Bulle- 

 tin, No. 1," of the U. S. National Museum, entitled, Life His- 

 tories of North American Birds with special reference to their 



