108 On the Ornithology of Wiits. 
Willoughby, at the latter end of the seventeenth century, to lay 
the foundation of a more accurate arrangement; for, accepting the 
grand divisions already laid down, of terrestrial and aquatic, he 
made his subdivisions from enquiries into the general form and 
structure, and especially from the distinctive characters of the beak 
and feet: still he seems to have been unable to shake off completely 
the prejudices of his time, for he allows varieties in size, the different 
kinds of food, and such trivial things to bias him in his arrangement. 
Ray and Pennant followed up the course so well begun by 
Willoughby, and the close of the last century saw this systematic 
arrangement from the anatomical structure of birds, very generally 
established. Since that time all the numerous systems of classifi- 
cation have proceeded from the same principle of structure; various 
indeed have they been, adopted by Ornithologists of this and other 
countries; some fanciful, as the “Quinary System,” or “series of 
circles,” established by Vigors: others complicated and puzzling 
from their needless minuteness: others positively erroneous, as from 
a farther acquaintance with birds is shown: but the method which I 
here set forth, adopted by modern Ornithologists, and more parti- 
cularly by those of this country, has this great advantage over all 
that have preceeded it, in addition to its superior accuracy, that it 
is simple and plain, as well as comprehensive; neither from over 
minuteness burdening the memory unnecessarily, nor from an 
opposite extreme of indefiniteness leaving any deficiency or doubt. 
This moreover is the system adopted by Yarrell, Hewitson, and the 
principal British Ornithologists of the present day.* 
To proceed then with the classification of birds, I must repeat 
what I touched on in my former paper, that birds are commonly 
placed in two grand divisions, viz: ‘‘LAND BrRDs,” or those whose 
habitat is the land: and “waTeR BriRps,”’ or those which principally 
* I should add that though I now confine my observations to birds of this 
country, yet the same arrangement applies equally to birds generally throughout 
the globe, 
