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the plumage of both sexes at all times of the yeav, young birds in all 

 stages^ moulting individuals^ and a full series exhibiting the complete 

 geographical distribution and variation in the species, even if this requires 

 a series of specimens. The days have gone by when the description of 

 new species was the be-all and end-all of an ornithologist's hopes. The 

 warfare over priority of nomenclature is fast showing signs of waning, 

 and we can afford to leave to those who care for such distinction the cheap 

 notoriety which attaches to the re-shuffling of names and the coining of 

 new synonyms. Not but what I think, as I have always thought, that 

 a great injustice has been done in many instances by the ignoring of the 

 good work of many of our predecessors ; and that their writings have 

 not been recognized is surely not their fault, but the fault of their 

 successors who have overlooked them. It is time, however, that by 

 some such means as an International Congress of Ornithologists the 

 names of the species of birds were settled once and for all, in order that 

 we may turn our attention to the far more important facts of geographical 

 distribution and life history of species. We are approaching a time 

 when the study of rainfall and climate, of altitude and locality, and even 

 the conditions of weather under which a specimen was procured, will be 

 considered indispensable for the minute study which is to be our portion 

 in the not very distant future. 



To return to our proposed arrangement of birds in a Museum. I 

 should begin with the Saururce, as the most archaic form universally 

 recognized as such by modern systematists. Thus Arcliceopteryx would 

 first engage the attention of the student, and casts and pictures of the 

 two known fossil specimens would be necessary, with, if possible, a 

 restoration of a tail-feather, to show the absolutely different equipment 

 of the earliest bird. A geological table would explain the age of the 

 deposits in which Arcliceopteryx was found, and it ought not to be 

 impossible to picture a restoration. 



Next in order as archaic forms, with no very near relations in the 

 present day, would come the Ratiice, represented by natural groups of 

 the Ostriches, Rlieas, Emus, and Cassowaries, which should not only 

 be illustrated naturally with their surroundings, their young and their 

 eggs, but copious maps showing the past and present distribution of the 

 groups, and references to the peculiar characteristics of these birds, 

 should be made to an introductory series, where should be found 

 illustrations of the Struthious skull, &c. Explanatory labels would 

 draw attention to the external characteristics which separate the great 

 groups of Struthious birds. 



It will be impossible to illustrate the last-named groups without 

 placing in juxtaposition some representatives of the Dinornithes, and an 

 account at least of the jEpyornithes, so far as is known. 



A little further afield we should come to the Apteryges, and here 



