295 Observations on the 



This may appear an exaggerated picture, but I will appeal to any 

 Ornithologist, engaged in the study of species, for its truth. I 

 will appeal to the well-known fact, that the same bird is fre- 

 quently described under two or more different genera in our popular 

 systems ; and to the constant exposure of their defects by conti- 

 nental writers. I will even cite a case in point. The peculiar 

 structure of the tongue, in the genus Meliphaga of Lewen, is 

 well known to most Naturalists : it is formed like a brush, the 

 filaments at the end are tubular, and adapted for sucking the, 

 nectar of flowers: all the species, moreover, are natives of New 

 Hdland ; they are, in short, as distinct a genas as can w ell be ima- 

 gined. Yet, it is not a Linncean genus ; and therefore, if a student 

 wishes to ascertain the name of a species, in Dr. Latham's General 

 Synopsis of Birds, or in Shaw's Zoology, he must read the descrip- 

 tions of several hundred birds arranged in the genera TurduSj 

 Certhia, Merops^ and Syhia^ before he can possibly ascertain one 

 species : for the genus itself is altogether rejected as an innova- 

 tion. 



It is a painful and an ungracious task to animadvert on the 

 works of our contemporaries ; but we must speak plainly, when 

 we see attempts made to bring us back to the infancy of the sci- 

 ence, by the publication of systems, new indeed from the press, — 

 but obsolete in their ideas and language. 



"While Botany, therefore, has been progressively advancing^ 

 Ornithology has remained nearly stationary. Our elementary 

 books and our voluminous systems, as Mr. Vigors truly observes, 

 speak the language of a remote period ; and display a lament- 

 able picture of our Zoological proficiency to the rest of 

 Europe. Better indeed had there been no such terms as Order 

 and Genus, for they have acted like a magical spell, upon minds 

 that otherwise perhaps might have burst the trammels of nomeu- 

 clature, and like Linnaeus, have " dared think for themselves." 



I may perhaps be censured for giving such a humiliating picture 

 of our Ornithological knowledge, and I should have had some 

 hesitation in drawing it, did 1 not see among our rising Natural- 

 ists, some whose talents and whose zeal will not only redeem the 

 past, but take a much higher view of the science than has hitherto 



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