of certain Birds of Cuba. 3 
do: but as, to say the least, it is somewhat oracular to advance 
positions of arrangement without deigning to state the observed 
facts on which they are grounded, I trust that not merely zoology, 
but moreover that species of comparative anatomy upon which 
zoology must always rest as its firmest basis, lies peculiarly 
within the province of the Linnean Society. A good authority 
on this subject has said: ‘ L’histoire naturelle d’un animal est 
la connaissance de tout l’animal. Sa structure interne est a lui 
autant et peut-étre plus que sa forme exterieure*.—Depuis que 
Vhistoire naturelle prend enfin la Nature pour base de ses distri- 
butions, ses rapports avec l’anatomie sont devenus plus intimes. 
L’une de ces sciences ne peut faire un pas sans que l’autre en 
profite. Les rapprochemens que la premitre etablit indiquent 
souvent a l'autre les recherches quelle doit fairet.” If, how- 
ever, some comparative anatomists will lose sight of the con- 
nexion between the two sciences, and thus of the grand object 
of their art, thereby subjecting themselves to that imputation 
of dryness and contraction of ideas, which has been (I should 
hope, rather hastily) applied as well to the English zoologists as 
comparative anatomists{, let the zoologist at least free himself 
from the charge; and by the union of the one science, which 
affords facts, with the other, that teaches us the mode of arrang- 
ing them, let him endeavour to approach ‘cette methode na- 
turelle wnique qui doit faire le but de tous les naturalistes.” 
I have been led to these remarks, because, subject in a parti- 
cular degree to error as an individual like myself must always 
be, who has not had the benefit of a regular anatomical educa- 
tion, I venture to lay before the Linnean Society some observa- 
tions on the anatomy of birds,—less indeed in the expectation 
that they can merit attention in themselves, than in the hope 
* Cuvier, Lec. d’ Anat. Comp. vol. 3. p. xxil. + Ibid. vol. 1. p. xvii. 
t Ibid. vol. 1. p. xvii. 
B 2 that 
