BIKY TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
I. Remarks on the Comparative Anatomy of certain Birds of Cuba, 
with a view to their respective Places in the System of Nature 
or to their Relations with other Animals. By W.S. MacLeay, 
Esq., M.A., F.L.S. Communicated by the Zoological Club of 
the Linnean Society. 
Read Nov. 21, 1826; and April 17, 1827. 
THe day is now happily gone past when zoologists thought 
that the infinite variety of animals which inhabit this globe 
owed their origin to the unsuccessful efforts of Nature before 
she could attain the human structure as her term of perfection. 
Nor is the grand object of comparative anatomy now conceived 
to be the reference of every animal structure to man,—a mode 
of viewing Nature that tends to point out distinctions rather 
than affinities,—but to be the formation of such a collection of 
recorded facts of comparative organization, as may determine 
in some degree the use of the various organs; and above all, 
may lead us to the better knowledge of the natural arrangement 
of the animal kingdom. Tor comparative anatomy, indepen- 
VOU: XVI. B dently 
