INTRODUCTION. 



The scientific arrangement followed in this work is mainly in 

 accordance with that of ' The List of British Birds compiled by a 

 Committee of the British Ornithologists' Union,' in which again 

 the sequence is almost identical with that in Mr. Dresser's ' Birds 

 of Europe.' There may be differences of opinion respecting the 

 relative position of some of the Families which make up the Order 

 Passeres, but nearly all modern systematists in Europe and America 

 are agreed that the highest avian development is attained in that 

 Order ; the Passeres therefore — being the most specialized of birds 

 — should occupy the first place in a descending arrangement (such as 

 the one set forth by Mr. P. L. Sclater in 'The Ibis' for 1880 and 

 widely adopted in the Old World), or the last in a scheme of ascension 

 from the lowest and most reptilian birds (which finds favour in the 

 United States). As regards the Order Accipitres — which formerly 

 headed the list — there is strong evidence of its affinity with the 

 Herodiones, and any wide separation of the Vultures from the 

 Storks appears to be inconsistent with the teachings of modern 

 anatomical research ; whereas, by following the highly-sanctioned 

 scheme of commencing with the Passeres, we at least make some 

 approach to uniformity of system. To that end I have subordinated 

 my own views to those of the majority of the B.O.U. Committee 

 respecting the positions of the Alaudid^e and the Corvidce in that 

 Order, as well as on some other unessential points.* 



* A large portion of a notice of Tts. i.-iv. in 'The Zoologist' is devoted to 

 calling me to account for having departed from the arrangement adopted in the 

 4th Edition of ' Yarrell ' ; though the writer must have been well aware that the 

 above work — commenced in 1871 — did not reach my hands until the latter part 

 of 1882, and that, as editor, I was in a great measure constrained to follow the 

 order adopted by the original author. On the other hand, a very competent 

 critic of my portion of 'Yarrell,' while admitting the difficulties of the position, 

 contended — in ' Nature ' — that I ought to have boldly followed up the Picarias 

 with the Steganopodes, Herodiones and Anseres, instead of the Columbse ! 



