RAVEN. 267 



in particular that two of the genera, Columba and Capri- 

 imdgus, included in the latter must he removed from the 

 rest. Further examination has shewn that several genera 

 of Piece, such as Gcrthla, Sitta, Oriolus and Corvits, have 

 a much greater affinity to the majority of groups contained 

 in his Passeres, and these genera, with the addition of 

 Lanius (placed by him among the Acc'i2)ltres), have accord- 

 ingly been referred thereto. This determination, effected 

 by Nitzsch, and based on the structure of the vocal organs, 

 was published in 1829. As the name Piece, through the 

 removal of the Crows (including Brisson's genus Pica) 

 became inapplicable to the remainder, the word Picaei^ 

 was subsequently proposed by Nitzsch for them, the genera 

 Caprimulgus and Cypselus (the latter having in the mean- 

 time been separated from Hirundo) being also added. 

 Though doubtless the Picarice, as thus constituted and 

 published in 1840 by Burmeister, contain several groups 

 that differ from others ranged with them as greatly as they 

 do from the Passeres in their reformed condition, ornitho- 

 logists are by no means agreed as to the best way of dividing 

 the assemblage, and accordingly for simplicity's sake the 

 term PiearicB will be here used exactly in the sense, so far 

 as British forms are concerned, in which it was used by 

 Nitzsch. He did not know, however, that many genera or 

 families, which he left among the Passeres (or Passerines as 

 he called them), do not possess the kind of vocal apparatus, 

 the presence or absence of which had been the prime cause of 

 the new division. This was due to the fact that no European 

 Passerine bird (for to European species his dissections 

 were confined) lacks it, and the discovery of Passeres (now 

 known to be chiefly American) not possessing this particular 

 structure, made some years later by Johannes Miiller, com- 

 pelled a further division of the Order, based accordingly 

 again on the vocal apparatus. It is needless here to go 

 further into this matter. It will be enough to say that, 

 after various modifications suggested, among others, by 

 Blasius, Dr. Cabanis, Gloger, Prof. Huxley and Suudevall, 

 Prof. Garrod seems to have verified the existence of two well- 



