ORNITHOLOGY 



31 



too much importance may easily be, and already has been, 

 assigned to them. 1 



This will perhaps be the most convenient place to mention 

 another kind ol claa ification of Birds, which, based on a principle 

 wholly different from those that have just been explained, requires 

 a few words, though it has not been productive, nor is likely, from 

 all tliat appears, to be productive of any great effect. So long ago 



Bona- as 1831, Bonaparte, in his Saggio di una distribuzione melodica 



parte. degli Animali Vertebrati, published at Rome, and in 1837 com- 

 municated to the Linnean Society of London, "A new S\ stemati 

 Arrangement of Vertebrated Animals," which was subsequently 

 printed in that Society's Transactions (xviii. pp. 247-304), though 

 before it appeared there was issued at Bologna, under the title of 

 ,yv//iy>w'.s l'> rf' !>fii!untn) Si/s/i'mntis, a Latin translation of it. 

 Herein he divided the (la^s Aves into two Subclasses, to which he 

 applied the names of Insessores and Grallatores (hitherto used by 

 their inventors Vigors and Illiger in a different sense), in the latter 

 work relying chiefly for this division on characters which had not 

 1, fore been used by any systematist, namely, that in tie- former 

 group Monogamy generally prevailed anil the helpless nestlings 

 were fed by their parents, while the latter group were mostly 

 Polygamous, and the chicks at birth were active and capable of 

 ! ling themselves. This method, which in process of time was 

 dignified by the title of a Physiological Arrangement, was insisted 

 upon with more or less pertinacity by the author throughout a long 

 series of publications, some of them separate books, some of them 

 contributed to the memoirs issued by many scientific bodies of 

 various European countries, ceasing only at his death, which in 

 July 1857 found him occupied upon a Conspectus Generum Avmm, 

 that in consequence remains unfinished (see p. 14). In the course 

 of this series, however, he saw fit to alter the name of his two Sub- 

 classes, since these which he at first adopted were open to a variety 

 of meanings, and in a communication to the French Academy 

 of Sciences in 1853 (Comjjtes liendus, xxxvii. pp. 641- 647) the 

 denomination Insessores was changed to Altrices, and Grallatores to 

 i' , •joces — the terms now preferred by him being taken linn 

 Sundevall's tn-atise of 1835 already mentioned. The views of 

 Bonaparte were, it appears, also shared by an ornithological 



Hogg. amateur of some distinction, Hogg, who propounded a scheme 

 which, as he subsequently stated (Zoologist, 1850, p. 2797), was 

 founded strictly in accordance with them ; hut it would scan that, 

 allowing his convictions to be warped by other considerations, he 

 abandoned the original "physiological" basis of his system, so 

 that this, when published in 1S46 (Edinb. A*. Philosoph. Journal, 

 xli. pp. 50-71), was found to be established on a single character 

 of the feet only ; though he was careful to point out, immediately 

 after formulating the definition of his Subclasses Gonstrictipedes 

 and Inconstrictipedes, that the former "make, in general, compact 

 and well-built nests, wherein they bring up their very weak, blind, 

 and mostly naked young, which they feed with care, by bringing 

 food to them fa- many days, until they are Hedged and sufficiently 

 strong to leave their nest," observing also that they "are princi- 

 pally monogamous" (pp. 55, 56) ; while of the latter he says that 

 they "make either a poor and rude nest, in which they lay their 

 eggs, or else none, depositing them on the bare ground. The young 

 are generally born with their full sight, covered with down, strong, 

 pable of running or swimming immediately after they leave 

 the egg-shell." He adds that the parents, which "are mostly 

 polygamous," attend their young and direct them where to find 

 their food (p. 63). The numerous errors in these assertions hardly 

 need pointing out. The Herons, for instance, are much more 

 " Gonstrictipedi s" than are the Larks or the Kingfishers, and, so far 

 from the majority of " Inconstriclipcdes" being polygamous, there 

 is scarcely any evidence of polygamy obtaining as a habit among 

 Birds in a state of nature except in certain of the Gallium and a 

 very few- others. Furthermore, the young of the Goatsuckers are 

 at hatching far more developed than are those of the Herons or the 

 Cormorants ; and, in a general way, nearly every one of the as- 

 serted peculiarities of the two Subclasses breaks down under careful 

 examination. Yet the idea of a " physiological" arrangement on 

 the same kind of principle found another follower, or, as he 



Newman, thought, inventor, in Newman, who in 1850 communicated to the 

 Zoological Society of London a plan published in its Proceedings 

 fir that year (pp. 46-48), and reprinted also in his own journal 

 The Zoologist (pp. 27S0-2782), based on exactly the same consider- 

 ations, dividing Birds into two groups, " Hesthogenous " — a word so 

 vicious in formation as to he incapable of amendment, but intended 

 to signify those that were hatched with a clothing of down — and 

 "Gymnogenous," or those that were hatched naked. These three 

 systems arc essentially identical ; but, plausible as they may be at 



1 A much more extensive and detailed application of his method 

 was begun by Prof. Cabanis in tin- Museum //< ineanum, a very useful 

 catalogue of specimens in the collection of Herr Oberamtmann Heine, of 

 which the first part was published at Halberstadt in 1850, and the last 

 which has appeared, the work being still unfinished, in 1863. 



tin- first asj t, they have been found to be practically useless, 



though such of their characters as their upholders have advanced 

 with truth deserve attention. Physiology may one day very likely 

 assist the systematist; but it must be real physiology ami not a sham. 



In 1856 Prof. Gervais, who had already contributed to the- Gervais. 

 Zoologie of M. de Castelnau's Expedition dans les parties centrales 

 tie VAmerique <lu Sud some important memoirs describing the 

 anatomy of the HoACTZIN (vol. xii. p. 28) and certain other Birds 

 of doubtful or anomalous position, published some remarks on the 

 characters which could be drawn from the sternum of Birds (Ann. 

 Sc. Nat. Zoologie, ser. 4, vi. pp. 5-15 . The considerations are not 

 very striking from a general point of view ; but the author adds to 

 the weight of evidence which some of his predecessors had brought 

 to bear on certain matters, particularly in aiding to abolish the 

 artificial groups " Deodactyis," "Syndactyls, "and " Zygodactyls," 

 on which so much reliance had been placed by many of his 

 countrymen ; and it is with him a great merit that lie was the first 

 apparently to recognize publicly that characters drawn from 

 tin' posterior part of the sternum, and particularly from the 

 " Ichancrurcs,'" commonly called in English "notches" or "emai 

 ginations," are of comparatively little importance, since their 

 number is apt to vary in forms that are most closely allied, and 

 even in species that are usually associated in the same genus or 

 unquestionably belong to the same Family,- while these " notches" 

 sometimes become simple foramina, as in certain Pigeons, or on 

 the other hand foramina may exceptionally change to "notches," 

 and not unfrequently disappear wholly. Among his chief system- 

 atic determinations we may mention that he refers the Tinamous 

 to the Rails, because apparently of their deep "notches," but 

 otherwise takes a view of that group more correct according to 

 modern notions than did most of his contemporaries. The Bustards 

 he would place with the "Limicoles," as also Dramas and Chionis, 

 the Sheath-bill (q.v.). Phacthon, the Tropic-bird (q.v.), he 

 would place with the "Larides" and not with the "Pelecanides," 

 which it only resembles in its feet having all the toes connected 

 by a web. Finally Divers, Auks, and Penguins, according to him, 

 form the last term in the series, and it seems fit to him that they 

 should be regarded as forming a separate Order. It is a curious 

 fact that even at a date so late as this, and by an investigator so 

 well informed, doubt should still have existed whether Apteryx 

 (Kiwi, vol. xiv. p. 104) should be referred to the group containing 

 the Cassowary and the Ostrich. On the whole the remarks of this 

 esteemed author do not go much beyond such as might occur to any 

 one wdio had made a study of a good series of specimens ; but many 

 of them are published for the first time, and the author is careful 

 to insist on the necessity of not resting solely on sternal characters, 

 but associating with them those drawn from other parts of the body. 



Three years later in the same journal (xi. pp. 11-145, pis. 2—4) Blan- 

 M. Blancharu published some Recherches sur /is mnirf.yv.v o^tio- chard. 

 logiques des Oiscau.r 0]>p!iqvt>:s a la Classijiratiun. nalurellr de ccs 

 animaux, strongly urging the superiority of such characters over 

 those drawn from the bill or feet, which, he remarks, though they 

 may have sometimes given correct notions, have mostly led to mis- 

 takes, and, if observations of habits and food have sometimes 

 afforded happy results, they have often been deceptive; so that, 

 should more be wanted than to draw up a mere inventory of creation 

 ■ a tree the distinctive outline of each species, zoology without 

 anatomy would remain a barren study. At the same time he states 

 that authors wdio have occupied themselves with the sternum alone 

 have often produced uncertain results, especially when they have 

 neglected its anterior for its posterior part ; for in truth every bone 

 of the skeleton ought to be studied in all its details. Yet this dis- 

 tinguished zoologist selects the sternum as furnishing the key to 

 his primary groups or "Orders" of the Class, adopting, as Merrem 

 had done long before, the same two divisions Carinatse and Ratitee, 

 naming, however, the former Tropidosternii and the latter 

 Homalosternii. 3 Some unkind fate has hitherto hindered him from 

 making known to the world the rest of his researches in regard to 

 the other bones of the skeleton till he reached the lead, and in the 

 memoir cited he treats of the sternum of only a portion of his first 

 "Order." This is the more to be regretted by all ornithologists, 

 since he intended to conclude with what to them would have been 

 a very great boon — the shewing in what way external characters 

 coincided with those presented by Osteology. It was also within 

 the scope of his plan to have continued on a more extended scale 

 the researches on ossification begun by L'Herminier, and thus M. 



2 Thus he cites the cases of Machetes pugnax and Scolopax rustic 

 cola among the "Limicoles," and Lnensealaruetes aiii"ii;.r the "Larides," 

 as differing from their nearest allies by the possession of only one 

 "noteh"on either side of the keel. Several additional instances are 

 cited in Philos. Transactions, 1869, p. 337, note. 



3 These terms were explained in his great work L'Oran nidation da 

 Rlgne Animal, Oiseauz (p. 16), begun in 1855, and still (1S84) no 

 farther advanced than its fourth part, comprehending in all but thirty- 

 two pages of letter-press, to mean exactly the same as those applied 

 by Merrem to his two primary divisions. 



