34 



ORNITHOLOGY 



For some time past rumours of a discovery of the 

 highest interest had been agitating the minds of zoologists, 



Wagner, for in 1861 Andreas Wagneb had sent to the Academy 

 of Sciences of Munich (Sit:>ui : ish, richte, pp. 146-154; 

 Ann. Nat. History, ser. 3, ix. pp. 261-2G7) an account of 

 what he conceived to be a feathered Reptile (assigning to 

 it the name Griphosaurus), the remains of which had been 

 found in the lithographic beds of Solenhofen ; but ho him- 

 self, through failing health, had been unable to see the 

 fossil. In 1862 the slabs containing the remains were 

 acquired by the British Museum, and towards the end of 



Owen, that year Sir 1!. Owen communicated a detailed descrip- 

 tion of them to the Philosophical Transactions (1863, pp. 

 33 17), proving their Bird-like nature, and referring them 

 to the genus Archseopteryx of Hermann von Meyer, 

 hitherto known only by the impression of a single feather 

 from the same geological beds. Wagner foresaw the use 

 that would be made of this discovery by the adherents of 

 the new Philosophy, and, in the usual language of its 

 opponents at the time, strove to ward off the " misinter- 

 pretations " that they would put upon i-t. His protest, it 

 is needless tosay, was unavailing, and all who respect his 

 memory must regret that the sunset of life failed to give 

 him that insight into the future which is poetically ascribed 

 to it. To Darwin and those who believed with him 

 scarcely any discovery could have been more welcome ; 

 but that is beside our present business. It was quickly 

 seen — even by those who held Archseopteryx to be a Reptile 

 — that it was a form intermediate between existing Birds 

 and existing Reptiles — while those who were convinced 

 by Sir R. Owen's researches of its ornithic affinity saw 

 that it must belong to a type of Birds wholly unknown 

 before, and one that in any future for the arrangement of 

 the Class must have a special rank reserved for it. 1 It 

 has been already briefly described and figured in this work 

 (Birds, vol. iii. pp. 728, 729). 



It behoves us next to mention the " Outlines of a Systematic 

 Lillje- Review of the Class of Birds," communicated by Prof. Lilljeborq 

 borg. to the Zoological Society in lSGlj, and published in its Pmmliiiiis 

 for that year (pp. 5-20), since it was immediately after reprinted 

 by the Smithsonian Institution, and with that authorization has 

 exercised a great influence on the opinions of American ornitholo- 

 gists. Otherwise the scheme would hardly need notice here. This 

 paper is indeed little more than an English translation of one 

 published by the author in the annual volume (Arsskeift) of the 

 Scientific Society of Upsala for 1860, and belonging to the pre- 

 Darwinian epoch should perhaps have been more properly treated 

 before, but that at the time of its original appearance it failed to 

 atti ict attention. The chief merit of the scheme perhaps is that, 

 contrary to nearly every precedent, it begins with the lower and 

 M i i" the higher groups of Birds, which is of course the natural 

 mode "f proceeding, and one therefore to be commended. Other- 

 wise the principles" on which it is founded are not clear to the 

 ordinary zoologist. One of them is said to he "irritability," and, 

 though this is explained to mean, not " muscular strength alone, 

 but vivacity and activity generally," 2 it does not seem to form a 

 character that can be easily appreciated either as to quantity or 

 quality; in fact, mosl persons would deem it quite immeasurable, 

 removed from practical consideration. Moreover, 

 scheme, being actually an adaptation of that of 

 hioh we shall have to speak at some length almost 

 nay possibly he left for the present with these 



and, 

 Pi ,f. I i 

 Sundeva 

 immedii 

 remarks 



Huxley. In the spring of the year 1867 Prof. Huxley, to 

 the delight "I an appreciative audience, delivered at the 

 Royal College of Surgeons of England a course of lectures 

 on Birds, and it is much to be regretted that his many 

 engagements hindered him from publishing in its entirety 

 his elucidation of the anatomy of the Class, and the results 



1 This was .lone shortly afterwards by Prof. Hiiekel, who pro- 

 pi- el the name Saururie for the group containing it. 



- On this ground it. i; stated that the Passeres should be pla 1 



1 But those who know the habits and demeanour 



of many of the Limicolm would no doubt rightly claim for them much 

 nn HT "vivacity and activity " than is possessed by most Passeres. 



which he drew from his investigations of it ; for never 

 assuredly had the subject been attacked with greater skill 

 and power, or, since the clays Buffon, had Ornithology 

 been set forth with greater eloquence. To remedy, in 

 some degree, this unavoidable loss, and to preserve at least 

 a portion of the fruits of his labours, Prof. Huxley, a 

 few weeks after, presented an abstract of his researches to 

 the Zoological Society, in whose Proceedings for the same 

 year it will be found printed (pp. 415-472) as a paper 

 " On the Classification of Birds, and on the taxonomic 

 value of the modifications of certain of the cranial bones 

 observable in that Class." Starting from the basis (which, 

 undeniably true as it is, not a little shocked many of his 

 ornithological hearers) " that the phrase ' Birds are greatly 

 modified Reptiles ' would hardly be an exaggerated expres- 

 sion of the closeness " of the resemblance between the two 

 Classes, which he had previously brigaded under the name 

 of Sauropsida (as he had brigaded the J'i.<e,s and Amphibia 

 as Ichthyopsiiht), he drew in bold outline both their like- 

 nesses and their differences, and then proceeded to inquire 

 how the Aves could be most appropriately subdivided 

 into Orders, Suborders, and Families. In this course of 

 lectures he had already dwelt at some length on the 

 insufficiency of the characters on which such groups as 

 had hitherto been thought to be established were founded; 

 but for the consideration of this part of his subject there 

 was no room in the present paper, and the reasons why ho 

 arrived at the conclusion that new means of philosophically 

 and successfully separating the Class must be sought are 

 herein left to be inferred. The upshot, however, admits 

 of no uncertainty : the Class A res is held to be composed 

 of three " Orders " — (I.) Sauruius, Hiiekel; (II.) Ratit^e, 

 Merrem ; and (III.) Carinatje, Merrem. The Saururez 

 have the metacarpals well developed and not ancylosed, 

 and the caudal vertebras are numerous and large, so that 

 the caudal region of the spine is longer than the body. 

 The. furcula is complete and strong, the feet very Passerine 

 in appearance. The skull and sternum were at the time 

 unknown, and indeed the whole Order, without doubt 

 entirely extinct, rested exclusively on the celebrated fossil, 

 then unique, Archseopteryx (Birds, vol. iii. pp. 728, 729). 

 The Ratitx comprehend the Struthious Birds, which differ 

 from all others now extant in the combination of several 

 peculiarities, some of which have been mentioned in the 

 preceding pages. The sternum has no keel, and ossifies 

 from lateral and paired centres only; the axes of the 

 scapula and coracoid have the same general direction; 

 certain of the cranial bones have characters very unlike 

 those possessed by the next Order — the vomer, for 

 example, being broad posteriorly and generally intervening 

 between the basisphenoidal rostrum and the palatals and 

 pterygoids ; the barbs of the feathers are disconnected ; 

 there is no syrinx or inferior larynx ; and the diaphragm 

 is better developed than in other Birds. 3 The Ratitx are 

 divided into five groups, separated by very trenchant 

 characters, principally osteological, and many of them 

 afforded by the cranial bones. These groups consist of 

 (i.) Struthio (Ostrich, infra, p. C2), (ii.) Rhea (q.r.), (iii.) 

 Casuariw and Dromseus (Emeu, vol. viii. 171), (iv.) 

 Dinornis, and (v.) Apteryx (Kiwi, vol. xiv. p. 104) ; but 

 no names are here given to them. The Garinatte, comprise 

 all other existing Birds. The sternum has more or less of 

 a keel, and is said to ossify, with the possible exception of 

 Strit/ops (Kakapo, vol. xiii. p. 825), from a median centre 

 as well as from paired and lateral centres. The axes of 

 the scapula and coracoid meet at an acute, or, as in J', Jus 

 (Dodo, vol. vii. p. 321) and Ocydromus (Ocydrome, vol. 

 xvii. p. 222), at a slightly obtuse angle, while the vomer is 



3 This peculiarity had led some zoologists to consider tlio Struthious 

 Birds more nearly allied to the Mammalia than any others. 



