ORNITHOLOGY 



41 



briefly expressed as below; and this expression, so far as 

 it goes, is probably very near the truth, though for 

 simplicity's sake some of the intermediate group-names 

 might perhaps be omitted : — 



PASSERES, 



ELEUTHERODACTYLI, 



ACROMYODI, 



NOEMALES, 



Abnokmales, Mimini, Atrichia. 

 MESOMYODI, 



HOMOEOMERI, 



Tracheophon e, 



Furnariida, Pteroplochidic, Dcndrocolapt idx, Conopo- 

 phagidx, Formicariidse. 

 Haploophonie, 



l'yrannidse, Rupicola, Pittidx, Philepittid&, A", nicida. 

 Hetekomeiii, Cotingidse, Pipridse. 

 DESMODAGTYLI, 

 Euryl&midiB. 



It will be seen that no attempt is here made to separate 

 the Normal Acromyodians into Families. Already, in The 



Wallace. Ibisior 1874 (pp. 406-416), Mr Wallace had published a 

 plan, which, with two slight modifications that were mani 

 festly improvements, he employed two years later in his 

 great work on The Geographical Distribution, of Animals, 

 and this included a method of arranging the Families of 

 this division. Being based, however, wholly on alar char- 

 acters, it has of course a great similarity to the schemes of 

 Dr Cabanis and of Sundevall, and, though simpler than 

 either of those, there is no need here to enter much into 

 its details. The Birds which would fall under the category 

 of Garrod's Acromyodi normales are grouped in three 

 series : — A. " Typical or Turdoid Passeres," having a wing 

 with ten primaries, the first of which is always more or 

 less markedly reduced in size, and to this 21 Families are 

 allotted; B. "Tanagroid Passeres," having a wing with 

 nine primaries, the first of which is fully developed and 

 usually very long, and containing 10 Families ; and C. 

 " Sturnoid Passeres," having awing with ten primaries, the 

 fust of which is " rudimentary," with only 4 Families. 

 The remaining Families, 10 in number, which are not nor- 

 mally acromyodian are grouped as Series D. and called 

 " Formicaroid Passeres." 



Sdater. In Thelbislov 1880 (pp. 340-350,399-411) Mr Sclater 

 made a laudable attempt at a general arrangement of 

 Birds, 1 trying to harmonize the views of ornithotomists 

 with those taken by the ornithologists who only study the 

 exterior ; but, as he explained, his scheme is really that of 

 Prof. Huxley reversed, with some slight modifications 

 mostly consequent on the recent researches of Prof. Parker 

 and of Garrod, and (he might have added) a few details 

 derived from his own extensive knowledge of the ( !la . 

 Adopting the two Subclasses Carinatse and Ratitx, he 

 recognized 3 "Orders" as forming the latter and 23 the 

 former — a number far exceeding any that had of late years 

 met with the approval of ornithologists. It is certainly 

 difficult in the present state of our knowledge to get on 

 with much fewer groups ; whether we call them " Orders " 

 or not is immaterial. First of them comes the Passeres, 

 of which Mr Sclater would make four Suborders: — (1) 

 the Acromyodi normales of Garrod under the older name 

 of Oscines, to the further subdivision of which we must 

 immediately return ; (2) under Prof. Huxley's term 

 Oligomyodi, all the Haploophonx, Heteromeri, and Desmo- 

 dactyli of < larrod, comprehending 8 Families — Oxyrhamph- 

 idse, 2 Tyrannidx, Pipridse, Cotingidee, Phytotomidae, 2 



Pittiilir, PhilijiilfiiKr, and h'uri//;n/u'<l;e ; :; (3) Tr<{e/ti<,/Ji<>ii:r, 



1 An abstract of this was read to the British Association at Swansea 

 in the same year, and may be found in its Report (pp. GOG— 609). 



2 Not recognized by Garrod. 



3 To these Mr Sclater would now doubtless add Forbes' s X uieiJir. 



containing the same groupsasin the older scheme, bul In re 

 combined into 3 Families only — Dendrocolaptidx, Formi- 

 cariidse, and Pteroptochidse ; and (4) the Acromyodi abnor- 

 males of Garrod, now elevated to the rank of a Suborder 

 and called Pseudoscines. 4 With regard to the Acromyodi 

 normales or Oscines, Mr Sclater takes what seems to be 

 quite the most reasonable view, when he states that they 

 "are all very closely related to one another, and, in reality, 

 form little more than one group, equivalent to other so 

 called families of birds," going on to remark that as there 

 are some 4700 known species of them "it is absolutely 

 necessary to subdivide them," and finally proceeding to do 

 this nearly on the method of Sundevall's Tt»t<u,<<u (see 

 above pp. 37, 38), merely changing the names and position 

 of the groups in accordance with a plan of his own sel 

 forth in the Nomenclator Avium Neotropvcalium, which 

 he and Mr Salvin printed in 1873, making, as did 

 Sundevall, two divisions (according as the hind part of the 

 "tarsus" is plated or scaled), A. Laminiplantares and I'.. 

 Scutiplantares — but confining the latter to the Alaudidx 

 alone, since the other Families forming Sundevall's 

 Scutelliplantares are not Oseinian, nor all even Passerine. 

 The following table shews the comparative result of the 

 two modes as regards the Laminiplantares, and, since the 

 composition of the Swedish author's groups was explained 

 at some length, may be found convenient by the reader : — 



Mr Sclater, 1SS0. Sundevall, 1872-73. 



1. Dentirostrcs, 5 — practically equal to 1. Cichlomorphse. 



2. Lath-ashes,-"' ,, 6. Chelidonomorphse. 



3. Curvirostres, „ 4. Certhiomorplise. 6 



4. Tenuirostres „ 5. Cinnyrimorphse. 



5. Conirostres, ,, 2. Conirostres. 



6. Cultrirostres, ,, 3. ColiomorphaB. 



These six groups Mr Sclater thinks may be separated 

 without much difficulty, though on that point the proceed- 

 ings of some later writers (a notable instance of which he 

 himself cites) shew that doubt may still be entertained ; 

 but he rightly remarks that, "when we come to attempt 

 to subdivide them, there is room for endless varieties of 

 opinion as to the nearest allies of many of the forms," and 

 into further details he does not go. It will be perceived 

 that, like so many of his predecessors, he accords the 

 highest rank to the Dentiroslres, which, as has before been 

 hinted, seems to be a mistaken view that must be con- 

 sidered in the sequel. 



Leaving the Passeres, the next " Order" is Picarix, of 

 which Mr Sclater proposes to make six Suborders: — (1) 

 Pici, the Woodpeckers, with 2 Families; (2) Cypseli, with 

 3 Families, 7 practically equal to the Macrochires of Nitzsch; 

 (3) Anisinhteti/hv, with 12 Families — Coliidx (Mouse-bird, 

 vol. xvii. p. 6), Alcedinidss (Kingfisher, vol. xiv. p. 

 81), Bucerotidx (Horxbill, vol. xii. p. 169), r/>?t/>i</:r 

 (Hoopoe, vol. xii. p. 154), Irrisoridse, Meropidx, Momotidx 

 (Motmot, vol. xvii. p. 3), Todidx (Tody, q.v.), Coraciidx 

 (Roller, q.v.), Leptosomidx, Podargidse, and Steatornithidx 

 (Guacharo, vol. xi. p. 227); (4) Heterodactylx, consist- 

 ing only of the Trogons (q.v.) ; (5) Zygodactyly with 5 

 Families, Galbulidx (Jacamae, vol. xiii. p. 531), Bucconidx 

 (Puff-bird, q.v.), Rhampliastidx (Toucan, </■''.). Capitonidx, 

 and Indicatoridx (Honey-guide, vol. xii. p. 139) ; and (6) 

 Coccyges, composed of the two Families Cuculidx and 

 Musophagidx. That all these may be most conveniently 



4 A term unhappily of hybrid origin, and therefore one to which 



purists may take exception. 



5 These are not equivalent to Sundevall's groups of tin- same names. 

 8 Mr Sclater (p. 34S) inadvertently states that no spi 



Sundevall's Certhiomorpkiv is found in the New World, having 

 omitted to notice that in the Teritamen (pp. 40, 47) the genera 

 MnivliUii. (peculiar to America) as well as Cerlhia and Sitta are 

 therein placed. 



7 Or 2 only, the position of the Crqn-imuli/idiv being left un- 

 decided, but in 1883 (see next note) put here. 



XVIII. — 6 



