ORNITHOLOGY 



47 



A ccipi- 

 Ires. 



Striges. 



possibly from some ancestral type akin to and now most 

 directly represented by the enigmatical Cariama — possibly 

 in some other way which we can only dimly foreshadow. 

 The II' m<l inn- s are commonly partitioned into three groups 

 — Ardeae, Ciconiae, and PlatcUeas, the last including the 

 [bises — which may certainly be considered to be as many 

 Suborders. The second of them, the Storks, may perhaps be 

 regarded as the pointof departure for the Accipitres in the 

 manner indicated, 1 as well as, according to Prof. Huxley, 

 for the Flamingoes, of which he would make a distinct 

 group, Amphimorpkae, equivalent to the Odontoglossa of 

 Nitzsch, intermediate between the Pelargomorphae and the 

 Chenomorphx, that is, between the Storks and the Geese. 

 When the embryology of the Phaenicopteridae is investi- 

 I their supposed relationship may perhaps be made 

 out. At present it is, like so much that needs to be here 

 advanced, very hypothetical ; but there is so much in the 

 osteology of the Flamingoes, besides other things, that 

 resembles the Anseres that it would seem better to regard 

 them as forming a Subclass of that group to rank equally 

 with the true Anseres and with the Palamedese (Screamer, 

 q.v.), which last, notwithstanding the opinion of Garrod, 

 can hardly from their osteological similarity to the true 

 Anseres be removed from their neighbourhood. 



Whatever be the alliances of the genealogy of the 

 Accipitres, the Diurnal Birds-of-Prey, their main body must 

 stand alone, hardly divisible into more than two principal 

 groups — (1) containing the Cuthartidx or the Vultures of 

 the New World, and (2) all the rest, though no doubt the 

 latter may be easily subdivided into at least two Families, 

 Piilturidas ami Falconidae, and the last into many smaller 

 sections, as has commonly been done ; but then we have 

 the outliers left. The African Serpentariidx, though 

 represented only by a single species, 2 are fully allowed to 

 fi Tin n type equivalent to the true Accipitres composing the 

 main body ; but whether to the Secretary-bird should be 

 added the often-named Cariama, with its two species, must 

 still remain an open question. 



It has so long been the custom to place the Owls next 

 to the Diurnal Birds-of-Prey that any attempt to remove 

 them from that position cannot fail to incur criticism. 

 Yet -when we disregard their carnivorous habits, and 

 certain modifications which may possibly be thereby 

 induced, we find almost nothing of value to indicate 

 relationship between them. That the Striges stand quite 

 independently of the Accipitres as above limited can hardly 

 be doubted, and, while the Psittaci or Parrots would on 

 some grounds appear to be the nearest allies of the 

 Accipitres, the nearest relations of the Owls must be looked 

 for in the multifarious group Picarise. Here we have the 

 singular Steatornis (Guacharo, vol. ix. p. 227), which, 

 long confounded with the Caprimulgidae (Goatsucker, 

 vol. ix. p. 711), has at last been recognized as an indepen- 

 dent form, and one cannot but think that it has branched 

 off from a common ancestor with the Owls. The Goat- 

 suckers may have done the like, 3 for there is really not 

 much to ally them to the Swifts and Humming-birds, the 

 Macrochires proper, as has often been recommended. 

 However, the present writer would not have it supposed 

 that he would place the Striges under the Picarise, for the 



'Garrod and Forbes suggest a " Ciconiifonu" origin for the 

 TiMnmes (Zool. Voy. "Challenger," pt. xi. pp. 62, G3). 



- Tt was long suspected that the genus Polyboroides of South 

 Africa and Madagascar, from its general resemblance in plumage and 

 out ward form, might come into this group, but that idea has now 

 1»TU fully dispelled by M. A. Milne-Edwards in his and M. Grandidier's 

 magnificent Oiseuux de Madagascar (vol. i. pp. 50-66). 



3 The great resemblance in coloration between Goatsuckers and Owls 

 is of course obvious, so obvious indeed as to make one suspicious of 

 nig akin ; but in reality the existence of the likeness is no bar 

 to the affinity of the groups ; it merely has to be wholly disregarded. 



last arc already a sufficiently heterogeneous assemblage, 

 and one with which he would not meddle. Whether the 

 Woodpeckers should be separated from the rest is a matter 

 of deeper consideration after the deliberate opinion of 

 Prof. Parker, who would lift them as Saurognathx to a 

 higher rank than that in which Prof. Huxley left them as 

 Celeomorphae, indeed to be the peers of Schizognathse, 

 Desmognathse, and so forth ; but this advancement is based 

 solely on the characters of their palatal structure, and is 

 unsupported by any others. That the Pici constitute a 

 very natural and easily defined group is indisputable; 

 more than that, they are perhaps the most differentiated 

 group of all those that are retained in the " Order " 

 Picarix ; but it dues not seem advisable at present to 

 deliver them from that chaos when so many other groups 

 have to be left in it. 



Lastly we arrive at the Passeres, and here, as already p a 

 mentioned, the researches of Garrod and Forbes prove to 

 be of immense service. It is of course not to be supposed 

 that they have exhausted the subject even as regards their 

 Mesomyodi, while their Acromyodi were left almost 

 untouched so far as concerns details of arrangement ; but 

 the present writer has no wish to disturb by other than 

 very slight modifications the scheme they put forth. He 

 would agree with Mr Sclater in disregarding the distinc- 

 tions of Desmodactyli and Eh uth rodactyli, grouping the 

 former (Euri/hcmida) with the Heteromeri and Haploo- 

 phonse, which all together then might be termed the their Sub- 

 Suborder Oligomyodi. To this would follow as a second orders. 

 Suborder the Tracheophonse as left by Garrod, and then as 

 a third Suborder the abnormal Acromyodi, whether they 

 are to be called Psi udoscines or not, that small group con- 

 taining, so far as is known at present, only the two 

 Famibes Atrichiidse and Menuridx. Finally we have the 

 normal Acromyodi or true Oscines. 



This last and highest group of Birds is one which, ase 



before hinted, it is very hard to subdivide. Some two or theirh • 



three natural, because well-differentiated, Families are to 

 be found in it — such, for instance, as the Hirundinidai or 

 Swallows, which have no near relations; the Alciudidx or 

 Larks, that can be unfailingly distinguished at a glance by 

 their scutellated planta, as has been before mentioned ; or 

 the Meliphagidx with their curiously constructed tongue. 

 But the great mass, comprehending incomparably the 

 greatest number of genera and species of Birds, defies any 

 sure means of separation. Here and there, of course, a 

 good many individual genera may be picked out capable of 

 the most accurate definition ; but genera like these are in 

 the minority, and most of the remainder present several 

 apparent alliances, from which we are at a loss to choose 

 that which is nearest. Four of the six groups of Mr 

 Sclater's " Laminiplantar " Oscines seem to pass almost 

 imperceptibly into one another. We may take examples 

 in which what we may call the Thrush-form, the Tree- 

 creeper-form, the Finch-form, or the Crow-form is pushed 

 to the most extreme point of differentiation, but we shall 

 find that between the outposts thus established there exists 

 a regular chain of intermediate stations so intimately con- 

 nected that no precise lines of demarcation can be drawn 

 cutting off one from the other. 



Still one thing is possible. Hard though it be to find Supposed 

 definitions for the several groups of Oscines, whether we high rank of 

 make them more or fewer, it is by no means so hard, if we Tl " l! " /,r 

 go the right way to work, to determine which of them 

 is the highest, and, possibly, which of them is the lowest. 

 It has already been shewn (page 30) how, by a woe- 

 ful want of the logical apprehension of facts, the Turdidez 

 came to be accounted the highest, and the position ac- 

 corded to them has been generally acquiesced in by those 

 who have followed in the footsteps of Keyserling and 



