Nomenclature of Ornithology. 195 



uninterrupted continuance of the chain of affinities by which they 

 are indissolubly connected. And if that alone, according to M. 

 Temrainck, is to be considered a genus, round which we can draw 

 a line of circumvallation that excludes every other group from its 

 vicinity, we must either realise that imaginary object of dread, 

 which the opponents to the modern nomenclature have faucied, — 

 we must either make every species a genus, for here alone is there 

 a decided separation between groups, — or we must admit but one 

 group, one genus alone, in Ornithology, which we may denomi- 

 nate the genus Avis. But it is not here that this inevitable con- 

 sequence would terminate. Naturalists of a higher order, who 

 have gone beyond the surface of their subject, and have partially 

 raised the veil that has hitherto concealed the operations of na- 

 ture, have ventured to affirm that there is a still continued line of 

 affinities between the primary departments of Zoology ; nay they 

 have gone so much farther, as to assert, that it is impossible to 

 decide where life itself and organization begin and terminate. 

 We know not to what the doctrine of M. Temminck would lead 

 us. Admit it in the first advance, and it will spread beyond our 

 controul ; the whole of the creation that comes within our ob- 

 servation — 



the great globe itself, 



Yea, all which it inherit, — 



would exhibit an uncharacterized and undigested mass before us, 

 one and indivisible. 



This is indeed the point of view in which we see most forcibly 

 how valueless is the knowledge of systems and nomenclature, in 

 comparison of that of nature herself. She exhibits no lines of 

 demarcation, no absolute, no tangible boundaries : while man is 

 necessitated for the sake of retaining, of communicating, of illus- 

 trating his knowledge of her works, to give to every group — " a 

 local habitation, and a name," — and to draw his limits around it. 

 His process must of course in its very essence be not only arti6- 

 cial, but arbitrary ; not only arbitrary, but fluctuating. His bound- 

 ing line, where there is no natural mark to guide it, must wander 

 wherever his own will or his fancy directs, and must vary where- 

 ever the increasing bulk of the objects which it encircles, or the 

 increasing knowledge that defines more strongly their relali\e 



