50 DICTIONARY OF BIRDS 
have since proceeded from him, may be said in the words he himself has 
applied (tom. cit. p. 271) to the work of another labourer in a not distant 
field :——“‘ This is amodel paper for unbiassed observation, and freedom from 
that pleasant mode of supposing instead of ascertaining what is the true nature 
of an anatomical element.”1 Indeed the study of this memoir, limited 
though it be in scope, could not fail to convince any one that it proceeded 
from the mind of one who taught with the authority derived directly from 
original knowledge, and not from association with the scribes—a convic- 
tion that has become strengthened as, in a series of successive memoirs, 
the stores of more than twenty years’ silent observation and unremitting 
research were unfolded, and more than that, the hidden forces of the 
science of Morphology were gradually brought to bear upon almost each 
subject that came under discussion. These different memoirs, being 
technically monographs, have strictly no right to be mentioned in this 
place ; but there is scarcely one of them, if one indeed there be, that does 
not deal with the generalities of the study ; and the influence they have 
had upon contemporary investigation isso strong that it is impossible to 
refrain from noticing them here, though want of space forbids us from 
enlarging on their contents.2 Moreover, the doctrine of Descent with 
variation is preached in all—seldom, if ever, conspicuously, but perhaps, 
all the more effectively on that account. There is no reflective thinker 
but must perceive that Morphology is one of the lamps destined to throw 
light on the obscurity that still shrouds the genealogy of Birds as of other 
animals ; and, though as yet its illuminating power is admittedly far from 
what is desired, it has perhaps never shone more brightly than in Parker’s 
1 It is fair to state that some of Parker’s conclusions respecting Balewniceps were 
contested by J. T. Reinhardt (Overs. K. D. Vid. Selsk. Forhandlinger, 1861, pp. 135- 
154; Zbis, 1862, pp. 158-175), and it seems to the present writer not ineffectually. 
Parker replied to his critic (Zbis, 1862, pp. 297-299). 
2 It may be convenient that a list of Parker’s principal works which treat of 
ornithological subjects, in addition to the two above mentioned, should here be given. 
They are as follows:—In the Zoological Society’s Transactions—On the Osteology 
of the Gallinaceous Birds and Tinamous, v. pp. 149-241 ; On some Fossil Birds from 
the Zebbug Cave, vi. pp. 119-124; On the Osteology of the Kagu, vi. pp. 501-521 ; 
On the Aigithognathous Birds, Pt. I. ix. pp. 289-352, Pt. II. x. pp. 251-314. In the 
Proceedings of the same Society—18638, On the systematic position of the Crested 
Screamer, pp. 511-518 ; 1865, On the Osteology of Microglossa alecto, pp. 235-238. In 
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society—1865, On the Structure and 
Development of the Skull in the Ostrich Tribe, pp. 118-183 ; 1869, On the Structure 
and Development of the Skull of the Common Fowl, pp. 755-807 ; 1888, On the 
Structure and Development of the Wing of the Common Fowl, pp. 385-398. In the 
Linnean Society’s Zransactions—On the Morphology of the Skull in the Wood- 
peckers and Wrynecks, ser. 2, Zoology, i. pp. 1-22 ; On the Structure and Development 
of the Bird’s Skull, tom. cit. pp. 99-154 ; 1891, On the Morphology ofthe Gallinacex. 
In the Monthly Microscopical Journal for 1872,—On the Structure and Development 
of the Crow’s Skull, pp. 217-226, 253 ; for 1873, On the Development of the Skull in 
the genus Zurdus, pp. 102-107, and On the Development of the Skull in the Tit and 
Sparrow Hawk, parts i. and ii., pp. 6-11, 45-50. In the Cunningham Memoirs of the 
Royal Irish Academy, No. vi. (Dublin: 1890), On the Morphology of the Duck and 
Auk Tribes. There is beside the great work published by the Ray Society in 1868, 
A Monograph on the Structure and Development of the Shoulder-girdle and Sternum, 
of which pp. 142-191 treat of these parts in the Class Aves; and the first portion of 
the article ‘Birds’ in the Hncycl. Brit. ed. 9, iii. pp. 699-728. Nearly each of this 
marvellous series is copiously illustrated by figures from drawings made by the author. 
