INTRODUCTION 119 
It may be conceded that even among Oscines! there are some other groups 
or sections of groups in which the transformation in appearance from 
youth to full age is as slight. This is so among the Paride; and there 
are a few groups in which the young, prior to the first moult, may be 
more brightly tinted than afterwards, as in the genera Phylloscopus and 
Anthus. These anomalies cannot be explained as yet, but we see that 
they do not extend to more than a portion, and generally a small portion, 
of the groups in which they occur ; whereas in the Crows the likeness 
between young and old is, so far as is known, common to almost every 
member of the Family.2 It is therefore confidently that the present 
writer asserts, as Prof. Parker, with far more right to speak on the 
subject, has already done, that at the head of the Class Aves must stand 
the Family Corvidz, of which Family no one will dispute the superiority 
of the genus Corvus, nor in that genus the pre-eminence of Corvus 
corax—the widely-ranging Raven of the Northern Hemisphere, the Bird 
perhaps best known from the most ancient times, and, as it happens, that 
to which belongs the earliest historical association with man. There are 
of course innumerable points in regard to the Classification of Birds 
which are, and for a long time will continue to be, hypothetical as matters 
of opinion, but this one seems to stand a fact on the firm ground of proof 
A perusal of the foregoing can hardly fail to confirm the doubts 
already expressed in the initial ‘Note’ (page vii.) as to the validity of 
any Systematic Arrangement of Birds as yet put forth. Still the history 
of Ornithology, as here sketched, gives hope uf the ultimate attainment 
of the object sought by so many earnest students of the Science, though 
a long time may yet elapse before that end is reached. As in all branches 
of Zoology accession of knowledge, be it the making of a new discovery 
or the solution of an old difficulty, is followed by, or may almost be said 
to produce, a fresh series of questions of a kind that it is absolutely 
impossible to anticipate, and it needs only the application of experi- 
ence to foresee that this is likely to continue. But slow as is the process 
of eliminating error, it is certain that, notwithstanding occasional relapses, 
considerable advance has been made in the right direction. It is even 
possible that progress will be accelerated by some unexpected turn of 
1 In other Orders there are many, for instance some Humming-birds and King- 
fishers ; but this only seems to shew the excellence in those Orders attained by the 
forms which enjoy the privilege. 
2 The Canada Jay, Dysornithia canadensis, as rightly noted by Dr. Stejneger 
(tom. cit. p. 483), is apparently the only exception, and I do not attempt to account 
for it. 
3 Dr. Stejneger (loc. cit.) would prefer with Sundevall, who certainly was not 
affected by morphological considerations, placing the Finches, Fringillidx, at the 
head of the Passeres, and selects as his example the Evening Grosbeak, Hesperiphona 
vespertina, of North America to demonstrate his position. That the Finches stand 
high I readily admit, but I fail to appreciate the force of the argument he adduces, 
Among other things he declares that in them ‘‘ the plumage of the young is essentially 
like that of the adults’”—a statement which will hardly be accepted by most ornitho- 
logists, and especially not so far as I can judge (¢f. Audubon, B. Am. iii. pl. 207) in 
the example of his choice, which seems to be rather an unhappy one, seeing that in 
its immature plumage it differs so much from the adult as to have been described by 
a fairly good authority (Lesson, Zd/ustr. Zool. pl. xxxi,) as a distinct species under the 
- name of Coccothraustes bonupartit, 
