Vol. XX 

 ige>5 



n "j Recent Literature. 2 27 



Count von Berlepsch and Dr. Hellmavr 1 relating in part to the same sub- 

 ject. These authors give the results of the examination of the types of 

 many South American birds described by Reinhardt, Tschudi, Cabanis, 

 and Pelzeln. Pelzeln's species here treated, ten in number, are nearly 

 all left undetermined in Hagmann's 'Concordance,' but are here definitely 

 assigned. — J. A. A. 



Shufeldt on the Families and Higher Groups of Birds. —In a recent 

 paper of 25 pages, published in the 'American Naturalist,' 2 Dr. Shufeldt 

 presents his views respecting the arrangement of the higher groups of 

 birds, from families to orders. His scheme of expressing the affinities of 

 the groups, from families upward, is by means of five grades, as follows : 

 orders, supersuborders, suborders, superfamilies and families. He does 

 not admit the existence of subclasses among birds, and recognizes only 

 two orders, Saururae and Ornithurae, which correspond to the subclasses 

 of most other authors. As everybody knows, the class Aves is morpho- 

 logically the most homogeneous of the vertebrate classes, and is necessa- 

 rilv so on account of its volant mode of life, which does not admit of the 

 bizarre tvpes of divergence seen among mammals, reptiles, and fishes. 

 The fundamental plan of structure in the avian type is the special modifi- 

 cation for aerial life, and this precludes a wide range of morphological 

 variation. For this reason, according to the views of most systematists, 

 the degrees of divergence that constitute orders are not to be measured 

 by the same standards as in other classes of vertebrates, where a terres- 

 trial or aquatic mode of life permits of wide modifications of the class 

 type. 



As already said, Dr. Shufeldt's ' orders ' correspond to the subclasses of 

 most modern systematists, while his 39 ' supersuborders ' correspond to 

 orders. He has also 62 'suborders,' 17 'superfamilies,' and 176 'fami- 

 lies.' There is nothing xevy novel in his arrangement of these various 

 groups, although some of his allocations do not seem to be an improve- 

 ment upon those previously made. If we translate his ' orders ' as sub- 

 classes, and his 'supersuborders' as orders, his suborders, superfamilies 

 and families have about the usual significance, and serve very well to 

 indicate the relative rank of the groups thus indicated; except that the 

 application of the terms supersuborder and suborder to precisely the 

 same group adds nothing as an expression of its rank; as, for example, 

 supersuborder Aptenodytiformes and suborder Impennes ; supersub- 

 order Procellariiformes and suborder Tubinares, and so on in a dozen 

 other parallel cases. In other instances, as under Halcyonformes, where 

 there are six suborders, the term has some significance and use. 



1 Studien iiber wenig bekannte Typen neotropischer Vogel. Von Hans Graf 

 von Berlepsch und C. E. Hellmayr. Journ. f. Orn, Januar-Heft, 1905, pp. 1-33. 



2 An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of Birds. By R. W. 

 Shufeldt. Amer. Nat., Vol. XXXVIII, Nov. -Dec, 1904, pp. S33-857, figs. 

 1-6. 



