Recent Ornithological Publications. 131 



compounds perhaps not more agreeable than the powders with 

 which the author^s name will be associated by most of our 

 friends; and accordingly, out of regard to their feelings, we 

 abstain from saying any thing more about this publication, 

 the scope of which can scarcely be said to come within the 

 limits of pure ornithology. 



3. Finnish. 

 So far as we know, Professor Maklin has struck out a new idea 

 in proposing to make the capability of flight the basis of a 

 scientific classification of birds*; and though we cannot agree 

 with his suggestion, we fully admit its ingenuity and the pains he 

 has taken in elaborating the notion. It is unquestionably true 

 that this capability is in the highest degree infiuential on the 

 bird's mode of life, and that it depends on the varying propor- 

 tion which certain parts of the skeleton bear to each other ; but 

 we think that if the principles enunciated were carried out to 

 extremes we should have some results that would contradict the 

 most manifest natural affinities. To take only a couple of cases 

 out of several that could be cited : no one can doubt that Mi' 

 cropterus truly belongs to the Anatid(B, or Nestor to the Psittaci ; 

 yet while these two forms are nearly or quite involatile, the groups 

 of which they are unquestionably members include a large 

 number of other forms that excel in the power of wing, as witness 

 the Hooded Merganser, whose speed in mid-air is said to defy the 

 best mai'ksmen of North America, and the Macaws with pinions 

 scarcely less powerful. The author's researches and remarks, 

 however, well merit attention ; for many of them are highly sug- 

 gestive, and his plan for expressing algebraically the disposition 

 for a more or less powerful flight is, to say the least, pretty, though 

 we must observe that he omits from his equation any reference 

 to the weight of the body, which, as it appears to us, ought to be 

 included. One of the Professor's suggestions on a quite diff"erent 

 subject is not very fortunate : he objects to the name Pica as 

 being too much like Picus, while, as he rightly remarks, Cleptes, 



* Vetenskapligagrunder fiir bestammandet af fogelarternas ordningsfdljd 

 inom slagten ocli grupper. Af Dr. F. VV. Maklin, e. o. professor i 

 zoologi. Helsingfors : 1867. 8vo, pp. 131. 



k2 



