The Birds' Calendar 



after possession as they would be uninteresting 

 and laborious in the acquisition. 



Even when the correct fundamental relation 

 subsisting between the facts of a certain class 

 is felt to be as yet undiscovered, as in botany 

 and ornithology, one realizes the need of some 

 provisional system, however erroneous it may 

 be, until the true one shall have been found. 

 As an aid to memory a system is of inestimable 

 value, and in this respect a thoroughly false 

 method may not be so very inferior to the cor- 

 rect one. 



Birds may be grouped in three ways. That 

 which claims to be the most thoroughly scien- 

 tific classification is based upon anatomical 

 structure, wherein the size and form of the bill, 

 the number of feathers in the wing, the length 

 and peculiarities of the leg (or tarsus), the num- 

 ber and position of the toes, etc., are among 

 the important criteria for determining the status 

 of the individual. We can all certainly agree 

 in saying, with Lincoln, that " for those that 

 like that kind of a thing, that would be just 

 the kind of a thing they would like; " but if 

 pressed for further unanimity, some of us would 

 have to part company. 



But for the purposes of field ornithology the 

 46 



