86 RAPTOUES. 



falcons, and owls ; the shrikes were for a time 

 also admitted, and on the discovery of the 

 African secretary, or snake eater, it was placed 

 among the vultures ; but about the period we 

 have just mentioned, a work was published in 

 London, which, though destined from peculiar 

 circumstances to have only a most limited circu- 

 lation, was, nevertheless, in this country, the 

 commencement of a new era in systematic 

 arrangement. Macleay's Horae Entomologies, 

 to the few who possessed a copy, and could 

 appreciate its views, gave a new incitement to 

 work; but the principles of the theory of repre- 

 sentation being only in this work applied, to the 

 class of insects, few other naturalists took the 

 trouble to investigate them, or to try their 

 applipation to any other branch. Towards the 

 end of 1823, Mr Vigors, well known as a zoolo- 

 gist, in a paper read before the Linnsean Society, 

 and published in its transactions, attempted to 

 arrange the class of birds according to the theory 

 proposed in Macleay's Horae ; and though we 

 cannot subscribe to all the views which are laid 

 down in this paper, we are fully aware of its 

 great importance to ornithology at the time, and 

 look upon it as most valuable in first pointing 

 out many of the primary groups, and in calling 

 attention to some curious and varied views. We 

 may also remark, that the materials then to be 



