RAPTORES. 87 



procured in London were scanty, and not at all 

 adequate for the proper working out of the sub- 

 ject. Mr Vigors, in his arrangement, maintained 

 the vultures, falcons, and owls, as three of the 

 primary groups, but added to them as the type 

 of a fourth family, gypogeranus, while he left 

 the fifth unfilled up, as either extinct or presently 

 unknown to science. Mr Swainson seems nearly 

 at the same period to have taken up the study of 

 this subject ; and soon after the publication of Mr 

 Vigors' views, many ornithological papers by the 

 former zoologist appeared in the periodical publi- 

 cations, arranging some groups upon different, 

 but upon what he considered to be the correct 

 principles. The same gentleman has, since 

 these writings, given to the public his matured 

 views of this curious and interesting subject, 

 made out from more ample materials and repeated 

 examinations, and he has arranged the raptores 

 as vultures, falcons, owls, adding to them, as 

 typical of a fourth family, the no\v extinct dodo, 

 (and of whose alliance we think there is little 

 doubt,) but placing gypogeranus (Mr Vigors' 

 gypogeranidce) as the grallatorical type of the 

 vultures, and leaving, as before, the fifth family 

 still unaccounted for. This is the latest arrange- 

 ment up to the present time ; but looking at our 

 restricted knowledge of this order of birds, their 

 comparatively limited numbers, the difficulty of 



