B I R 



430 



B I R 



SYSTEMATIC ARRANOKMKNT ami NATURAL HISTORY. 



We now approach a part of our subject nut quite so fasci- 

 nating ; for, in a compendious account of the writers on the 

 natural history of hinls, and of the systems which have 

 been proposed', r r.inn >t c\|> <-t to find murh amuscmont. 

 But without method there eannot bo science, and without 

 arrangement, natural hi-tory would be but a tangled chain, 

 nothing imp-iiri',1 indeed, but certainly all disordered. Birds 

 appear In have i from the earliest pc- 



ruxlii. In comparatively later times we lind them mingling 

 in tho superstitions of GreaM and Kmne, and it is evident 

 that their history and habits were familiar, not only to the 

 husbandman ami the augur, but to the great mass of the 

 people. Without such a familiarity on the part of the 

 Athenians, Aristophanes would hardly have ventured on 

 ind >dueiiiir his audience to Nt^tXoronvyia (see his play 

 entitled ' The Birds' ) ; nor would other poets, Grecian 

 and Roman, so often have referred to these animals as 

 well known harbingers of certain times and sc 

 But it remained for Aristotle, and after him Pliny, to 

 take up the subject philosophically. The former, in his 

 History of Animals, has distinguished the species, and 

 recorded the habits of birds with the accuracy and power 

 which distinguished that great observer : the latter, in the 

 tenth book of his Natural History has displayed much 

 learning, but not a great deal of originality. 



In modern literature, the first writer of note on this sub- 

 ject is Pierre Belon. who in 1355 arranged these animals 

 according to their habits and their haunts. In his system 

 the rapacious birds form the first division, the waders the 

 second, the swimmers the third, and the birds which nestle 

 in trees or on the ground, the fourth. He was an able 

 zoologist and accurate observer, and has pointed out tho 

 comparative anatomy of birds, with reference to that of 

 man especially. 



The third part of Conrad Gesner's ' History of Animals,' 

 published in 1555, consists of his treatise on birds, where 

 he has with some labour collected their various national 

 names, and referred to the writers who had noticed the 

 subject. 



In 1599, Aldrovandus of Bologna published his ornitho- 

 logy. Pursuing the plan of Belon, he arranged the birds 

 according to their haunts and their food, adding many new 

 descriptions. 



These three works are all illustrated with wood-cuts. 



In I6">7 Jonston published his Natural History, a kind 

 of ' Repertorium Zoolqgicvm,' wherein all that had been 

 done before his time was condensed, and where every 

 monstrous zoological fable was perpetuated, even in the 

 copper-plates, which ministered to the appetites of those 

 who loved to see what mermen and mermaids were like, and 

 delighted in the sight of ' hydras and chimeras dire.' 



We now approach u period wherein the reign of System 

 commenced ; and we owe one of the first natural arrange- 

 ments, if not the flr.-t, to Francis Willughby, an English 

 gentleman, whose System of Ornithology was edited by 

 our celebrated countr) man Ray, in 1678. after the author's 

 death. It is a work of MTV great merit. The general di- 

 visions are two, ' Land Birds,' and ' Water Birds.' The 

 land birds are further divided into those which have a 

 crooked beak and crooked talons, and those which have 

 those parts nearly straight. 



The water-birds are arranged in three sections. The 

 first consists of waders, and those which haunt watery 

 places. The second of those that are of a ' middle nature, 

 between swimmers and waders, or rather that partake of 

 both kinds, some whereof are cloven-footed and yet swim ; 

 others whole-footed, but yet very long-legged, like the 

 waders:' the third is formed by the palmated birds or 

 swimmers. 



The amc friendly office that was performed for Wil- 



lughby by Ray, Dr. Derham executed for the latter, whose 



i tit iltthudica Arium, a posthumous work, but 



entirely completed by tho author before his death, was 



published by the Doctor in 1713. In this synopsis Ray 



carried out and further improved Willughby's system. 



Upon the work* of these KiiL'lish naturalist's rested ill 



measure tho zoological svstem of l.'iimnis. 



The trh. of the Swedish naturalist's Systema 



Natures appeared in Pdio, at Levdcn, in I 7.')5. It col 

 of twelve pages, and was as Linnaeus himself says, 

 ipectus lantum opens ct quasi mappa geographical,' Eight 



subsequent editions, in various forms, with gradually in- 



' information, w . and 



in I 7"-*' I .'. i.iuth edition ( lonuc anct . i.n- ip-o,' 



i- author) was sent form m MM. In t, ,, edition the 

 birds are arranged under the sa ire in 



the twelfth and last edition, which appeared in I7t.ii. The 

 thirteenth edition was not the author . 



The following are the orders of I 



1. Accipitres. Birds of prey, proper!) 



-. Picas. Woodpeckers, crows, humming-birds, king- 

 fishers. Sec. &c. 



3. A- S .vimmers. 



4. Gralloo. Waders. 



6. Gallium. Gallinaceous birds (partridge and domestic 

 fowl, for instance). 



6. Passercs. Sparrows, finches, thrushes, doves, swal- 

 lows, X.C. . 



These orders, some of which are not very natural, include 

 with their subdivisions 78 genera. 



In 17CO appeared the system of Brisson, which divide* 

 birds into two great Motions. The first, consisting of those 

 whose toes are deprived of membranes ; the second, of : 

 whose toes are furnished (garnis) with membranes through 

 their whole length. 



There are many subdivisions, under which are am 

 26 orders, including 115 genera. This able ornillx- 

 owes much of his celebrity to the minute accui 

 specific deaoriptions. 



In 177(1 Button published the first pnrt of his work re- 

 lating to birds. It is marked by the snme eloquent ani- 

 mated stylo which adorns the rest of his Natural History ; 

 but much cannot be said for its arrangement, nor lor tho 

 justice of some of his conclusions. He seldom omits an 

 opportunity of arraigning Nature at the bar of his fan 

 some supposed defect of design, when the fault is in his 

 own want of perception of the end to w'hk-h that design is 

 directed, arising from his not being acquainted with tho 

 habits to which it ministers. 



Scbffifter, in his Elementa Ornithofagica, which was given 

 to the public in 1 744, divides birds into two great fan. 

 Nudipedes et Palmipedes. 



Scopoli (1777), in his introduction to Natural History, 

 divides them also into two families ; but lift takes his dis- 

 tinction from the arrangement of the scaly skin on the 

 the first division t>r Retipedes consisting of those the -kin 

 of whose legs is marked by small polygonal scales; the se- 

 cond, Scutipedes, of those the front of whose legs is covered 

 with segments or unequal rings with lateral longitudinal 

 furrows. 



In 1781 our countryman Latham published his general 

 synopsis, and in 1787 and in 1801 his two supplements ap- 

 peared. In 1790, his IndexOrnitholngicus, in twoyoluroM 

 quarto, being an abridgment of his more extended work, 

 was given to the public. Separating, like Willughby and 

 Kay. the birds into two grand divisions, land-birds and 

 water-birds, he arranges them under the following orders, 

 which include 101 genera. 



Land birdi. Watrr-lilnU. 



1. Accipitres. 7. Grallso. 



2. Piece. 8. 1'innatipedes. 



3. Passeres. 9. Palmipedes. 



4. Columhu?. 



5. Gallina>. 



6. Struthiones. 



In I79'J M. de Lacepede published his method, arrang- 

 ing 130 genera under 39 orders. 



In 1806 Dumeril, in his Zoologie Analyliqite, divided 

 birds into six orders. 



The following is Bluraenbach's arrangement: 



LmuJ-birHi. hirdt. 



1. Accipitres. 8. Grallro. 



2. Lcvirostres. 9. Anseres. 



3. 1'ici. 



4. Coraces. 



5. P.I '.ercs. 



r,. Gallium. 



7. Strut hioncs. 



In ]*!<> Meyer, in (he 'Almanncli dcs Oiseaux de 

 1' Allnma'.Mie. par MM. Meyer et Wolff,' arranged them 

 under . s ; and in isi 1 



llli" " into seven orders, including 41 



Cuvier, who in his ' Reg ne AniinM' 

 (1817) published the following method 



