Dec. 20, 1888] 



NATURE 



181 



satisfactory indications of their pedigree, their affinities 

 with the Cypseli being perhaps the least far-fetched. 



The Mnkrochires = Cypselidae -f Trochilidae, prove to 

 be far more closely related to the Passeres than to the 

 Caprimulgi. The old group of the " Cypselomorphas " 

 had therefore to be broken up. 



Pico-Passeres. — Very intimate relationship connects 

 the Indicatoridae, Capitonidc-e, Rhamphastidae, and the 

 Picidce to one group— /'/V/. Primitive Pici existed in the 

 Eocene age ; many threads bind them to the Galbulas 

 and to the Halcyones, still more to the Pseudoscines. 



Passeres.— T\\&y represent the highest types which the 

 avian stock has as yet developed. In spite of their 

 enormous number of genera and species, which surpasses 

 that of all the rest of the birds, they agree so closely with 

 each other in all their principal and primary characters 

 that the Passeres proper are morphologically only of the 

 value of one family. This uniformity has naturally always 

 rendered their further classification very difficult. 



Fuerbringer divides them as follows, in close conformity 

 with the views held by most English ornithologists. 



I. Family Pseudoscines = Atrichia + Menura. — They 

 are types which are now dying out, and which differ from 

 all other Passeres through those characters which they 

 have in common with the Pici. 



II. Family Passeridce, with four sub-families. 



(i) Desmodactyli = Eurylcemidae. — They differ funda- 

 mentally from the Coraciae; and are the last remnants of 

 the oldest Passerine forms. 



(2) OHg:>myodi.—'Y\i€\x wide distribution — e.g. Pitta in 

 the Oriental and Ethiopian regions, Xenicus in New 

 Zealand, the overwhelming majority in the Neotropical 

 region— sufficiently indicates the extreme age of the 

 Oligomyodi, and sufficiently accounts for the great 

 diversity in the development of the syrinx, podotheca, 

 and femoral artery, &c., which makes these birds appear 

 a rather heterogeneous group. 



(3) Tracheophones.—T'h& tracheophonous syrinx, and 

 the entirely Neotropical distribution of the Conopophagina?, 

 Pteroptochina:, Formicariinas, Furnariinae, and Dendro- 

 colaptinas, suggest a monophyletic origin of these birds 

 from lower American Oligomyodi. 



(4) Oscines s. Acromyodi. — This family forms what 

 may be called the topmost branches of the avian tree, 

 with the Corvinae as its culmination. It is characterized 

 by the diacromyodean syrinx, and by the bilaminate 

 covering of the tarsus. The latter feature occurs, how- 

 ever, also in the tracheophonous genus Heterocnemis, 

 and is absent in the Alaudinae. 



Regarding the development of these four sub-families of 

 the Passeridec, the reader may be referred to a previous 

 page (p. J 78) of this summary. 



Most probably all birds are the descendants of one 

 reptilian form, though of which we do not know. The 

 first lizard-like birds were small, and very likely terrestrial. 

 They diverged into climbers on rocks and trees, and into 

 inhabitants of swampy regions. The latter stock gave rise 

 to swimming birds. The first birds were not vegetable 

 feeders, as is generally supposed, but lived on insects and 

 other small Invertebrata. 



Lastly, there arises the question : What are the 

 reasons for the natural extinction of large birds .^ Not 

 predestination or catastrophes. 



High differentiation, possible only through the one- 

 sided development of certain organic systems and 

 correlated regressive metamorphosis of the others, has, 

 in the older groups of birds, frequently led to increased 

 size of the body. This size, although securing a predomi 

 nant position to the birds for the time being, inevitably im 

 plies the turning-point in the height of their development 

 Large or highly specialized animals will be least able 

 to adapt themselves to further changes of their never- 

 stationary, ever-changing surroundings, because, through 

 their very one-sidedness, the retrograded as well as the 



most specialized organs have rendered the whole organ- 

 ism more fixed than is the case with lower or less 

 differentiated and therefore still plastic contemporaries. 

 Amongst the younger groups of birds such a large size as is 

 common amongst old and isolated types has not yet been 

 reached, and probably will always be avoided. Small,, 

 but equally developed, will be the birds of the future. 



So far so good. But with all this praise, are there no 

 faults in Prof. Fuerbringer's work .' Certainly, there are 

 some. Its greatest fault may be indicated and at the 

 same time explained in one sentence. If the author had 

 been able to devote another year's labour to his " Epoche 

 machenden Untersuchungen," he probably would have 

 written a smaller book. H. Gadow. 



MUSINGS ON A MEADOW. 



'"P O the general observer nothing in the way of vegeta- 

 -*- tion would appear to present so few aspects, so 

 limited a scope to the imagination and the associative 

 faculties, as an expanse of herbage ; and yet, perhaps^ 

 nothing that bountiful Nature has provided for the use and 

 service of men so teems with the variety of associations 

 that it presents to each different mind. 



The farmer, whether he be the farmer of England, the 

 wandering Bedouin, or the ranch-man of the New World,^ 

 looks at the broad pastures and far-stretching plains, but 

 not to admire the mingled masses of gorgeous colours, 

 not to speculate upon the battle that may have been 

 fought upon this spot or the scenes that have happened 

 there in former times, not to separate the numerous 

 varieties of grasses into their many botanical genera and 

 species, but to calculate how many sheep he can feed ta 

 the acre upon it, whether there is enough of white clover 

 to fatten his camels upon, or whether his horses will have 

 a sufficiency of suitable food to graze upon. The wide 

 wild waste of endless lines of pale yellow, red, and gray, 

 conveys no pleasure, but merely the indication of a good 

 soil ; and the buttercups and daisies he sees in the pasture 

 meadows of England, hallowed by songs and memories, 

 are to his economic eye positively offensive ; knowing, as 

 he does, that the older these buttercups grow, the more 

 distasteful they become to stock, but never stopping to 

 discover that it is because they become more acrid. To 

 him it would seem a species of legerdemain if a botanist 

 were to say to him, pointing to a buttercup, " Dig that 

 up, and you will find a tuber at the root," and were then 

 to select another, apparently similar in appearance to the 

 former, and were to tell him that it had no tuber at the 

 root ; for from his eyes are completely hidden those 

 minute differences so easily seen by the specialist between 

 Ranimadus bidbosiis and Ranunculus acris. 



The botanist, on the other hand, as his eye rests on the 

 same spreading plains of green, is utterly regardless of 

 the feeding value of the plants that he sees before him. 

 As he wanders from country to country, his eager eye 

 detects the diminution or increase of particular species in 

 different latitudes and altitudes, searching out the truths 

 of Nature, or watching with a view to the confirmation of 

 some pet theory. His mind ranges over the different 

 prairies, plains, and meadows of the world. Again the 

 battle of plant life is waging for him. His delight is un- 

 bounded. Every plant has its own history, so evident to 

 him, so abstruse to the mere superficial observer ; and, in- 

 voluntarily, associations crowd upon his mind, of some 

 musty tome perchance, or some ancient and not very accu- 

 rate plate, or some amusing anecdote. For example, the 

 cactus in the plains of Arizona or Texas reminds him of the 

 many times he has seen this genus portrayed in pictures of 

 the Holy Land at the time of the Founder of Christianity, 

 and how, even in books pretending to be learned, he has 

 met with it in the description of the plants of Syria of 

 2000 years ago, although, as a matter of sober history, this 



