28 



Sclater on the Systema Avium. 



REMARKS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE 

 SYSTEMA AVIUM. 



BY P. L. SCLATER.* 



It will be generally allowed, I believe, by all ornithologists that 

 the Systema Avium is not at present in a very satisfactory state. 

 The Cuvierian arrangement and its modifications have been 

 broken down by the criticisms of modern inquirers ; but no other 

 system has arisen to take its place, or. at all events, has secured 

 general adoption. The subject being, as will be universally 

 allowed, one of the utmost importance. I have thought it possible 

 that my brother workers might like to hear what my views are 

 upon the question. 



Up to 1873, as regards general arrangements, I had acquiesced, 

 more or less, in the modified Cuvierian system employed by G. 

 R. Gray in his well-known works. I had, however, long before 

 quite come to the conclusion that the true Passeres were the most 

 highly developed order of birds, and should be placed at the head 

 of the series, and that the Fissirostres and Scansores. which in 

 Gray's system merely figure as subdivisions of the Passeres, 

 should stand as separate orders. I had also made up my mind 

 that, as regards the subdivisions of the Passeres, Midler's dis- 

 coveries as to the form of the larynx and the arrangement of its 

 muscles could not be passed over. Accordingly, in the cata- 

 logue of my collection of American birds, published in 1S62, I 

 arranged the three first orders of birds (as I then considered 

 them), to which my collection was restricted, as follows: — 



Ordo Passeres. 



Sectio Oscines. 



i. Turdidoe. 

 ii. Cinclidae. 

 iii. Sylviidae. 

 iv. Paridae. 



v. Certhiidae. 

 vi. Troglodytidae. 

 vii. Motacillidae. 

 viii. Mniotiltidae. 

 ix. Hirundinidae. 



x. Vireonidee. 



xi. Laniidae. 



xii. Ampelidae. 



xiii. Coerebidae. 



xiv. Tanagridas. 



xv. Fringillidae. 



xvi. Alaudidas. 

 xvii. Icteridae. 

 xviii. Corvidae. 



* From the "Ibis," 4th ser., Vol. IV, No. 15, pp. 340-350, July, 1880. 



As comparatively few American readers of the Bulletin have ready access to the 

 "Ibis" it has been deemed expedient to lay before them, in view of its high importance, 

 Dr. Sclater's memoir here reprinted. — Eds. 



