ScLATKR 0)1 the Sy sterna Avium. 77 



less it may be said that Pandion approximates rather to the Stri- 

 ges in the absence of the aftershaft. In a previous paper in this 

 Journal* I have given my reasons for dividing them into two 

 families (Strigida? and Asionidse), which Prof. Newtonf and Mr. 

 Sharpej likewise agree to. 



7. Accipitres. 



The Accipitres. which follow naturally next to the Striges, 

 are primarily divisible, as shown by Prof. Huxley, § into three 

 families, which I have termed Falconidae, Cathartidae, and Ser- 

 pentariida?. Garrod goes much further than Prof Huxley in 

 distinguishing the two latter groups from the former. || The 

 Cathartidae he holds to be much more nearly allied to the Storks 

 than to the Falconidae, and Serpe?itarius (sive Gypogerantis) 

 he places, along with Cariama^ among the Bustards. These 

 two forms come in therefore in quite different parts of his " Sys- 

 tema." I confess I am not quite able to go so far as this, though 

 I freely allow that the Cathartida^ (as already pointed out by 

 Nitzsch, Pterylogr. p. ^o) are in many respects very different 

 from the rest of the Accipitres, and that the resemblance of Ser- 

 pentarius and Cariama is most remarkable. But on the latter 

 point Burmeister,^f no mean authority, has come to quite an op- 

 posite. conclusion to Garrod. At any rate I see no justification 

 for the course Mr. Sharpe has adopted (without stating any rea- 

 sons) of placing Cariama among the Accipitres. still less for 

 treating it as merely a genus of the subfamily Polyborinse ! 



8. Steganopodes. 



Although it is very easy to point out the defects in the ar- 

 rangement of the remaining orders of birds (the Gallinae, Gral- 

 latores, and Xatatores) adopted by Cuvier and his disciples, it is 

 by no means easy to suggest a better one. Let us first consider 

 some of the weak points of the ordinary system. In the first 

 place it is evident that the '^digiti pat 'mat 7," by which the Na- 

 tatores are ordinarily characterized. ft i s a very slight and super- 



* Ibis, 1879, p. 351. t Newton's Yarrell, i. p. 148. 



+ Cat. Birds, ii. p. 289. § P. Z. S. 1867, p. 462. 



|| Ibid. 1874, p. 117. 



H " Beitriige z. Naturgeschichte des Seriema," Abb. nat. Ges. z. Halle, i. p. 11. 

 ft Even by Sundevall, who says " Nullo alio charactere opus est ! " (Tentamen, p. 134). 



