19 



establish divisions, in order to secure the paltry fame of naming 

 them, I hope not to deserve. 



In some instances, these tribes or sub-kingdoms seem pointed 

 out by nature's self in so decided a manner, that the lisping infant 

 will at once recognise them. Where this is the case, what can 

 definition avail ? Let us refer to birds as one of these clearly 

 marked divisions. I single it out as better understood than 

 either of the others. Let us ask, To what does all the arrange- 

 ment tend which has here been so lavislily bestowed ? To utter 

 confusion, volume after volume, essay after essay, open their 

 yawning leaves, and repeat, again and again, one and all, utter 

 hopeless, unintelligible confusion. But if, neglecting the high 

 authorities on the subject in toto, we condescend to consult 

 nature, we shall soon perceive that birds readily range them- 

 selves in seven good and clearly defined groups ; one of which is 

 preeminently distinguished from the rest, and yet partakes in 

 some one or other of its component genera of the characters of all 

 the other groups ; such a sub-class must, therefore, be central ; 

 and, by a little care in availing himself of the most obvious 

 approaches, the naturalist will find every other sub-class, and 

 order, and genus, beautifully filling up their appropriate situa- 

 tions, without causing any of those distortions which so disfigure 

 every existing arrangement of this interesting tribe. Syrrhaptes, 

 Serpentarius, and all those hitherto parodoxical creatures which 

 seem to have frightened our ornithologists out of their wits, are 

 now not only admissible, but absolutely necessary to connect 

 tribes which no one had previously supposed in the least degree 

 related ; — but I will not here forestall, as an attempt to point out 

 the numerous and unlooked-for relations existing among the 

 genera of bu-ds, which the present plan has served to develop, 

 forms the subject of a separate essay, already in a state of for- 

 wardness ; and the more immediate object of my present in- 

 quiry, although a tenant of the air, is not to be sought for among 

 its feathered tribes. I will, therefore, leave these for the present, 

 fully intending that the ornithologist as well as the entomologist 

 shall have an opportunity of examining whether my theory has 

 truth and reason to support it, or whether he must condemn it as 

 an ignis fatuus of the brain. 



