The Zoologist — August, 1874. 4095 



fate attended the fine Crossoptilous-; they laid freely, and a numerous 

 progeny were raised during the first two or three years ; but they ultimately 

 all perished ; and thus these fine and rare members of the Phasiauidte, 

 which formed unrivalled ornaments to the Gardens in 1870, were in 1872 

 not to be seen. Many other instances might be cited in support of this 

 view of the impossibility of naturalizing a foreign species. Nature as a rule 

 places each species in the locality best adapted to it ; and its removal to any 

 other is pretty certain to end in failure." — Page 18. 



Last of all, we come to the consideration of those physiological 

 characters on which alone a natural classification of birds can 

 possibly be founded. Mr. Gould will certainly have long since 

 forgotten that on the 12th of March, 1850, the late D. W. Mitchell, 

 the indefatigable Secretary of the Zoological Society, read a paper 

 of mine intituled "First Thoughts on the Physiological Classifica- 

 tion of Birds," Mr. Spence occupied the chair, and the dear old 

 gentleman listened to the prosy paragraphs with the most courteous 

 attention. The paper is preserved in the Proceedings of the 

 Society of that date and also in the ' Zoologist' for April, 1850. 

 Mr. Gould was the only member who considered it worthy of a 

 single syllable, whether in approbation or disapprobation, but he 

 amply made up for this deficiency by the expression of his candid 

 and unqualified disapproval. The salient points were these: 

 I divided birds into two great groups named Heslhogenous and 

 Gyranogenous, and thus gave the leading characteristics of each : — 



"1. Heslhogenous Birds. — In these, immediately the shell is 

 broken, the chick makes its appearance in a state of adolescence 

 rather than infancy : it is completely clothed, not with such feathers 

 as it afterwards wears, but still with a close, compact and warm 

 covering. It possesses the senses of sight, hearing, smelling, &c., 

 in perfection : it runs with ease and activity," &c. 



I will not repeat the lengthened characters, but simply state that 

 I included the poultry, cranes, plovers, snipes, rails, divers and 

 ducks. 



"2. Gymnogenous Birds. — In these, when the shell is broken, 

 the chick makes its appearance in a state of helpless infancy : it is 

 naked, blind, and incapable of locomotion : it gapes for food, but 

 does not distinguish between the proper food offered by its parents 

 and a stick or a finger held over it," &c. 



I again spare the reader further detail, except just to say that 

 I included the pelicans, gulls, birds of prey, herons, all passerine 



