THE ZooLoGist—OcToBER, 1875. 4639 
own, on which he is still so earnestly engaged, and from which we 
expect such grand results. If there is any department of the science 
in which the harvest is plenteous and the reapers but few, it is here. 
There is room for a score of Professor Parkers; and, though I no 
more believe that we are likely to have that number than we are to 
have a score of Shakespeares or a score of Sir Isaac Newtons, I don’t 
see why others (with the training that is now happily becoming so 
common, not only in our universities, but in our great centres of 
industry) should not arise to throw that light on, and afford that 
help to, our systematising labours which we so greatly need. 
Descriptive anatomy, so long neglected by ornithologists, has now 
many votaries, and why not this developmental anatomy? A know- 
ledge of descriptive anatomy is in a fair way of being recognised as 
indispensable to anyone who would intelligently exercise the occu- 
pation of an ornithologist ; but as I fear developmental anatomy, of 
birds at least, is left to be prosecuted by but one brain and one pair 
of hands, I would earnestly recommend any young ornithologist to 
take up this branch of study. There is not only a hard-working 
master to assist, but the chance of receiving that master’s mantle 
whenever—and I trust the day is far distant—it shall drop from his 
shoulders. 
Fossil Ornithology has not met with much attention in this 
country, but that seems chiefly owing to the scarcity with us of 
ornitholites; but both in France and America it is being well 
worked, while we need not be ashamed of our share in the inyesti- 
gation when we think of the glorious resuscitation here of the 
extinct birds of New Zealand. I have just said that the prospects 
of descriptive anatomy are very fair. I wish I could say as much 
for the study of those more recondite parts of the birds’ external 
structure, which are so commonly overlooked. There is Pterylo- 
graphy, for instance,—a branch of our science so little thought of 
in England, that I am afraid to hazard a guess of how few persons 
there are in this room, or even on this platform, who know the 
meaning of the word. I can’t take up the time of the section by 
explaining it. I have only to recommend the curious to buy the 
translation of Nitzsch’s standard work on the subject, which has 
been published by the Ray Society, wherein they will find all the 
preliminary knowledge they will require to understand it, and I may 
add nearly all the knowledge we may possess of it. 
But where I discover the greatest falling off among my brethren 
