NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 461 
parts of the plumage spotted, instead of differing very little in 
colour from their parents, as do the members of the subfamily 
Sylviine. 
We are amongst those who regard with disfavour what 
appears to be an unnecessary multiplication of genera, and 
the more we examine closely the points relied upon for the 
separation of such allied forms as Sasicola and Pratincola, 
Erythacus and Cyanecula, Phylloscopus and Hypolais, Acro- 
cephalus and Locustella, Panurus and Acredula, Fringilla and 
Acanthis, Calcarius and Plectrophanes, &c., &c., the less inclined 
we are to admit the necessity, or even the utility, of such 
separation. 
The location of the Cypselide in the Order Picarie, and far 
removed from the Hirundinide, we hold to be unwarranted by 
the light of the latest researches upon this much-vexed question. 
Of late years certain ornithologists have never lost an oppor- 
tunity of telling us that the Swifts have nothing to do with the 
Swallows, that they}are abnormal Humming-birds, and that 
consequently they should not only not be placed in the same 
family with the Swallows, but not even in the same Order.* 
The author of any ornithological treatise contravening this view 
has been held to be in error and behind the age (see, for example, 
‘The Ibis,’ Oct. 1889, p. 571). But it seems to us that the critic 
is here at fault, for in the latest attempt to elucidate this 
ornithological problem, Dr. Shufeldt (whose opinion as a well- 
known student of avian anatomy carries the greatest weight) 
has shown conclusively that although there are undoubtedly 
points of resemblance between Swifts and Humming-birds, in 
all the most important osteological characters, the former are 
much more nearly related to the Swallows.t So that the old 
view, after all, was correct, although the classification, since 
objected to, was based upon external characters, and upon 
similarity of flight and mode of life. When we add that 
Dr. Shufeldt’s view is endorsed by Prof. W. K. Parker,{ than 
+ “Studies of the Macrochires, morphological and otherwise, with the 
view of indicating their relationships and defining their several positions in 
the system” (with 8 plates), by R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., C.M.Z.S., ‘Journal 
Linnean Society,’ vol. xx. No. 122 (1889). 
} See his paper ‘‘ On the systematic position of the Swifts,” ‘ Zoologist,’ 
1889, pp. 91—95. 
