1866.] PROF. W. LILLJEBORG ON THE CLASS OF BIRDS. 5 



such as might be referable to tbe adaptation of the Dodo to a ter- 

 restrial life and to different food and habits. 



This paper will be published entire in the Society's ' Transactions.' 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Outlines of a Systematic Review of the Class of Birds. By 

 Professor W. Lilljeborg, of Upsala, F.M.Z.S. 



Literature. — We may particularly mention Chr. L. Nitzsch*, C. 

 J. Sundevallf, G. R. Gray|, J. Cabanis§, and C. L. Bonapait°H. 

 among those that of late years have devoted their attention to the 

 classification of birds. John Muller^f has given an important con- 

 tribution to this classification by his treatise on the apparatus of 

 singing in the larynx inferior in a great number of Passeres. 



The contribution given by Nitzsch certainly contains only a very 

 short and incomplete review of the class of birds ; but it has notwith- 

 standing a particular scientific value from its attracting attention to 

 the importance that the carotides communes of the birds have in 

 their classification. 



The ornithological system given by Sundevall has the merit of 

 being based upon a careful and particular examination of the exterior 

 characters of the birds, and of, for the first time, calling attention to 

 the importance of the wing-coverts in classification, and exhibits a 

 correct idea of the designating characters in the nature of the birds. 

 The structure of the wings generally has been minutely described in 

 the treatise on these organs, and its importance as regards classifica- 

 tion held forth. As the wings must be considered to be of the 

 highest importance to a bird, being among those parts that indeed 

 make him a bird, it is natural that a system in which the structure 

 of the wings has been considered should be preferable to any other 

 where the wings have been neglected, or this subject but slightly 

 touched upon, without any minute examination of their structure. 

 The above-mentioned author has, in his ' Svenska Foglarna,' observed 

 the muscular structure of the feet as important in classification, after 

 having previously, for the first time, called attention to the same at 

 the meeting of naturalists in Stockholm in 1851. 



* Observations de Avium arteria carotide conimuni. Hake, 1829. (Appendix 

 to a programme by Prosector Fridericus Blumius Ictus.) 



t Omithologiskt system (Transactions of the Eoyal Academy of Science of 

 Sweden, for the year 1835 (printed 1836), p. 43). Over foglarnas wingar (ibid, 

 for the year 1843 (printed 1844), p. 303). Svenska foglarna, 1856. 



\ A List of the Genera of Birds (London, 1841). The Genera of Birds 

 (London, 1844-49). 



§ Ornithologische Notizen (Wiegmann's Archiv fur Naturgeschichte, 1847, 

 vol. i. pp. 186 and 308). Museum Heineanum (Halberstadt, 1850-63). 



|| Conspectus generum avium (Leyden, 1850-57) ; Conspectus systematis or- 

 nithologise (Annalcs des Science Naturelles, 1857?) ; Tableaux paralltliques des 

 ordres Linneens, Anseres, Grail*, et Grallinse (Paris, 1856) (Extract from 

 Comptes Bendus des Seances de 1' Academic des Sciences) ; besides several other 

 treatises in different magazines. 



If Abhandlungen der konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1847, p. 321. 



