606 REPORT— 1880. 



TUESDAY, AUGUST 31. 



1. Exhibition of some of the Zoological Reports of the "■ Challenger' 

 Expedition. By P. L. Sclatee, M.A., Ph.D., F.B.8. 



Mr. Sclater, on behalf of Sir C. WyviUe Thomson, who was unable to attend 

 the meeting, laid on the table specimen copies of the following reports on the 

 zoological residts obtained during the voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger.' These 

 reports would ultimately form the first volume of the ' Zoology ' of the expedition, 

 which would very shortly be ready for general issue : — ■ 



List of ' Challenger ' Reports. 



Report on the Development of the Green Turtle {Chelone viridis, Schneid.) By 



WiUiam Kitchen Parker, F.E.S. 

 Report on the Bones of Oetacea collected during the Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger,' 



in the years 1873-6. By WHliam Turner, M.B., F.R.S., &c. 

 Report on the Shore Fishes procured during the Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger,' 



m the years 1873-6. By Albert Gunther, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., &c 

 Report on the Brachiopoda dredged by H.M.S. 'Challenger' during the years 



1873-6. By Thomas Davidson, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 

 Report on the Pennatulida dredged by H.M.S. ' Challenger ' during the years 



1873-6. By Professor Albert V. KoUiker, F.M.R.S., &c., &c. 

 Report on the Ostracoda dredged by H.M.S. ' Challenger ' during the years 1873-6. 



By George Stewardson Brady,' M.D., F.L.S. 

 Report on Certain Hydroid, Alcyonarian, and Madreporarian Corals procured 



during the Voyage of H.M.S. ' Challenger,' in the years 1873-6. By H. N. 



Moseley, M.A., F.R.S., &c. 



The following Papers and Report were read : — 



2. On the Classification of Birds. 

 By P. L. Sclater, 'M.A. Ph.D., F.R.S. 



The author commenced by a «hort account of the principal modes of arranging the 

 Class of Bii"ds put forward by naturalists since the days of Linnaeus, who, in the 

 first edition of the ' Systema Naturae' (1766), had divided them into six orders (table 

 i). This had been quite superseded in 1817 by the more natural system propounded by 

 Cuvier in his ' Regne Animal' (table ii.) which, with slight modifications, had met 

 with almost universal adoption — at least in this coimtry — up to a recent period. In 

 spite of the assaults made upon it by the anatomists and osteologists of Germany, 

 and notwithstanding, in particular, the advanced views of Nitzsch, put forward in his 

 various wi'itings (see table iii.) and especially in his celebrated ' Pterylography,' in 

 which the mode of arrangement of the feathers on the bodies of birds was first pro- 

 posed to be taken into consideration, the Cuvierian system had held its ovra, and 

 in fact was still in use by the great majority of ornithologists. About twelve years 

 ago, however, Prof. Huxley had taken up the subject of the classification of Birds 

 in his usual zealous and original way, and from quite a new point of view. Prof. 

 Huxley, treating birds mainly from their bones and as if they were extinct animals 

 of which these parts of their structure only were known, had proposed an entirely 

 new plan of arrangement (table iv.), based mainly upon the characteristic variations 

 of the palatal bones, which had passed almost unnoticed by previous writers. The 

 author, who had long been dissatisfied with the Cuvierian system, which with 

 certain modifications he had employed up to 1872, had in that year been constrained 

 to consider the whole subject iu order to decide what arrangement should be 

 adopted in the ' Noinenclator Avium Americanarum ' (a joint work by Mr. 0. 

 Salvin and himself), then ready for publication. Having, as already stated, long 



