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V. On JEgithogiMthous Birds (Part I.). By W. K. Parker, F.R.S., F.Z.S. 



Read February 18th, 1873. 



[Plates LIV. to LXII.] 



Introductory Remarks. 



J_ HOSE who take pleasure in ornithology know well that systematists, working for 

 the most part from external characters, are continually at a loss when some new and 

 mixed type, which will not fit into their plan, is brought before them. The pre- 

 sent race of ornithologists is a vast improvement upon the past, and, with greater 

 catholicity of mind, are not unwilling to receive help from workers who, not devoted 

 to birds alone, nor in any group to outward characters merely, are wont to dig deeper 

 for diagnostics. 



If any one shall say that taxonomic ornithology is full-blown and perfect, I would 

 ask. Why then do no two systematists agree together \ A hundred classifiers, a hundred 

 so-called systems. I suppose that the most violent raid ever made upon a people quiet 

 and secure was when Professor Huxley read his invaluable paper before this Society 

 (April 11, 1867) "on the Classification of Birds; and on the Taxonomic Value of the 

 modifications of certain of the cranial bones observable in that class. "^ 



I am proud in the consciousness of having been of some service to the author of that 

 paper, which is at once a model to work by and a platform to work upon. If such a 

 production were perfect, it would cease to grow; but its large, sinewy, and rather 

 awkward limbs give promise of something better than those full-grown but feeble 

 " systems " the skeletons of which have filled this valley of vision with their bones. 



I know it will be said — it has been said, that to take the palate merely as a means 

 for diagnosis is to be extremely partial, and that such characters will be misleading. 

 Such objections are natural enough to those whose minds are most richly stored with 

 a knowledge of the exquisite modifications of the outward structure of a bird, but 

 whose studies have not been based upon accurate morphological knowledge. 



Even the outward form of the face gives the key-note to the whole bird ; the human 

 face looking out from above the neck of a Girafffe would scarcely be more absurd than 

 a Hornbill's face mounted on the neck of a Swan. The head and face rule all things 

 else. Every modification in the organs of progression must be in correlation with that 

 deeper change which has taken place in the storied and labyrinthic walls of the head 

 So also, with regard to the other organs, chylopoietic, generative, and the like ; all these 



' See P. Z. S. 1867, p. 415. 



VOL. IX. — PART V. December, 1875. 2 a 



