88 CLASS AVES. 



as much information as possible, we propose giving a brief view 

 of such proposed arrangements of this class as deserve consi- 

 deration, and proceeding immediately to the physicalities, &c. 

 of the species. 



Aristotle did not treat of birds in a very methodical manner. 

 In the third chapter of his eighth book on animals, he notices 

 the various modes in which birds subsist ; observes that some 

 are carnivorous, others granivorous, and others polyphagous ; 

 that some take their food on land, and others seek it in the 

 waters. He speaks subsequently of birds which disappear in 

 winter ; and afterwards gives an enumeration of the species 

 then known, under their names merely, and for the most part 

 without description, so that it is impossible to recognise them. 

 In one chapter, however, he treats of the eagles pretty largely, 

 and especially of their habits. 



Pliny, in treating of birds, notices a tolerable number of 

 species, but neither describes nor classifies them. Belon (whom 

 we have noticed in our preliminary sketch) is the first author 

 in whom we find any thing like the elements of classification 

 on this subject. His work, very remarkable for the period in 

 which it was written, contains very just notions concerning the 

 analogy of structure between the birds and mammalia, more 

 especially in his comparisons of the skeletons. The divisions 

 of chapters in his first book proved that he was well acquainted 

 with those points of ornithology which must form the foundation 

 of that science. In his second book he treats of birds of prey, 

 diurnal and nocturnal ; and the order in which he considers 

 them, commencing with the vultures, &c. has not been changed 

 by modern naturalists. He places the cuckow at the end of the 

 diurnal birds of prey, and something in the form of the feet and 

 colours of the plumage seemed to justify this approximation. 

 But falling into the same error as the ancients, he places the 

 bat among the nocturnal birds. The third book treats of palmi- 

 pedes, such as ducks, cormorants, pelicans, &c. The fourth, 

 of river-biids not palmipedes, as the crane, heron, ibis, curlew. 



