ORDER ACCIPITRES. 95 



tiplication of orders, and partly, in the case of the pachyder- 

 mata, to those gaps left in that order by the destruction of so 

 many ancient genera and species. Indeed, as to the division 

 of the carnassiers, it can only be considered as a provisional 

 one. There can be no doubt, but that a more perfect 

 acquaintance with some of its tribes must induce some altera- 

 tions of arrangement ; that, at least, the cheiroptera and 

 marsupialia must be separated from it. Similar observations 

 are applicable to the edentata, from which some modern natu- 

 ralists have seen the necessity of separating the echidna and 

 the ornithorhynchus. The genus equus inight also, perhaps, be 

 removed with propriety from the pachydermata. Setting aside 

 such exceptions, if they be so, there can be no hesitation in 

 deciding that the leading distinctions of the mammalia are, in 

 general, much more striking than those of the birds, and the 

 generic and specific distinctions are not less so. 



These are obvious reasons for the difficulties of classification, 

 and the temptation to multiply systems. But where this is the 

 case, the only alternative of the naturalist who desires to be 

 usefiil, is accuracy of description. We would not, like Bufibn, 

 abandon system altogether ; because it aids the memory, and, 

 if not conducted in a manner altogether arbitrary, serves to 

 show the actual inter-approximation of beings in nature itself. 

 But, after the example of that great Natural Historian, we 

 would lay much greater stress on facts than systems. We 

 would consider the faithful description of an animal, of its 

 disposition, and of its habits, as of infinitely greater import to 

 the progress of real knowledge, than the most complete exposi- 

 tion of all the systems of nomenclators, which, while they 

 enable pedantic vanity to shine in the coteries of scientific 

 fashion and folly, materially impede the study of zoology. 



As the grand divisions and races of mankind have appropri- 

 ated distinct portions of the earth as their habitations, so the 

 grand di^isions of the animal world are. for the most part. 



