President's Address. 97 



the author stands even now unsurpassed; but it must be said 

 that his knowledge, according to internal evidence, was 

 confined to books and to the external parts of Birds' 



skins His attempt at classification was 



certainly better than that of Linnseus ; and it is rather 

 curious that the researches of the latest ornithologists point 

 to results in some degree comparable with Brisson's systematic 

 arrangement, for they refuse to keep the Birds-of-Prey at the 

 head of the Class Aves, and they require the establishment of 

 a much larger number of ' Orders ' than for a long while had 

 been thought advisable. Of such ' Orders ' Brisson had 

 twenty-six, and he gave Pigeons and Poultry precedence of 

 the Birds which are carnivorous or scavengers. But greater 

 value lies in his generic or sub-generic divisions, which, taken 

 as a whole, are far more natural than those of Linnseus, and 

 consequently capable of better diagnosis. More than this, he 

 seems to be the earliest ornithologist, perhaps the earliest 

 zoologist, to conceive the idea of each genus possessing what 

 is now called a ' type, 1 though such a term does not occur in his 

 work ; and, in like manner, without declaring it in so many 

 words, he indicated unmistakably the existence of sub- 

 genera — all this being effected by the skilful use of 

 names. 



"The success of Edward's work seems to have provoked 

 competition, and in 1765, at the instigation of Buffon, the 

 younger D'Aubenton began the publication known as the 

 Planches Enluminéez d'histoire naturelle, which, appearing in 

 forty-two parts, was not completed till 1780, when the plates it 

 contained reached the number of 1008 — all coloured, as its 

 title intimates, and nearly all representing Birds. " 



As Professor Newton records in a foot-note, these plates 

 were drawn and engraved by Martinet, who had executed the 

 plates for Brisson's work. In my opinion, there can be no 

 doubt that the artist took some of the figures in the ' Planches 

 Enluminéez ' from the engravings in Brisson's work, merely 

 altering the positions slightly, and I fancy that some of them 

 were coloured in the ' Planches,' from Brisson's descriptions, 

 rather than from the actual birds. 



" But Buffon," adds Professor Newton, " was not content 



