INTRODUCTION. xvii 



In Brisson's arrangement, published in 1760, they constitute with the Creepers his twelfth Order. By 

 Linnaeus in 1766, and Latham in 1790, they were placed in the class Piece, together with the Creepers, Hoopoes, 

 &c. In like manner they are associated with the same birds in the fourteenth order of Lacepede's arrangement, 

 published in 1799. In Duraeril's classification, proposed in 1806, they form part of his second Order, 

 Passerine Birds, and are associated with Kingfishers, Todies, Nuthatches, Bee-Eaters, Creepers, &c. They 

 form a distinct family of the second Order, Amhulatores, in the arrangement of Illiger published in 1811. 

 They also constitute a distinct family by themselves of the Tenuirostral Division of the order Passeres in 

 Cuvier's system of 1817. By Vieillot, whose arrangement was published about the same time, they form 

 part of the twenty-second family SijhkolcB, and are associated with Creepers, Sun-Birds, and Honey-Eaters. 

 By Temminck, in the second edition of his 'Manuel d'Ornithologie,' published in 1820, they were placed, 

 together with the Creepers, Sun-Birds, Hoopoes, &c., in his sixth Order, Ankodactylu In De Blainville's 

 arrangement, which appeared in the years 1815, 1821, and 1822, they form a separate family of the 

 Saltatores^ with the Kingfishers preceding, and the Crows following them. Vigors, in 1825, made them a 

 distinct family of his second Order, Insessores, — the preceding family being composed of the Sun-Birds, and the 

 succeeding one of the Promeropidce . Latreille in the same year placed them in the fourth family, Tenuirostres, 

 of the second Order or Passerine Birds, along with the Hoopoes, Promerops, Sun-Birds, &c. Lesson, in 

 1828, made them the eighth family of the hisessores, and associated them with the Sun-Birds, Creepers, &c. 

 By Boie they were divided, in the * Isis ' for 1831, into eleven genera, viz. Bellatrix, CalVmhlow, Glaucis, 

 Anthracorax, Heliactin, Hylocharis, BasUinna, Chnjsolampis, HeliothnoD, Smaragdites, and Eulampis. Swainson, 

 in 1837, constituted them the third family of the Tenuirostres, with the Sun-Birds preceding, and the 

 Promeropidse and Hoopoes succeeding them. In Mr. G.R.Gray's ' List of the Genera of Birds,' published 

 in 1841, and in his great work ' On the Genera of Birds,' completed in 1850, they form the third family of 

 the Tenuirostres. In the ' Conspectus Systematis Ornithologise ' of Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, given 

 to the world a few years before his lamented death, they form Stirps 17 mspensi, of his second Order 

 Passeres ; and Tribe Volucres, with the Hoopoes and Promerops placed before, and the Swifts and Swallows 

 after them. In his ' Conspectus Generum Avium ' they form the eleventh family of the Insessores, with the 

 Swifts preceding them, and are succeeded by the Phytotomidce or Plant-Cutters. In his *' Conspectus 

 Trochilorum," published in the 'Revue et Magasin de Zoologie' for May, 1854, they form the seventy- 

 second family of his Passerine Birds. In Dr. Reichenbach's arrangement, in Cabanis's 'Journal fur Ornitho- 

 logie' for 1853, they are fancifully divided into groups of Fairies, Elfs, Gnomes, Sylphs, &c. ; and in his 

 ' Trochilinarum Enumeratio ' he places these birds between the true Creepers on the one hand, and the 

 Hoopoes on the other. By Cabanis, the latest writer on the subject, they are placed with the Swifts and 

 Goatsuckers, in his 3rd Order, Strisores, and Tribe Macrochires. 



Ornithologists of the present day consider them to be more intimately allied to the true Swifts than to 

 any other group of birds. This view of the subject is supported by the fact of the Humming-Birds, like 

 the Swifts, having most ample wings, and a bony structure very closely assimilating ; and this alliance is 

 still further exemplified in some parts of their nidification, the number and colour of their eggs, &c. It is 

 not to be expected that, with this subject before me for so many years, I should have been inattentive to 

 the consideration of the place these birds should occupy in our attempts at a natural arrangement ; and 

 while I admit that they are somewhat allied to the Swifts, they are so essentially distinct from these and all 

 other birds, that they might be separated into a distinct Order with quite as much (if not greater) propriety 

 as the Pigeons when considered in relation to the Gallinaceous Birds. They have certain characters, dispo- 



