ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



I. — On the Natural History and Relations of the Family of Cucu- 

 lidaz or Cuckoos, with a view to determine the series of their va- 

 riation. By William Swainson, F. R. &. L. S. &c. 



In submitting to the scientific world the result of my investiga- 

 tions on this and all other natural groups of the Animal Kingdom, 

 it is perhaps needless to premise that they have been conducted 

 with the object of accumulating additional proofs of the validity of 

 those views on the system of creation, the principles of which 

 have been so amply detailed in the treatise " on the Classification 

 of Animals," and illustrated by examples in that upon quadrupeds. 

 The ornithological volumes of the same series, now in the press, 

 will enable the unprejudiced naturalist to determine the truth or 

 fallacy of these views ; and whether my original propositions re- 

 ceive further confirmation in this most attractive department of 

 nature. It is nevertheless impossible, upon a subject so vast, to 

 enter into those minute details, in every instance, relative to each 

 family, which should alone satisfy the philosophic inquirer : espe- 

 cially where the object of the treatises just alluded to is rather the 

 condensation of results, than the detail of those facts upon which 

 these results are grounded. Some few of the groups of ornithology 

 have been analyzed in the Fauna Boreali- Americana, or Northern 

 Zoology, and others will be laid before the public, for the first 

 time, in the series above alluded to ; but the limited extent of two 

 volumes, to which the ornithological treatise is restricted, will oblige 

 me to confine the elucidation of the greater portion of the families 

 to a narrow compass. It is, therefore, with a view of supplying the 



NO. III. p 



