452 Classification of Birds. 



been given, the path pointed out ; and we confidently hope to see 

 the various circles of these orders as fully and beautifully elucidat- 

 ed:, either by the author, or the labours of other ornithologists who 

 work in the same vineyard, as those of the orders Raptores and In- 

 sessores. 



By those who are opposed to the Macleayan theory, or who 

 have not studied natural history in the analytical mode pursued by 

 Mr Swainson, it may be objected, that he has made his arrangement 

 subservient to his theoretical views ; that is, he has, to prove the 

 correctness of that theory, introduced and forced forms into situa- 

 tions they actually do not, or at least which he cannot satisfactorily 

 prove, they occupy in nature. Now this we think is not the case, 

 and that no systematist is less guilty of such a charge. We have 

 punctually followed him pretty extensively in that analytical detail 

 which he pursued, and so strongly recommends, and we must con- 

 fess, it is only in a very few instances we have been obliged to dif- 

 fer from him in our conclusions. 



This volume, like the rest of the work, is well got up, and is il- 

 lustrated with a profusion of wood-cuts, all of which are intimately 

 connected with the subject matter, and tend to elucidate what it i.^ 

 often very difficult to make intelligible or clear by mere verbal de- 

 scription. The fourth or concluding part of the volume is a " sy- 

 nopsis of a natural arrangement of birds," in which the reader will 

 find the whole of the acknowledged genera up to the present time, 

 arranged under the dififerent orders to which they belong. In thi: 

 synopsis, " some slight alteration in the arrani2,ement of the group 

 from what they appear in the foregoing part" will be observed ; but 

 this, he observes, " has resulted from further analysis, and by in- 

 corporating our researches up to the latest time." 



Mr Swainson, it will be recollected, concluded his last volume 

 with observations on the Insessorial or perching order, its primary 

 divisions, and the analogies of the dentirostral tribe. The present 

 commences with the enumeration of the families of this prominent 

 division, viz. the Laniadce, the Merulidce, the S?/lviadai, the Am- 

 pelidce, and the Muscicapidce ; the three last forming the aberrant 

 divisions, the Laniadce and Merulida;, the typical and subtypical 

 groups. The family of the Laniadce, with which he begins his ex- 

 position, from the rapacious habits of its typical representatives, and 

 strongly notched bill, he justly considers as analogous to, or repre- 

 senting the Raptores. He finds it composed of the five following mi- 

 nor divisions or sub-families, viz. Tyrannince or tyrant shrikes ; Ce- 

 hlepyrirne, or caterpillar-eaters ; Dicrurince, or drongo shrikes : 



