68 GENERAL OUNITHULOaY. 



dent, that when functional nuidifications happen to be coincident with structural affinities, — 

 as when the turning of the lower larynx into a music-box coincides with a certain type of 

 structure, — such modifications are of the greatest service in classification, as corroliorative 

 evidence. But since all sound taxonomy rests on morphology, on real structural aifiuit}', wo 

 must be on our guard against those physiological "appearances" which are proverbially 

 " deceptive." I trust I make the principle clear to the student. Its practical application 

 is another matter, only to be learned in the school of experience. This matter of 



Homology or Analogy may be thus summed : Birds are homolorjically related, or 

 naturally allied or affined, according to the sum of like structural characters employed fur 

 similar purposes ; they are analogically related, only according to the sum of unlike characters 

 employed for similar purposes. A loon and a cormorant, for instance, are closely affined, 

 because they are both fitted in the same way for tlie pursuit of their prey by flying under water. 

 A dipper (family Cinclida;) and a loon (family Coh/mhidep) are analogous, in so far as both are 

 fitted to pursue their prey by flying under water ; but they stand near opjiosite extremes of tlie 

 ornithological system ; they have little affinity beyond their common birdhood ; very different 

 structure being modified to attain tlie same end. So again, conversely, the crow has vocal 

 organs almost identical in structure with those of the nightingale, and the organization of the 

 two birds is iu other respects very similar ; their affinity or homology is therefore close, though 

 the crow is a hoarse croaker, the nightingale an impassioned musician. 



The Reason why Morphological Classification is so important as to justify or even 

 require its adoption has been very clearly stated by Huxley, whose words I cannot do better 

 than quote in this connection. Speaking of animals, not as physiological apparatuses merely; 

 not as related to other forms of life and to cUmatal condhions ; not as successive tenants of 

 the earth ; but as fabrics, each of which is built upon a certain plan, he continues : " If is 

 possible and conceivable that every animal should have been constructed upon a plan of its 

 own, having no resemblance wliatever to the plan of any other animal. For any reason wc 

 can discover to the contrary, that combination of natural forces which we term Life might 

 have resulted fi-om, or been manifested by, a series of infinitely diverse structures ; nor would 

 anything iu the nature of the case lead us to suspect a connnunity of organization between 

 animals so difl'ereut in habit and iu appearand? as a porptiise aud a gazelle, an eagle and a 

 croctidile, or a butterfly and a lobster. Had animals been thus independently organized, each 

 working out its life by a mechanism peculiar to itself, such a classiticatiun as that now under 

 contemplati(ui would be obviously impossible; a morphological or structural classification 

 plainly implying morphological or structural resemblances in the things classified. 



" As a matter of fact, however, no such mutual iniiep(nideuce of animal forms exists iu 

 nature. On the contrary, the members of the aninuil kingdom, fi-om the higlu'st to the lowest, 

 are marvellously connected. Every animal has something iu comn\ou with all its fellows; 

 much, with many of tliem ; more, with a few; and usually, so much M-ith several, that it 

 differs but little frijui them. 



" Now, a morphological classification is a statement of these gradations of likeness which 

 are observable in animal structures, and its objects and uses are manifold. In the first place, 

 it strives to throw our knowledge of the facts which underlie, and are the cause of, the similar- 

 ities discerned, into the fewest possible general propositions, subordinated to one another, 

 according to their greater or less degree of generality ; and in this way it ansM'ers the purpose 

 of a memoria teehnica, ^vithout which the mind would be in(Mimpetent to grasp and retain tlie 

 multifarious details of anatomical science. 



" But there is a second and even uKu-e important aspect of morjihological classification. 

 Every group in that classification is such in virtue oi certain structural characters, which are 



