620 BIRDS. 



3. Division Carinat^. Flying Birds with a keeled breast bone. 



The detailed classification of Birds is difficult. There are so many 

 that ornithologists have not yet been able to decipher all their relation- 

 ships. It is only of recent years that anatomists like Huxley, and 

 embryologists like Parker, have placed the classification on a secure 

 foundation. 



For though the old classification of birds into snatchers (Raptores), 

 perchers (Insessores), climbers (Scansores), scratchers (Rasores), stilt- 

 walkers (Grallatores), and swimmers (Natatores) was interesting and 

 suggestive, yet it is easy to understand that an arrangement of this sort 

 may be misleading, since birds of entirely different structure may have 

 similar habits. 



Huxley classified birds according to the structure of their skulls, and 

 though this might seem a one-sided method of classification, its natural- 

 ness depends, as Parker notes, on the striking fact that "the structure 

 of the skull and face govern the whole body, as it were ; every other 

 part of the organism corresponds to what is observable there." 



Huxley's classification, slightly altered by Parker, is as follows : — 



A. The vomer broad behind, and interposing between the pterygoids, 



the palatines, and the basi-sphenoidal rostrum : — Drom.^o- 



GNATH.^. 



The Tinamous. 



B. Thevomer narrow behind ; the pterygoids and palatines articulating 



largely with the basisphenoidal rostrum. 



a. The maxillo-palatines free. 



1. The vomer pointed in front : — Schizognath.e. 

 The plovers, gulls, penguins, cranes, fowls, sand 



grouse, pigeons, the hoatzin, the goat suckers, the 

 humming birds. 



2. The vomer truncated in front : — .Egithognwth.I. 

 The passerines, swifts, and the hemipods. 



3. The vomerine halves permanently distinct, and the 

 maxillo-palatines arrested : — Saurogx.ath.e. 



The woodpeckers. 



b. The maxillo-palatines united : — Desmogxath.e. 



The birds of prey, parrots, cuckoos .and kingfishers, 

 ducks and geese, flamingoes, storks, and cormorants. 

 We give an outline of the arrangement of Carinatn; proposed by 

 Professor Gadow ; — 



Brigade I. 



1. Legion ColymbomomphK. 



1. Ichthyornithes ; the extinct Lthyornis, with teeth and 



biconcave vertebra;. 



2. Colymbiformes, e.g., grebe and dabchick. 



3. Sphenisciformes, e.g.^ penguins. 



4. Procellariiformes, t;.g.^ petrels. 



2. Legion Pelargomorpha.'. 



5. Ciconiiformes, e.g., storks, herons, solan goose, cormorant. 



6. Anseriformes, e.g., ducks, geese, and horned screamers. 



7. Falconiformes, e.g., falcons, vultures, hawks, eagles. 



