VI STRUCTUEE AND CLASSIFICATION OF MPtPS 



Garrod's intended work differed from either of these in that 

 he meant to preface it with a detailed account of Gallus. I 

 have not thought it useful to follow him in this ; for we 

 have an excellent treatise dealing with one particular bird type 

 in Dr. Shufeldt's book upon the ' Eaven.' Instead of this 

 I commence with a general sketch of bird structure, purposely 

 avoiding histological detail and the elaborate description of 

 anatomical facts which are not, in the present state of our 

 knowledge, of great use in classification. The main part of 

 this book is the account of the structure of the different 

 groups of birds. It was upon this aspect of the subject that 

 Mr. Garrod intended to dwell most fully. Dr. Gadow has 

 also treated bird anatomy from this point of view ; the con- 

 cluding section of his contribution to Bronn's ' Thierreich ' is 

 devoted to an enumeration of the distinguishing characters 

 of the groups of birds. I have, however, treated of this 

 matter more fully, and have incorporated more facts (some 

 of them recorded for the first time) in the systematic part of 

 my book, than did Dr. Gadow. I have felt it to be useless 

 to attempt to vie with Professor Fiirbringer's magnificent 

 treatise upon birds. To deal with all the organs of the body 

 as fully as he has done would require more space than it 

 would be probable that any publisher would be disposed to 

 allow me. I believe, however, that I have been able to note 

 Ihe principal facts in the anatomy of the different orders of 

 birds, and that nothing of first-rate importance has been 

 omitted. 



Moreover under each section I have referred to the 

 majority of the memoirs already published, so that the reader 

 can supplement, where it is necessary, the facts which I 

 myself detail. These references, I may remark, have been 

 (with a few exceptions) carefully verified ; and although my 

 bibliography of the subject is not complete it is, I hope, 

 without important deficiencies. 



The facts of bird structure contained in this book are to 



