i867 LETTER TO PARKER ^O/ 



ing the reply, " c'cst si beau de trouvcr cites I'homme la seienee 

 unie a la jitstiee." 



He followed this up with another paper on " The Classi- 

 fication and Distribution of the Alectoromorphae and Hete- 

 romorphae " in 1868, and to the work upon this the fol- 

 lowing letter to his ally, W. K. Parker, refers : — 



Royal Geolog. Survey of Gt. Britain, 

 Jermyn Street, /ufy 17, 1867. 



My dear Parker — Nothing short of the direct temptation of 

 the evil one could lead you to entertain so monstrous a doctrine, 

 as that you propound about Cariamidae. 



I recommend fasting for three days and the application of a 

 scourge thrice in the twenty-four hours ! Do this, and about the 

 fourth day you will perceive that the cranial differences alone 

 are as great as those between Cathartes and Serpcntarius. 



If you want to hear something new and true it is this : — 



1. That Memora is more unlike all the other Passerines {i.e. 

 Coracomorphae) than they are unlike one another, and that it 

 will have to stand in a group by itself. 



It is as much like a wren as you are — less so, in fact, if you 

 go on maintaining that preposterous fiction about Serpentarius. 



2. Wood-peckers are more like crows than they are like 

 cuckoos. 



Aegithognathae 



Coracomorphae 



Cypselomorphae Gecinomorphae 



Desmognathae 



^Coccygomorphae./ 



3. Sundevell is the sharpest fellow who has written on the 

 classification of birds. 



4. Nitzsch and W. K. Parker * are the sharpest fellows who 

 have written on their osteology. 



5. Though I do not see how it follows naturally on the above, 

 still, where can I see a good skeleton of Glareola? 



None in college, B.M.S. badly prepared. — Ever yours faith- 

 fully, T. H. Huxley. 



* Except in the case of Serpentarius. 



