68 GENEBAL ORNITHOLOGY. 



dent, that when functional modifications happen to he coincident with structural affinities, — 

 as when the turning of the lower larynx into a musie-hox coincides with a certain type of 

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

 evidence. But since all sound taxonomy rests on morphology, on real structural affinity, we 

 must he on our guard against those physiological " appearances " which are proverhially 

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

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



Homology or Analogy may he thus summed : Birds are homologicaV/y related, or 

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

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

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

 hecause they are hoth fitted in the same way for the pursuit of their prey by flying under water. 

 A dipper (family Cinclidee) and a loon (family Colymhidee) are analogous, in so far as both are 

 fitted to pursue their prey by flying under water ; hut they stand near opposite extremes of the 

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

 structure being modified to attain the 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 in 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 climatal conditions ; not as successive tenants of 

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

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

 own, having no resemblance whatever to the plan of any other animal. For any reason we 

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

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

 anything in the nature of the case lead us to suspect a community of organization between 

 animals bo difierent in habit and in appearance as a porpoise and a gazelle, an eagle and a 

 crocodile, 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 classification as that now under 

 contemplation would be obviously impo.ssible; a moi-phological or structural classification 

 plainly implying morphological or structural resemblances in the things classified. 



" As a matter of fact, however, no such mutual independence of animal forms exists in 

 nature. On the contrary, the members of the animal kingdom, from the highest to the lowest, 

 are marvellously connected. Every animal has something in common with all its fellows; 

 much, with many of them ; more, with a few ; and usually, so much with several, that it 

 differs but little from 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 flist 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 answers the purpose 

 of a memoria technica, without which the mind would be incompetent to grasp and retain the 

 multifarious details of anatomical science. 



" But there is a second and even more important aspect of morphological classification. 

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



