CHAPTER VIII. 



THE ORDERS, 



A RRANGED as in the list of coloured plates, our 35 families will 

 -'*- be found to group themselves into the following i8 customary 

 ornithological orders. 



Passeres — Passeridas. 



PicarIjE — Cypselidae, Caprimulgidae, Picidre, Alcedinidas, 

 Coraciidge, Meropidse, Upupidre, Cuculidre. 



Strides— Strigidas. 



AcciPiTRES — Vulturidas, Falconidae. 



Steganopodes— Pelecanidfe. 



Herodiones — Ardeid<e, Ciconiidas, Plataleidte, Ibididre, 



OdontoglosSjE — Phcenicopteridae. 



Anseres — Anatidas. 



COLUMB^ — Columbidae. 



Pterocletes — Pteroclida2. 



Galling— Phasianidas. 



Hemipodii— Turnicidse. 



FulicarI/E — Rallidas. 



Alectorides— Gruidas, Otididai;. 



LIMICOL^, — Qldicnemidas, Glareolidse, Charadriidas, Scolopacidre, 



Gavi^ — Laridce. 



Pygopodes — Alcidas, Colymbidae, PodicipedidEe. 



TUBINARES— Procellariidae. 

 This, or something on similar lines, is the classification to be found 

 in most of the modern books on birds, the old arrangement into 

 Rapaces, Passeres, Scansores, Gallinaces, Grallae, and PaUnipedes, 

 as given in Stanley, for instance, having long since been abandoned. 

 But it is generally admitted that this classification is merely 

 temporary, and that a new system is inevitable. What this system is 

 to be, except that it will be an anatomical one, is not clear ; but it 

 seems probable that it will be based on the arrangement proposed by 

 Huxley in his paper in the " Proceedings'' of the Zoological Society for 

 1867, which arrangement, with a few changes, was that adopted by 

 W. K. Parker in his article on Birds in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

 Professor Huxley's paper appears in brief in his " Manual of the 

 Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals." He divides the birds into two 

 great groups : 



I. In which the metacarpals are not anchylosed together, and 



the tail is longer than the body — by the tail being meant 



that member itself and not the quill feathers it supports. 



II. In which the metacarpals are anchylosed together, and 



the tail is shorter than the body. 



To the first group belong the Saurur^ represented by the 



Archseopteryx, that curious extinct bird found fossil in the Upper 



Oolites of Solenhofen, which was about as big as a Rook, which had 



a long lizard-like tail of twenty separate vertebrae, all distinct from 



one another and carrying a pair of feathers, one on each side, and 



which had also two free claws to the wing, &c. 



E 



