774 HUXLEY AND HIS WORK. 



on ornithology. The birds with feet adapted for swimming by the 

 development of webs between the toes or for wading by elongation of 

 the legs were set apart from those fitted mainly for progress on land 

 or through the air: in other words, from those having negative char- 

 acters in such respects. The major subdivisions of those groups, too, 

 were almost solely distinguished by superficial characters of little 

 importance, such as the form of the bill, the character of the claws, 

 and the combinations of toes. Variations in such trivial characters, 

 which in other classes of vertebrates would be esteemed of little sys- 

 tematic value, were assigned ordinal rank. Comparative anatomy, 

 too, was almost entirely neglected in the classification of birds; even 

 most anatomists were content to limit their observations to simple 

 irrelative details or to interject them into the framework of existing 

 arrangements. Such was the state of ornithology in 1867 when Hux- 

 ley published, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 

 a memoir "On the classification of birds, and on the taxonomic value 

 of the modifications of certain of the cranial bones observable in that 

 class." In this he discarded the characters generally used and allowed 

 himself to be influenced by the modifications to be found in the skele- 

 ton without reference to the habits or habitats of the birds. He 

 reduced the orders to three — the Saururre (extinct), the Ratitse, and 

 the Carinatse. The last, including almost all the living forms, were 

 divided into primary groups defined by modifications of "the bones 

 which enter into the formation of the palate." " Four different 

 modes" were recognized and were "called, respectively, the Dromceog- 

 nathous, Schizognathous, JDesmognathous, and JEgithognathous arrange- 

 ment" (p. 425). It was urged that "these cranial characters may 

 safely be taken as indications of natural affinities" (p. 454), and Huxley 

 proposed "to regard these divisions as suborders, and to name them 

 Dromceognathce, Schizognaihce, Desmognathw, and JEgithognathce (p. 456). 

 The last three suborders were divided into groups with the termina- 

 tion -morphse, as iEtoinorphre (Raptores), Psittacomorphse (Psittaci), 

 etc., not taxonomically designated, but essentially equivalent to " super- 

 families." The JEgithognathous " Coracomorphge " corresponded with 

 the "Passeres" as limited by recent naturalists, and Huxley was 

 "disposed" to divide it "into two primary groups, one containing 

 Menura, and the other all the other genera." How the immense aggre- 

 gate represented by all the Other genera were to be subdivided Huxley 

 did not venture to decide, but he leaves the impression that he had 

 little respect for the numerous "families" which had been recognized 

 by most ornithologists. 



The value of this work consisted chiefly in disturbing the old classi- 

 fications and calling attention to the proper method of investigation. 

 Much of it, nevertheless, appears to have been of permanent value, 

 and most of the super-families at least have been recognized as natural 

 assemblages, although still generally given ordinal or subordinal rank 



