150 SIBERIAN JAY. 



Appendix to the Aves of the Fauna Boreali Americana, 

 has formed a distinct genus, under the name of Dysor- 

 nithia, of which he gives the American Jays — Canadian 

 and Short-billed — with this bird as the type. Thus 

 carrying into practice the remarks acutely made by 

 Temminck that these Jays form good species for multi- 

 pliers of genera, and that among the foreign Omnivorce 

 they will find a vast field for the development of their 

 new views. I hope this observation will not be con- 

 strued into any disparagement of so great and original 

 a naturalist as Swainson. The accuracy of his descrip- 

 tions, the clearness and elegance of his language, the 

 able criticism by which he unravelled the obscurity 

 which the verbiage and synonymic lumber of many 

 bygone writers had thrown around different species, 

 will long render his name distinguished among the 

 philosophic naturalists of the age which he adorned. 

 But with all this it must be admitted that in the 

 separation of closely allied species into different genera, 

 often to favour his well-known views, he has done 

 much to retard the attainment of a natural system of 

 classification. The Jays were originally classed by 

 Linnaeus among the Crows. Temminck and others 

 followed the same plan. Brisson, however, originally 

 had classed them separately, under the generic name of 

 Garrulus, which Vieillut, in 1817, restored, and he 

 has been followed by almost all other authors of 

 eminence, including Temminck, in the third edition of 

 his Manual. 



There have been few if any naturalists equal to 

 Brisson for accuracy of observation, and the writers on 

 ornithology of the present age paid a just tribute to 

 his genius, by adopting his classification of this and 

 many other well-defined groups. No classical learning 



