80 Classification of Birds. 



scientific naturalist it can be none, and it is not likely to be adopt- 

 ed by those for whom it is alone intended, viz. the unscientific, 

 or great mass of our population. No further proof, we think, is 

 wanted of the inutility and difficulty of substituting more appro- 

 priate vernacular names, for those now in general use, than in the 

 lists we have already seen published, where similar objections may 

 be urged against the new coined names as have been preferred 

 against the old. 



The next chapter, which concludes the introductory part of 

 the work, treats of collecting, preserving, and arranging birds. 

 Each of these heads, he discusses at considerable length ; and we re- 

 commend the attentive perusal of the chapter to all who think either 

 of collecting for themselves, or for the benefit of public institutions. 

 Under the first head he shows not only what foreign birds are best 

 worth collecting, (the most common,) but points out those countries 

 whose ornithology has hitherto been least investigated, directing 

 also the attention to certain groups, the knowledge of whose habits 

 and economy would be of great importance to the science. 



The Taxidermic directions are full and easily understood, but 

 are restricted to what is now termed leaving the specimens in their 

 shins, in contradistinction to those that are mounted or set up in the 

 attitudes of life. This is a mode now generally adopted by scien- 

 tific ornithologists who possess collections of their own, not only for 

 the convenience of stowage and room, but for the facility it affords 

 for comparative examinations, which can only be satisfactorily done 

 by handling and close inspection. 



We now come to the systematic part of the volume, commencing 

 with the Raptorial order or Birds of Prey. Of this order he considers 

 there are only three families now in existence, viz. the Vulturidx, 

 Falconidce, and Strigida; ; for the genus Gypogeranus, which Mr Vi- 

 gors thought might probably represent one of the primary divisions 

 of the order, our author thinks more likely, from its structure and 

 apparent affinities, to belong to the Vulturidse, probably constitut- 

 ing its grallatorial type. The typical and subtypical genera of the 

 Vulturidee are represented, the first, by the true vultures, of which 

 V.fulvus may be considered a type, the other by the American spe- 

 cies or genus Cathartes. The principal distinction between these 

 two groups consists in the opposite form of the nostrils, which in 

 the genus vulture are placed transversely across the bill, whereas 

 in Cathartes they are linear in form, and placed parallel with the 

 margin of the bill. The caruncles and wattles observed in certain 

 species of Cathartes he only considers in the light of secondary cha- 



