558 Classification, of Birds. 



Swainson's views in regard to this curious bird are correct, its form 

 and structure apparently bringing it much closer to some of the 

 grallatoriai families, and we can only attribute its present station to 

 the circumstance of the author never having seen or examined a 

 specimen. 



The concluding half of the volume is occupied with " a Synopsis 

 of the Natural Arrangement of Birds/' in which the whole of the or- 

 ders, families, and other minor divisions are arranged in that series, 

 which the latest researches of the author indicate to be most in 

 consonance with their direct affinities, and consequently with that 

 order which they occupy in nature. Upon an inspection of this 

 synopsis, it will be observed, that the distribution of the groups in 

 some cases is different from what they appear in the text, but this, 

 he observes, " has resulted from further analysis, and by incorpo- 

 rating his researches up to the latest time." These changes, indeed, 

 are mostly of minor importance, that is, they do not interfere, or 

 are at variance with the principle of his arrangement, being mostly 

 confined to such forms or groups as had not previously undergone a 

 searching analysis, or which, as osculant species, and showing a 

 double affinity, it was difficult, without additional information, to 

 locate in the groups to which they are in reality most nearly allied. 

 The nomenclatural department, it will be seen, has undergone con- 

 siderable change ; several new genera have been added, and many 

 generic and specific names introduced by other writers have been 

 altered. With the first class we find no fault, so long as the forms 

 present characters of sufficient importance to warrant generic dis- 

 tinction. With the other, though we do not approve of all the innova- 

 tions introduced, we nevertheless think the names are generally, as 

 being more classic in their derivation, preferable to those for which 

 they are substituted ; and further, that an author is justified in 

 making such changes whenever the rules of nomenclature, as laid 

 down by the ' fathers of science,' have been palpably violated or ne- 

 glected, otherwise it is impossible a system of classic nomenclature 

 can ever be established or insured. Upon quitting this part of the 

 volume, we shall just glance at one or two forms, whose situation, if 

 not inappropriate, we at least deem doubtful, with the limited infor- 

 mation at present possessed of their habits and economy. The first 

 is that of his Catheturus Australis, (the Alectura or New Holland 

 vulture of Dr Latham,) which he places among the Vulturidae, of 

 which family he considers it the rasorial type, though he had pre- 

 viously assigned that station to the Dodo of authors, — a bird of whose 

 existence at any period, under the form generally represented, we 

 have always been very sceptical. Our own impression, from a mi- 



