12 THE HISTORY OF ORNITHOLOGY 



the price of his volumes, of which he published two — one of 

 them on the Land Birds and the other the Water Birds. His 

 second edition of- this work was a much more creditable one 

 than the first. The recent revision of it by Mr. Montague 

 Chamberlain makes it, now, a most valuable and truly de- 

 lightful book for all Bird lovers. 



C. J. Sundevall, 1835-56. We are indebted to this dis- 

 tinguished Swede for a departure which gave to the classifica- 

 tion of the present day a most decided feature. He crystal- 

 lized the hints of Oken and the maturer judgments of Ehr- 

 enberg by his definition of the groups Altrices and Prcecoces, 

 and of the Birds which belong in each. These groups are 

 often regarded as of Sundevall's own creation. This is 

 hardly true in view of the previous definite statements of the 

 two gentlemen above named. Most of his work remains to- 

 day as much of an authority as when he wrote it. Ornitholo- 

 gists still follow closely his classification, and he is liberally 

 quoted, though essential features of his work are being modi- 

 fied by later authors who are leading writers in this and other 

 countries. He also made prominent the details in the use of 

 the wings and their coverts to separate his groups. C. G. 

 Ehrenberg, 1836, worked in harmony of thought with Oken, 

 and the two are usually mentioned together. The latter ex- 

 plained and solidified the work of the former. William 

 MacGillivray, 1836-52, was a Scotchman, whose Histories of 

 British Birds and Mammals has rendered his name famous in 

 this country as well as abroad. He was much esteemed by 

 Audubon, whose spirit of equity would justify to him a title 

 to accuracy and reliability. We cannot lightly pass over the 

 important labors of G. R. Gray, 1837-49, whose Genera of 

 Birds, as issued from the British Museum, as well as his other 

 Ornithological writings, though following Cuvier largely yet 

 with many important changes of his own, still forms, revised, 

 a very important source of reference even to-day. His sys- 

 tem was, however, much improved a little later by Vigors* 

 N. A. Vigors, 1829-39, whose work centers about this period, 



