1896.] Progress in American Ornithology. 369 



aims of ornithology is to establish the true relations of existing 

 and extinct forms of birds to each other, and to other groups 

 of animals that are either to be found living at the present 

 time, or else have existed during past ages of the earth's his- 

 tory. In other words, the true classification of birds is to be 

 sought for, and ornithology in this sees its most difficult prob- 

 lem and its final goal. 



But the knowledge of the origin of this most perplexing 

 group of vertebrates, their evolution, and our power to correctly 

 classify them can only come to us in one way, and that is 

 through a complete understanding of their structure, and a 

 comprehension of the anatomy of those groups more or less 

 nearly related to them. Other departments, however, can lend 

 great assistance here, and the avian taxonomist can have much 

 light thrown upon his arduous task through the revelations of 

 researches in the fields of physiology, of geographical distribu- 

 tion, nidology, paleontology, and other biological sciences. 



With these facts before us, it is with no little interest that 

 the taxonomist scans the pages of the second edition of " The 

 A. O. U. Check-List of North American Birds," with the view 

 of ascertaining what evidences there may be in the direction 

 of a better knowledge of the classification of our birds. There 

 may have been some excuse for the numerous symptoms of the 

 somewhat antiquated taxonomy that characterized the arrange- 

 ment of North American birds in the 1886 edition of the A. 0. 

 U. Check-List, but not so this last one, provided we find that 

 the earlier classification has been retained. For, be it known, 

 in the meantime, that is, from 1886 to 1895, the avian morph- 

 ologists had not been idle. There were very many useful sug- 

 gestions in the admirable work done by Dr. Stejneger that ap- 

 peared shortly before the 1886 edition was printed. This was 

 followed, in 1888, by the superb volumes of Fiirbringer, with 

 one of the most elaborate classifications of birds the world has 

 ever seen ; Seebohm, of England, had done a great deal, while 

 the present writer had published accounts of the osteology of 

 nearly every family of N. American Birds, and Mr. Lucas 

 stands prominent in his excellent anatomical work upon many 

 of the groups. English pens had contributed memoir after 



