IX PREFACE. 



the typical, the sub-typical, and the aberrant. The merit of first 

 uniting the Rasores, the Grallatores, and the Natatores into the 

 aberrant division of the class AVES, belongs to one no less ennobled 

 by birth than by philosophic knowledge. To Charles Lucien 

 Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, not only the eyes of America 

 but of Europe may be turned, as to one who seems destined by 

 Nature to confer imperishable benefits on this noble science. 



The family names, according to general custom, terminate in idee. 

 No authority can be quoted for these names, since they have been 

 used by many, in opposite senses, without having been defined *. 

 The names of the sub-families terminate in ince, or occasionally in ana,. 



In the progress of the work through the press, much new informa- 

 tion has been acquired -j-, but I am happy to say without occasioning 

 any other alteration in my views than such as regard the sub -genera 

 of the genus Linaria, which seems to enter that of Coccothraustes by 

 means of the Green Linnet (Loxia chloris, L.). Coccothraustes 

 melanura, vespertina, &c, thus constitute the Fissirostral type of this 

 sub-family, and preserve more closely its analogy to Bombycilla. 



The assistance I have received in this arduous undertaking has 

 been so important that, notwithstanding the possession of one of the 

 largest ornithological museums in Britain, I question much whether 

 it could have been prosecuted without the united support of men of 

 science, of learning, and of liberality. 



My first and greatest thanks are due to M. le Baron Cuvier, and 

 to M. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, to whom the nature of my object 

 in visiting the French Museum was made known, and from whom T 

 received facilities for studying, rarely granted either to foreigners or 



* On this point I shall, upon all occasions, act upon the following determination of the author of 

 the " Annulosa Javanica," " protesting " with him " against the slovenly mode lately adopted by some 

 naturalists," both in England and on the Continent, of publishing names without definitions — " In 

 these pages all names of mere catalogues, 8fc, shall be as much overlooked as if they never had existed." 

 Macleay, Ann. Jav., p. 10. 



t The opinion expressed at p. 173, that our Cinclus Amcricanus was different from the 

 Cinclus Pallasi, has been fully confirmed by a specimen of the latter bird sent from Nepaul, 

 and now in the possession of Mr. Gould. It perfectly agrees with the description given by M. 

 Temminck. 



