— 474 — 



seat in the order of precedence in the bird- world, his 

 honored place being rilled by the thrush family : the 

 jaunty robin-red-breast, or his sweet musical cousin, 

 the wood thrush. But even his celestial morning sym- 

 phonies failed to protect him, the Orpheus of our woods, 

 from the onslaught of modern systematists. He " was 

 not sufficiently typified," they proclaimed, and, presto, 

 Orpheus had to retire, when a very unmusical, cheer- 

 less fellow, a member of the grebe clan, rushes to the 

 front, and looks as if he had come to stay. (Laughter 

 and applause.) 



" You are correct, says Mr. Chamberlain, in assuming that 

 the Grebes are considered the lowest forms of birds and are 

 placed first in a systematic arrangement to be consistent with 

 the principle of evolution. The " American School of Orni- 

 thologists " as some of them delight to call themselves, are 

 of the extreme type of evolutionists. They treat all matter con- 

 nected with it as though evolution was a proven fact instead 

 of an hypothesis. 



Acting more under the inspiration of this, they place the 

 Grebes first because they consider that all birds were origin- 

 ally of a similar stage of developement. Just how a Thrush 

 grew from a Grebe is not quite clear to me, but these scien- 

 tific gentlemen say they see it quite clearly. 



The Eagles were formerly placed first because the syste- 

 matists of an earlier age considered them the most highly 



peculiarities include swimming on the water, hopping on the 

 ground, perching on trees, hopping nimbly from branch to 

 branch, and making their presence known by their character- 

 istic and melodious voices, we readily see the justice of 

 giving the first place to the passeres or perching birds, all of 

 which have a much higher organization than the birds of 

 prey. This arrangement is adopted generally by both Dr. 

 Coues and Mr. Ridgway, yet they differ slightly in detail, one 

 giving the first place to our familiar garden songster, the 

 robin, and the other to the wood-thrush, a handsome bird of 

 shy and retiring habits, seldom seen except in its favorite 

 haunts in the bush." — Thos McIlwrait, in 1S85. 



Alas ! the reasonable wish of the learned author of The 

 Birds of Ontario appears as far as ever from fulfilment. The 

 robin and the wood-thrush have to give up their place to the 

 grebe. 



