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ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



science, are safe and sure. The circularity of the pri- 

 mary groups, upon the whole, has been successfully 

 established, by Mr. Vigors *, and very many of the natu- 

 ral families rightly located ; but as this was the result 

 of synthesis, — in other words, an implicit adoption of 

 the theory of Mr. Macleay, so it naturally followed that 

 the theoretic errors of one would be transferred to the 

 other : and as this sketch, as the author himself desig- 

 nates it, of the leading affinities among birds, is evi- 

 dently not the result either of analysis, or of an intimate 

 acquaintance with the details, there was left abundant 

 room for improvement in every way. Having already 

 pointed out the fundamental errors of both these theories, 

 and the effects they have produced in their application t, 

 they need not be again adverted to. In the same year 

 another attempt was made to see how far the theory of 

 Mr. Macleay could be substantiated in a single family of 

 birds, the investigation being carried on, not by syn- 

 thesis, as in the former case, but by anal sis ; — the only 

 sure basis of inductive philosophy. The results which 

 followed are already before the public. Both these at- 

 tempts, however , so far as regards a system of ornithology , 

 are partial and imperfect. The paper of Mr. Vigors, 

 enumerates only the families^, and these, although indi- 

 cated, can scarcely be said to be denned ; while, from 

 the nature of the subject, very few groups of the order 

 Insessores are analysed in the Fauna Boreal 'i- Ameri- 

 cana, with the necessary degree of rigour. To those who 

 are acquainted with the difficulties and tediousness of 

 analysis, no apology will be necessary for the partial 

 treatment of the groups contained in the last mentioned 

 work. Neither dismayed or disheartened by these diffi- 

 culties, we have slowly but steadily prosecuted the same 

 mode of investigation ; our present treatise will con- 



* Linnsean Transactions, vol. xiv. Northern Zoology, vol. ii. Intro- 

 ductory Observations. 



f Northern Zoology, vol. ii. preface. Classification of Animals. 



X The catalogue of genera, &c. by the same author, being a mere list of 

 names, does not, of course, possess any authority. Indeed, it leaves every 

 one to make out the supposed affinities as best he can. 



