﻿PROGRESS OF ORNITHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 195 



tain the results of the last six years' study, and whatever 

 may be its defects or deficiences, it neveitheless becomes 

 the only system of ornithology upon the circular princi- 

 ple of variation, yet given to the woild.* 



(167.) We now turn to the other point of view in 

 which the actual state of this science must be contem- 

 plated. We have seen that, so far as the principles are 

 concerned upon which it is now prosecuted, we are 

 upon safe and solid ground. Although these principles 

 are of very recent discovery, they will soon be verified in 

 this work by a mass of details in all parts of the animal 

 kingdom. By the labours and nice discrimination of 

 llliger, Cuvier, Vieillot, and Temminck, a very large 

 proportion of the most remarkable genera, or types of 

 form, have been detached from the Linnsean groups, 

 and distinctly named and characterised. All these, 

 together with near two hundred others, we shall here 

 attempt to refer to their natural rank and station. t 

 Our framework, therefore, is nearly complete, for it 

 may be questioned, whether from among the birds 

 already known from description, &c, more than forty 

 sub-genera will be found uncharacterised. But with 

 all this, our labour has not yet reached to that point 

 which is to make it productive of practical and or- 

 dinary purposes. The house is built, and the apart- 

 ments ready, but the furniture and the ornaments are 

 yet to be selected and arranged therein. In other 

 words, it is probable, that, out of six thousand species of 

 birds, described in the general systems now in use, not 

 more than one-fourth, certainly not a third, can be re- 

 ferred to the modern genera. The causes of this are 

 various. The progress of discovery has far outstripped 

 our inclination for suitable arrangement. The Linnaean 

 list of genera was almost stationary for fifty years, 

 although in that time our cabinets were probably aug- 



* For an account of the principal artificial systems of ornithology, the 

 reader is referred to the "Classification of Animals." However useful 

 such systems may be, they have nothing to do with philosophic zoology, 

 because they are not founded upon any one general principle. 



f This systematic arrangement will be given in the second volume. 



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