﻿SQ8 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS, 



we ourselves, and other modern writers, describe as 

 <e new species/' or as " apparently unrecorded," have 

 actually been known to, and mentioned by, the older 

 ornithologists, could they themselves point out the de- 

 scription intended to be applicable ; but this sort of in- 

 formation cannot, of course, be obtained ; and we have 

 consequently no other resource than to give such a 

 description of our species as will save us from incurring 

 the same censure from those who come after us. 



(l68,) Another evil that has tended to throw our 

 correct specific nomenclature so immeasurably behind 

 our knowledge of forms, is the habit which some natu- 

 ralists of the present day have adopted, of distributing 

 the birds which they find described in the old systems, 

 under what they conceive to be their modern genera, 

 without having seen or examined the species them- 

 selves. Unfortunately for science, M. Cuvier first set 

 an example of this mode of proceeding, which has since 

 been followed up, especially by his translators, to such 

 an extent, that we have merely the confusion of the 

 Linnaean school revived, only under a different form. 

 These compiled classifications are even more detrimental 

 to a sound knowledge of ornithology than if the species 

 had been left in their original obscurity ; for the stu- 

 dent, seeing the new genera adopted, is led to believe 

 that the species placed under each have been ascertained 

 as truly belonging thereto ; whereas, perhaps, three or 

 four only have been actually examined, and the re- 

 mainder inserted merely from supposition : the orni- 

 thologist not being informed which is which. Of 

 the modern genus Tyr annus, for instance, it is very 

 questionable if one-half of the species enumerated as 

 such in Mr. Griffith's Cuvier really belong to it. Truth 

 obliges us to repeat that this is the general state of our 

 present position in regard to ornithological species, and 

 we mention it thus candidly that the student may really 

 understand the difficulties he will have to encounter 

 when he ventures to enter investigate species. 



(169.) But there are many exceptions to these 

 remarks, and we rejoice in enumerating them. With a 



