﻿202 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



Columba, &c, all of which he leaves nearly in the same 

 state as they are to be found in Latham, and other 

 Linnaean writers. In this respect his divisions are far 

 inferior to those of Vieillot, and even of Cuvier. We 

 deem it unnecessary to notice some other artificial 

 systems that have appeared more recently : some are 

 merely in the form of a catalogue, without a single de- 

 finition, or a single reason assigned for proposing the 

 new orders, families, &c, that occur throughout ; while 

 others seem to have been invented merely from caprice, 

 and in which the best known, and the most natural 

 affinities, are violated in every page. It is quite as 

 unnecessary that the student of modern ornithology 

 should trouble himself to become acquainted with all 

 these, as that a foreigner, desirous of acquiring the 

 English language, should begin with learning all the 

 provincial dialects of the different counties. We can 

 see no use, therefore, in bringing into notice a multi- 

 plicity of systems, which almost any one could have 

 invented, and which nobody follows. Of those here 

 mentioned the following is a list. 



Illiger, Caroli Illigeri D. Prodromus Svstematis Mamma- 

 hum et Avium : additis terminis zoographicis utriusque 

 classes, eorumque versione Germanica. Berolini, 1811. 1 

 vol. 8vo. 



Cuvier. Le Regne Animal distribue' d'apresson organisation. 

 Paris, 1817. 4 vol. 8vo. — Nouvelle edition. Paris, 1829. 

 5 vol. 8vo.* 



Vieillot. Analyse d' une Nouvelle Ornithologie Elementaire. 

 Par L. P. Vieillot. Paris, 1816. Pamphlet of 70 pp. 



Temminck. Manuel d' Ornithologie, on Tableau Systematique 

 des Oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe ; precede d'une 

 Analyse du Systeme general d' Ornithologie. Par C. J. Tem- 

 minck. Second Edit. Paris. 1820. 2 vol. 8vo. 



(1 72.) General systematic works, wherein not only 

 the divisions are defined, but the species are described, 

 are much more useful to the practical ornithologist, 



* The best English translation is that by Dr. M'Murtrie, in one thick: 

 octavo volume, the abridgement being confined to the descriptions of the 

 species, which are meagre, and not at all necessary to a knowledge of the 

 system. There are two others, much more expensive, but they are over, 

 loaded, either with badly executed plates, or verbose and ill digested additions. 



