﻿230 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



lowing groups, which are those most numerous in nature, 

 and of course require the clearest designation : — 



m „ , • „ f Fissirostres, Dentirostres, 



Tribes ending as £ Fachydermes, Edentates. 



Families «. or aU - tfSZSSgg&t* 



r Snb.famil.es in. _ ^^^^ 



This plan of designating the groups in question has 

 been so extensively employed, more especially in orni- 

 thology, that it will now be adhered to by all who 

 desire to establish a fixed nomenclature. It is not so 

 material that the names of the higher groups should 

 have definite terminations, because they are compara- 

 tively so few, and are so well known, that the change 

 would not be productive of any real advantage. The 

 student will never be in danger, after his first lesson, of 

 supposing that the Fissirostres, for instance, is a group 

 equivalent to the Insessores, although both names ter- 

 minate the same. 



(186.) We now pass to the names of genera and spe- 

 cies. A genus or sub-genus, indeed, comprehends many 

 species ; but when we speak or write of an animal, we 

 call it by both these designations, just as we use the 

 Christian name of an individual to distinguish him from 

 the rest of his family. We shall not here revive the 

 long debated question, whether we should call a species 

 by its generic or by its sub-generic name ; since so 

 much may be said on both sides, that we think every 

 one, on ordinary occasions or in parlance, may be at 

 liberty to follow his own opinions upon this point. We 

 certainly incline to the side of those who contend that 

 the sub-generic name should be that which precedes 

 the specific ; provided, however, that the validity of the 

 sub-genus has been well ascertained. If we spoke, for 

 instance, of the fork-tailed tyrant, it appears better 

 to call it Milvulus furcatus (Milvulus being a sub- 

 genus) than Tyrannus furcatus {Tyrannus being 

 the genus). But when, as among the Falconidce, 

 ornithologists have made numerous and contradictory 



