150 SIBERIAN JAY. 
Appendix to the Aves of the Fauna Boreali Americana, 
has formed a distinct genus, under the name of Dysor- 
nithia, of which he gives the American Jays—Canadian 
and Short-billed—with this bird as the type. Thus 
carrying into practice the remarks acutely made by 
Temminck that these Jays form good species for multi- 
pliers of genera, and that among the foreign Omnivore 
they will find a vast field for the development of their 
new views. I hope this observation will not be con- 
strued into any disparagement of so great and original 
a naturalist as Swainson. The accuracy of his descrip- 
tions, the clearness and elegance of his language, the 
able criticism by which he unravelled the obscurity 
which the verbiage and synonymic lumber of many 
bygone writers had thrown around different species, 
will long render his name distinguished among the 
philosophic naturalists of the age which he adorned. 
But with all this it must be admitted that im the 
separation of closely allied species into different genera, 
often to favour his well-known views, he has done 
much to retard the attainment of a natural system of 
classification. The Jays were originally classed by 
Linneus among the Crows. ‘Temminck and others 
followed the same plan. Brisson, however, originally 
had classed them separately, under the generic name of 
Garrulus, which Vieillot, in 1817, restored, and he 
has been followed by almost all other authors of 
eminence, including Temminck, in the third edition of 
his Manual. 
There have been few if any naturalists equal to 
Brisson for accuracy of observation, and the writers on 
ornithology of the present age paid a just tribute to 
his genius, by adopting his classification of this and 
many other well-defined groups. No classical learning 
