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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVIII. 



combination of definite features, which are characteristic of the 

 group, and of that group alone, be it Order or Suborder" (p. i). 



Finally, in many of the " Manuals " and " Keys " and " Hand- 

 books " and " Check Lists " published in various countries, we 

 have other classifications, but these, inasmuch as they do 

 not enter upon the subject in its entirety, are apt to be more 

 or less unsatisfactory and often misleading. The Check-List of 

 North American Birds, prepared by a Committee of the Ameri- 

 can Ornithologists' Union" (Second and Revised P^dition, 1895), 

 is a very good example, for in it we find a classification that 

 although it would be of great credit to a taxonomer of the Cur- 

 vierian epoch, it certainly can now only be regarded in the light 

 of a curious bit of antiquated literature which it would be diffi- 

 cult to fit into any modern taxonomy of the Class Aves 

 published since the days of such worthy pioneers as Nitzsch, 111- 

 iger, and Muller. As cited above this classification appeared 

 in 1895, yet in 190 1 when Ridgway, who was a member of the 

 aforesaid Committee responsible for the classification in the 

 "A. O. U. Check-List," published his own taxonomic scheme 

 the latter differed so markedly from the former that to compare 

 them is quite like making a comparison of Wilson's old single- 

 barrel, flint-lock gun with the finely finished modern double- 

 barrelled, hammerless piece now in the hands of the present day 

 ornithologist. 



It would seem that we at least ought to be in position at the 

 present time, or certainly in the very near future, to decide upon 

 the main groups into which the Class Aves is naturally to be 

 divided, yet such is by no means the case. This is the more 

 remarkable, inasmuch as all the important part of the develop- 

 ment of avian classification dates no further back than the one 

 proposed by Huxley in 1867, This scheme belongs to the liter- 

 ature of the Darwinian epoch and was influenced by what was 

 then known of the law of organic evolution, and consequently is 

 the first scheme of classification worthy of our consideration. 

 Huxley divided the Class into three orders, the Saurur^e, the 

 RatitzE, and the Carinatae, and these three orders were divided 

 into their suborders and certain groups. 



Seven years later, or in 1874, appeared the well-known classi- 



