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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XLI 



subfamily being subdivided into five lesser groups.^ But a few 

 years later (1864-66) this constitution was followed by the far 

 more accurate work of Coues, though that distinguished ornithol- 

 ogist complains of "having suffered not a little from imprudence 

 in believing Bonaparte/' whom to some extent he followed, but 

 upon the whole has given us a more natural classification of the 

 Tubinares.^ 



Both Bonaparte and Coues based their classification upon 

 the topographical anatomy of the birds of the suborder we are now 

 considering, but this was not the case with Eyton nor with Milne- 

 Edwards; nor with Huxley who followed them.^ All these 

 distinguished authors dealt more or less thoroughly with the 

 osteology of many of the Tubinares, as well as with such char- 

 acters as procellarine species presented externally. Eyton fig- 

 ured the bones of the skeleton of several varieties of Albatrosses, 

 and forms related to them, Milne-Edwards pointed out the 

 relations existing among Petrels, Gulls, and the Steganopodes ; 

 showing that the first two were more or less closely akin, and both 

 more remotely related to the last-named group of Birds. Huxley 

 in one of his groups of Schizognathous forms, the Cecomorphje, 

 in his celebrated paper, placed the Divers, the Auks, tlie (Julls, 

 and the Petrels in a group by theinsclvrs, and of the I- roct^llarida- 

 says that they "are aberrant forms, iticiiiiiiiii- towards the Cor- 

 morants and Pelicans among the 1 )esinouiiatha' " (/or. rif., p. 

 458). 



Next of importance we find Professor Uciiihardt u\ 1S7;5, touch- 

 ing upon certain anatomical characters of Petrels, Albatrosses, 

 and Puffins, and presenting his classification of the Group, and 

 to his paper the reader is referred, inasmuch as his results are 



' Conspectus generum avium, 1857, torn ii. pp. 184-206. 



2 Coues, E. Critical Review of the Family Procellariidae. Proc. Acad. 

 Nat. Sci. Phila. pt. 1, (pp. 72-91); pt. 2, (pp. 116-144); pt. 3, (pp. 25-33); 

 pts. 4 and 5 (pp. 134-197). Parts 1 and 2 appeared in 1864, and the remaining 



415-472. 



