BIRDS 



SUPPLEMENT. 



I HAVE endeavoured, in the subsequent pages, to 

 arrange all the published genera of birds (with the 

 exception of the Natatores) in conformity with the 

 excellent views developed by the learned author of 

 Horae Entomologicae, and so admirably illustrated by 

 my friend Mr. Vigors, in his valuable paper recently 

 published in the fourteenth volume of the Linnean 

 Transactions ; as they appear to be more strictly in 

 accordance with nature than any that have hitherto 

 been promulgated ; and I trust they will contribute 

 towards the removal of the opprobrium under w^hich 

 the ornithologists of this country, for the most part, 

 unfortunately labour, from their observations being 

 chiefly confined to the description of the plumage 

 alone of birds, without any reference to their anato- 

 mical structure, or physiological economy, combined 

 with the fact, that their arrangements (with few recent 

 exceptions) are forced into unnatural groups by a too 

 rigid adherence to the nomenclature of the celebrated 



V. XIII. p. II. 1 



