XXVI 
LINNiEAN SYSTEM. 
This is all which we are taught to believe “ the industry of 
man has been able to discover concerning it ; ” unless we suppose 
that Linnseus by this means the references which he gives to ante- 
cedent authors.* Pennant’s description of the bird, though he had 
before him, in manuscript, the admirable account of a genuine 
naturalist, White of Selborne, is no less brief and poor ; and 
Latham’s, though a little more circumstantial, is very meagre ; f 
while Cuvier’s is equally brief, and half of it consists of credulous 
absurdity, asserting as well authenticated, that it falls into a le- 
thargic state during the winter, and even that it passes that season 
at the bottom of marshy waters ! ! ! ” f Well may Dr. Fleming 
say, ‘‘ it is painful to advert to the second era of British Zoology, 
during which the artificial method of Linnseus occupied that place, 
which physiology had so successfully filled.” § Yet though Dr. 
Fleming deserves the esteem of every lover of nature for his Phi- 
losophy of Zoology, his subsequent work on the History of British 
Animals is more decidedly formed on the faulty model of the 
Linnsean school, than that of Pennant which he stigmatises, and 
has no pretensions whatever to the title of History : his account 
of the bank swallow, indeed, is much inferior to that of Latham. 
I may be told that these several works cannot be justly com- 
pared, as their objects are different; but I answer, that they all 
exhibit a similar character of Linnsean brevity, which I call defi- 
ciency, and consequently inaccuracy. 
In constructing his system of birds, Linnseus looked only at 
the various forms of the bill, whence he makes six divisions or 
orders, the water birds most unnaturally ranking in the third and 
fourth, and separating the pies and the poultry [Gallince.) In 
the descriptions of these orders, his inaccuracy in his attempts 
at generalization is very apparent. We were prepared for this, 
indeed, from his description of birds in general, which, he says. 
^ Ibid, page 3 ; “ Hoc nomeii indigitat quascunque de nominato capere 
beneficio seculi iimotuere.” — Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Intr. 
f Gen. Hist, of Birds, vii. 289. 
X Griffith’s Cuvier, vii. 61 . — “ Brune dessus et a la poitrine ; la gorge et le 
dessous blancs. Elle pond dans des trous le long des eaux. II parait constant 
qu’elle s’engourdit pendant I’hiver, et meme qu’elle passe cette saison au 
fond de I’eau des marais .” — Regne Animal^ Tome i. p. 396. 
§ British Animals, Pref. viii. 
