SYSTEMATICALLY ARRANGED BY DR. T. T. KAUP. 
the first rank among birds. This station has been given to them 
partly on the ground of a wrong idea of analogy, because the Fal- 
conince of the Falconidce reproduce the Psittacine type, though, 
according to their whole nature, they belong to the fourth stem ; 
and perhaps, also, there may he something of a slavish feeling, 
which is apt to consider blood-thirsty tyranny and the wrath of 
destruction, as marks of grandeur, which may have influenced the 
making of this arrangement. 
Were I to comply with the common usage, were I to place the 
Aquilince at the end of the Accipitres, and force Pandion to stand 
the last of them, in order to arrive at the rapacious group of Lestris , 
furnished with a cere ; or did I close with the Gypaetus , to connect 
them by Tacky petes with t\\Q Pelicanidce and Natatores as they 
are called, there would then he a better prospect of my arrangement 
finding some acceptance. I cannot, however, follow the beaten 
track, because I consider the Accipitres, like the Longipennes , &c., 
to constitute a particular sub-order of themselves, in which the 
types reappear in the families, subfamilies, &c., and because, hy 
pursuing this course, science would come to a stand still and become 
unfit for farther improvement. While I must blame the attempts 
which have been made to connect birds into one series, by means of 
analogous forms, in like manner I must think it altogether erro- 
neous if men, distinguished by genius and science, endeavouring to 
systematize on a large scale, think, that either by anatomy, or 
some exterior characteristic alone, they have found the “ philoso- 
pher’s stone,” and that by means of a large order like the Ornithes 
( Passeres ), as they call them, they may make divisions of large 
groups. These enemies to sound system, of whom some recent 
renowned anatomists, as T. Mulier, &c., are the chief, are forming 
a school, which, alas ! seems to condemn all those who think they 
have reason for pursuing an opposite course. 
If from the existence or the want of some small muscle of the 
lower larynx, anatomists think they have reason to exclude from 
the order Ornithes all the birds which are not possessed of the 
apparatus of singing muscles, and to separate the Cypseli from the 
Hirundinidce, Ampelis from Bombycilla, Pitta from the Turdince, 
&c., &c., then I must confess, that from such a method consistently 
pursued, the most artificial system will result. Such projects are 
truly worthy of Professor Muller’s discreet expression, “ Where is 
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