86 
RAPTORES. 
falcons, and owls; the shrikes were for a time 
also admitted, and on the discovery of the 
African secretary, or snake eater, it was placed 
among the vultures ; but about the period we 
have just mentioned, a work was published in 
London, which, though destined from peculiar 
circumstances to have only a most limited circu- 
lation, was, nevertheless, in this country, the 
commencement of a new era in systematic 
arrangement. Macleay’s Horse Entomologies, 
to the few who possessed a copy, and could 
appreciate its views, gave a new incitement to 
work ; but the principles of the theory of repre- 
sentation being only in this work applied to the 
class of insects, few other naturalists took the 
trouble to investigate them, or to try their 
application to any other branch. Towards the 
end of 1823, Mr Vigors, well known as a zoolo- 
gist, in a paper read before the Linnsean Society, 
and published in its transactions, attempted to 
arrange the class of birds according to the theory 
proposed in Macleay’s Horse; and though we 
cannot subscribe to all the views which are laid 
down in this paper, we are fully aware of its 
great importance to ornithology at the time, and 
look upon it as most valuable in first pointing 
out many of the primary groups, and in calling 
attention to some curious and varied views. We 
may also remark, that the materials then to be 
