28 
Sclater on the Sy sterna Avium. 
REMARKS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE 
SYSTEMA AVIUM. 
BY P. L. SCLATER.* 
It will be generally allowed, I believe, by all ornithologists that 
the System a Avium is not at present in a very satisfactory state. 
The Cuvierian arrangement and its modifications have been 
broken down by the criticisms of modern inquirers ; but no other 
system has arisen to take its place, or, at all events, has secured 
general adoption. The subject being, as will be universally 
allowed, one of the utmost importance, I have thought it possible 
that my brother workers might like to hear what my views are 
upon the question. 
Up to 1873, as regards general arrangements, I had acquiesced, 
more or less, in the modified Cuvierian system employed by G. 
R. Gray in his well-known works. I had, however, long before 
quite come to the conclusion that the true Passeres were the most 
highly developed order of birds, and should be placed at the head 
of the series, and that the Fissirostres and Scansores, which in 
Gray’s system merely figure as subdivisions of the Passeres, 
should stand as separate orders. I had also made up my mind 
that, as regards the subdivisions of the Passeres, M tiller’s dis- 
coveries as to the form of the larynx and the arrangement of its 
muscles could not be passed over. Accordingly, in the cata- 
logue of my collection of American birds, published in 1862, I 
arranged the three first orders of birds (as I then considered 
them), to which my collection was restricted, as follows : — 
Ordo Passeres. 
Sectio Oscmes. 
i. Turdidae. 
ii. Cinclidae. 
iii. Sylviidae. 
iv. Paridae. 
v. Certhiidas. 
vi. Troglodytidae. 
vii. Motacillidae. 
viii. Mniotiltidae. 
ix. Hirundinidae. 
x. Vireonidae. 
xi. Laniidas. 
xii. Ampelidae- 
xiii. Coerebidae. 
xiv. Tanagridae. 
xv. Fringillidae. 
xvi. Alaudidae. 
xvii. Icteridae. 
xviii. Corvid®. 
* From the “Ibis,” 4th ser., Vol. IV, No. 15, pp. 340-350, July, 1880. 
As comparatively few American readers of the Bulletin have ready access to the 
“Ibis” it has been deemed expedient to lay before them, in view of its high importance, 
Dr. Sclater’s memoir here reprinted. — Eds. 
