Sclater on the Sy sterna Avium. 
77 
less it may be said that Pandion approximates rather to the Stri- 
ges in the absence of the aftershaft. In a previous paper in this 
Journal* I have given my reasons for dividing them into two 
families (Strigithe and Asionidse), which Prof. Newtonf and Mr. 
Sharpe J likewise agree to. 
7. Accipitres. 
The Accipitres, which follow naturally next to the Striges, 
are primarily divisible, as shown by Prof. Huxley, § into three 
families, which I have termed Falconidse, Cathartidee, and Ser- 
pentariidae. Garrod goes much further than Prof Pluxley in 
distinguishing the two latter groups from the former. || The 
Cathartidae he holds to be much more nearly allied to the Storks 
than to the Falcon idae, , and Serpentarius (sive Gypogeranus ) 
he places, along with Cariama , among the Bustards. These 
two forms come in therefore in quite different parts of his “ Sys- 
tema.” I confess I am not quite able to go so far as this, though 
I freely allow that the Cathartidae (as already pointed out by 
Nitzsch, Pterylogr. p. 50) are in many respects very different 
from the rest of the Accipitres, and that the resemblance of Ser- 
pentarius and. Cariama is most remarkable. But on the latter 
point Burmeister,^ no mean authority, has come to quite an op- 
posite conclusion to Garrod. At any rate I see no justification 
for the course Mr. Sharpe has adopted (without stating any rea- 
sons) of placing Cariama among the Accipitres, still less for 
treating it as merely a genus of the subfamily Polyborime ! 
8. Steganopodes. 
Although it is very easy to point out the defects in the ar- 
rangement of the remaining orders of birds (the Gallinte, Gral- 
latores, and Natatores) adopted by Cuvier and his disciples, it is 
by no means easy to suggest a better one. Let us first consider 
some of the weak points of the ordinary system. In the first 
place it is evident that the u digit i palmati^ by which the Na- 
tatores are ordinarily characterized, ft is a very slight and super- 
* Ibis, 1879, p. 351. t Newton’s Yarrell, i. p. 148. 
I Cat. Birds, ii. p. 289. § P. Z. S. 1867, p. 462. 
|| Ibid. 1874, P* X 1 7 ' 
II “ Beitrage z. Naturgeschichte des Seriema,” Abh. nat. Ges. z. Halle, i. p. 11. 
ft Even by Sundevall, who says “ Nullo alio charactere opus est ! ” (Tentamen, p. 134). 
