XVI 
INTRODUCTION. 
Gavi^e as naturally coming next, instead of being divorced by the in tei position of Pygopodes, as 
proposed by the B.O.U. Committee *. Grall.e, Herodiones, Steganopodes, and Tubinares will then 
follow in the order named ; and I shall place Pygopodes after Anseres, closing the gieat Carinate 
division with the specialized group of Impennes or Penguins. Attei that, and concluding the work, 
will come a history of the Ratite forms in New Zealand (the various species of Apteryx), interesting 
not only on account of their low development but, as already explained, in lespect of theii relation t 
fVjp p'vtinpt S\TT?TTTTTTn\n?ci 4* 
In m y arrangement of the genera composing the great Order of Passer® I have for the most 
part followed the now well-beaten track of modern systematists ; but in some instances I have ventured 
to depart from it, giving my reasons in every case. For example, I have followed Piofessors Paiker 
and Newton in placing the Corvidae at the head of the Order instead of the Turdidae, and I have 
accordingly commenced my history of our Avifauna with an account of the New-Zealand Ciou. It 
must be acknowledged, however, that Glaucopis , instead of being a typical Giou, betiays ceitain 
strongly aberrant characters, and it is possible that we may hereafter have to alter its exact location. 
In the present unsettled state of Ornithological nomenclature I am anxious to avoid, as far as 
possible, the multiplication of names; but Glaucopis may prove to be one of those abnormal Anti 
podean forms of a very ancient fauna— generalized types though existing in a specialized form— which 
have no analogues or representatives in the Northern Hemisphere. In this event it must ultimately 
become the type of a new Family, to which the name of Glaucopididce might be appiopriately applied. 
At page 30 I have given my reasons for removing our two species of Thrush from the typical lur dulse 
and placing them in a new Family under the name of Turnagridse. So far, however, as the New- 
Zealand Ornis is concerned, alterations of this kind will not affect the generic arrangement of the 
groups in their mutual relation to one another. 
But, as remarked in my former Introduction, any system of classification, however excellent in 
itself, or ably conceived and elaborated, must of necessity be a provisional or tentative one, so long as 
our knowledge of the structural character and natural affinities of the vast majority of species continues 
so imperfect as it confessedly is at present. When the anatomy of every known biid on the face of 
the globe has been as fully investigated as that of the Rock-Dove ( Columba lima) was by the late 
Professor Macgillivray, and its life-history becomes as thoroughly known, then, but not till then, will 
it be possible to devise a system of arrangement absolutely true to nature. The aim and purpose of 
all classification being to aid the memory in its effort to comprehend and master the complex and 
ever varied productions of nature, or, in other words, to assist the mind by a ready association of ideas 
* “ Prof. Parker long ago observed (Trans. Z. S. v. p. 150) that characters exhibited by Gulls when young, but lost by them 
when adult, are found in certain Plovers at all ages, and hence it would appear that the Oavice are but more advanced Limicolce. 
The Limieoline genera Dramas and Chionis have many points of resemblance to the Landes; and on the whole the proper 
inference would seem to be that the Limicolce, or something very like them, form the parent-stock whence have descended the 
Gavice, from which, or from their ancestral forms, the AMcl.e have proceeded as a degenerate branch.”— Enc. Brit. vol. xviii. p. 45. 
t Professor Newton, in his able article “ Ornithology ” in the ‘ Encyclopaedia Britannica,’ in treating of the recent and existing 
forms of toothless Eatitm, says “ Some systematists think there can be little question of the Struihiones being the most 
specialized and therefore probably the highest type of these Orders, and the present writer is rather inclined to agree with them. 
Nevertheless the formation of the bill in the Apteryges is quite unique in the whole Class, and indicates therefore an extraordinary 
amount of specialization. Their functionless wings, however, point to their being a degraded form, though in this matter they 
are not much worse than the Megistanes, and are far above the Immanes — some of which at least appear to have been absolutely 
wingless, and were thus the only members of the Class possessing but a single pair of limbs.” 
