194 ON TUE CLASSIFICATION OP BinHS. 
science^ are safe and sure. The circularity of the pri- 
mary groups, upon the whole, has been successfully 
established, by Mr. Vigors*, and very many of the natu- 
ral families rightly located ; but as this was the result 
of syntliesis, — in other words, an implicit adoption of 
the theory of Mr. Macleay, so it naturally followed that 
the theoretic errors of one would be transferred to the 
other : and as this sketch, as the author himself desig- 
nates it, of the leading affinities among birds, is evi- 
dently not the result either of analysis, or of an intimate 
acquaintance with the details, there was left abundant 
room for improvement in every way. Having already 
pointed out the fundamental errors of both these theories, 
and the effects they have produced in their applicationf, 
they need not be again adverted to. In the same year 
another attempt was made to see how far the theory of 
Mr. Macleay could he substantiated in a single family of 
birds, the investigation being carried on, not by syn- 
thesis, as in the former case, hut by anal) sis the only 
sure basis of inductive philosophy. The results wliich 
followed are already before the public. Both these at- 
tempts, however, so far as regards a system of ornitliology, 
are partial and imperfect. The paper of Mr. Vigors, 
enumerates only the famihesif, and these, although indi- 
cated, can scarcely be said to be defined ; whUe, from 
the nature of the subject, very few groups of the order 
Insennorcs are analysed in the Fauna Boveali- Ameri- 
cana, with the necessary degree of rigour. 'J'o those who 
are acquainted with the difficulties and tediousness of 
analysis, no apology will be necessary for the partial 
treatment of the groups contained in the last mentioned 
work. Neither dismayed or disheartened by these diffi- 
culties, we have slowly but steadily prosecuted the same 
mode of investigation ; our present treatise will con- 
* Linniran Transactions, vol, xiv. Nort,hem Zoology. toI. ii. Intro, 
ductory Observations. 
t Northeril ZooIoct, vol. ii. preface. Classification of Animals. 
J The catalogue of genera, &c. by the same author, being a mere list of 
names, does not, of course, possess any authority. Indeed it leaves every 
one to make out the supposed afRuities as best he can. 
