COOPER’S HAWK. 
365 
deem it of still less consequence, in a philosophical view, 
whether the names by which these groups are designated, be 
taken from a learned or a vernacular language. It is our in- 
tention to pursue a middle course. We are convinced of the 
necessity of employing numerous subdivisions, not only in 
this, but also in its allied genus Strix. These, however, we 
cannot agree to admit as genera, preferring to call them sub- 
genera, and giving them a name, but when having occasion to 
mention a species belonging to any of them, to employ the 
name of the great genus. 
The desire of avoiding too great a multiplication of groups, 
has caused some, even of the first ornithologists of our time, 
to employ sections that are not natural, and with false or in- 
applicable characters, and, as if they would compel nature to 
conform to their preconceived and narrow views, after having 
assigned decided limits to their groups, to force into them spe- 
cies not only widely different, but that do not even possess 
the artificial character proposed. We shall not imitate this 
irrational example. It shall rather be our object to compose 
natural groups, and, in obedience to this principle, whenever 
we meet with a group, or even a single species, clearly insu- 
lated, it shall at least be pointed out, not so much regarding 
the number of our subgenera, as the characters that unite the 
species of which they are respectively composed. 
It is objected to the numerous subdivisions that have been 
proposed in our day, that they pass into and blend insensibly 
with each other. This is no doubt true ; but is it not the same 
with regard to natural groups of every denomination ? It is 
this fact which has induced us to consider them as subgenera, 
and not as distinct genera. We are told, however, by the ad- 
vocates for numerous genera, that, in giving a name, we 
adopt a genus, but we do not see that this necessarily follows. 
There are, we confess, other grounds on which we might be 
attacked with more advantage. We may, perhaps, be charged 
with inconsistency in refusing to admit, as the foundation of 
generic groups in the JEtapaceSy characters which are allowed, 
