366 
COOPER’S HAWK. 
not only by ourselves, but by some of those who are most stre- 
nuously opposed to the multiplication of genera, to have quite 
sufficient importance for such distinction in other families. 
With what propriety, it might be asked, can we admit Hydro- 
hates [Fuligula, Noh.) as distinct from Anas, and the various 
genera that have been dismembered from Lanius, at the same 
time that we reject, as genera, the different groups of hawks? 
To this we can only reply, that we are ourselves entirely con- 
vinced, that all the subgenera adopted in our synopsis among 
the Falcones of North America, are quite as distinct from each 
other as Coccyzus and Cuculus, or Corvus and Garrulus, The 
latter genus we have admitted after Temminck, who is oppo- 
sed to new genera among the hawks, though Astur and 
Elanus certainly require to be separated no less than the two 
genera that Temminck himself has established in the old ge- 
nus Vultur. 
No living naturalist (with the exception of those who, 
through a sort of pseudo-religious feeling, will only admit as 
genera groups indicated as such by Linne) has adhered longer 
than ourselves to large genera, at the same time that we could 
not deny the existence of subordinate natural groups. We 
will not pretend to deny that these are of equal rank with 
some recognised as genera in other families, and we can only 
say, that we consider it doubtful, in the present unsettled 
state of the science, what this rank ought to be. We there- 
fore, in the instances above quoted, consider it of little im- 
portance whether these groups be considered as genera or 
subgenera. 
But what is certainly of great importance, is to preserve 
uniformity in all such cases ; to make co-ordinate divisions, and 
give corresponding titles to groups of equal value. This uni- 
formity, however desirable, cannot, in the actual state of orni- 
thology, be easily attained ; and we have decided, after much 
hesitation, to continue to employ subgenera. In doing this, 
we are moreover influenced by the great difficulty that is met 
with, in some cases, in determining the proper place of a spe- 
