408 Recent Ornithological Publications. 
XXXIII.— Notices of Recent Ornithological Publications. 
1. English. 
The long expected work of our great descriptive Anatomist on 
the Vertebrates has made its appearance*; and in it the class 
Aves (if, pace Professor Huxley and Mr. Parker, we may still be 
allowed to speak of birds as a “ Class”) conies in for a fair share 
of attention, occupying as it does nearly half the volume. Owing 
probably to their comparatively speaking uniform type of struc¬ 
ture and mode of development, birds hitherto have certainly 
been neglected by the greatest anatomists, and we rejoice to 
think that at length the English reader is put in possession of a 
general treatise on the subject; for since Professor Owen, some 
thirty years ago, wrote the article “ Aves ” in Dr. Todd's well- 
known f Cyclopaedia of Anatomy/ we can call to mind nothing 
really worth the name. The high standing of the author of the 
present work renders it unnecessary for us to say anything to 
recommend its descriptive part, and we feel it would be out of 
place here to discuss any of the theories to which reference is 
more or less fully made by him. If, however, it be permitted 
to us, we venture, with all respect to Professor Owen, to com¬ 
plain that his opinions on the systematic arrangement of birds 
from an anatomical point of view are not expressed with the 
degree of clearness we had expected; for on this subject we had 
always looked forward to his labours throwing great light. Near 
the beginning of the volume (pp. 9-12) we find, it is true, an 
enumeration of “ the orders, with their characters and sample 
families, adopted as most convenient for the purpose of the pre¬ 
sent work.” These are seven in number, viz. Natatores , Gratia - 
tores , Rasores, Caniores , Volitores, Scansores, and Raptores ; and 
we are further told that “An eighth group of birds has been charac¬ 
terised under the name Cursores * * *. This is not, however, a 
natural order; some of its exponents have demonstrably closer 
affinities to other groups of which they are wingless members, 
* On the Anatomy of Vertebrates. Vol. ii. Birds and Mammals. By 
Richard Owen, F.R.S., Superintendent of the Natural History Depart¬ 
ments of the British Museum, Foreign Associate of the Institute of France 
&c. London : 1866. 8vo. 
