THE NATURALIST AND COLLECTOR 
19 
Morphological Classification. 
T HE subject of Morphological 
Classification although of the 
greatest practical interest to 
the true student of bird-life, 
is one which is generally entirely left 
to “authorities” and the general run of 
workers, taking their word as law, 
dismiss the subject from their minds 
forever, and without a second thought 
direct their work in other lines. 
Classification however is one of the 
first, if indeed not the first, object of 
ornithology. Without classification 
the world would be chaos, the mind a 
blank page upon which had been 
scribbled in indescribable confusion, 
the ideas and thoughts of life. So it 
is in the ornithological world, and 
without it, our chief delight, the birds, 
although pleasing to the eye would 
not satisfy the mind. Classification 
presupposes that there exist relations 
between objects, by which one can ar¬ 
range them in a manner which facili¬ 
tate their comprehension, by bringing 
together what is like, and separating 
what is unlike. The only real correct 
manner in which we can accomplish 
this is by morphology and founding up¬ 
on it a classification based entirely up¬ 
on form, or structure. Up to recent 
date, the modifications of the external 
parts of birds have been almost ex¬ 
clusively used as the basis of classifi¬ 
cation, supposing that each species of 
bird was a separate creation of nature. 
Scores of classifications have been 
sown in the soil of such blind error and 
consequently no lasting results have 
been attained. This idea is absurd up¬ 
on the face. As if all parts of the 
structure should not be considered! 
As if the internal as well as the external 
features should not be studied! The 
goal to be striven for is not one to find 
the most convenient way in which birds 
may be classifier), but to establish their 
exact relationship to each other, or in 
other words, to trace out their family 
history. The classification which is 
now coming into universal use,viz. that 
of the A. O. U., is the result of years-of 
earnest, careful study, and is an im¬ 
portant corollary of the great theory of 
evolution, which by all—or nearly all— 
thoughtful workers is looked upon as 
satisfactorily demonstrated. Of 
course there are difficulties to^ be en¬ 
countered in this form of classification, 
and the chief difficulty which the 
student will be confronted by‘comes 
from physiological adaptations of struct-■ 
ure. By this is meant that animals 
widely different in the total of their 
characters, may present certain parts 
of their organism modified in the same 
manner. For instance, a grebe, a coot 
and a phalarope all have lobate feet, 
adapted for swimming; and upon this 
resemblance alone , were formerly 
classed in the group Pinnatipedes, or 
fin-footed birds. On deeper examina¬ 
tion these birds are found to be unlike 
in many other respects which separate 
them widely from each other. The 
“reason why” morphological classifi¬ 
cation is so important as to reqaire its 
adoption has been so very clearly set 
forth by Huxley that I trust I will be 
forgiven for quoting. “As a matter of 
fact no mutual independence of animal 
forms exisits in nature. Every animal 
has something in common with all its 
fellows; much, with many of them; 
more with a few; and usually so much 
with several that it differs but little 
from them. Now a morphological 
claissfication is a statement of these 
gradations of likeness which are ob¬ 
servable in animal structures, and its 
