134 A SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION [ch. vi. 
There is perhaps a suggestion of the “new 
broom ” in this desire to sweep away the accumu¬ 
lations of the past and begin afresh, and it must be 
remembered that, while Britain lagged behind, 
there had been several steps of progress on the 
Continent towards a scientific system of birds. 
We may refer especially to the merits of the 
arrangement proposed by L’Herminier in 1827, of 
which MacGillivray was doubtless aware, since 
there is a notice of it in the Edinburgh Journal of 
Natural History (1837, p. 90) which he edited. The 
notice, which was probably by MacGillivray 
himself, ends with^ the paragraph :— 
“By researches of this kind, that is by 
comparing the parts m different genera and 
families, it may be expected that much light will 
ultimately be thrown on the natural arrangement 
of birds, which at present is left in the hands of 
persons who can do little more than compare 
skins and stuffed specimens, and who, ludicrously 
enough, perpetually talk of the ‘strict analysis' 
by which they have absolutely fixed the order of 
Nature.” 
Surprise has often been expressed that 
MacGillivray, in spite of his insight into the sound 
method of classification, should have committed at 
a deeper level the mistake for which he blamed 
his predecessors; they trusted to external features 
and he to the alimentary tract — too narrow a 
basis for both. It is remarkable, moreover, that 
while he made important discoveries in regard to 
