Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/29

 ORNITHOLOGY 19 times more of them articulated to the anterior than to the posterior, and in certain forms no ribs belonging to one, all being applied to the other. Moreover, the author goes on to remark that in adult birds trace of the origin of the sternum from five centres of ossification is always more or less indicated by sutures, and that, though these sutures had been generally regarded as ridges for the attachment of the sternal muscles, they indeed. mark the extreme points of the five primary bony pieces of the sternum. In 1810 appeared at Heidelberg the first volume of l|.le- TIEDEMANN S carefully- wrought Anatomic imd Natur- 4m. geschickte der Vogel which shews a remarkable advance upon the work which Cuvier did in 1805, and in some respects is superior to his later production of 1817. It is, however, only noticed here on account of the numerous references made to it by succeeding writers, for neither in this nor in the author s second volume (not published until 1814) did he propound any systematic arrangement of the Class. More germane to our present subject are the Osteographische Beitrdge zur Naturgeschichte der Vogel of zscli. Nitzsch, printed at Leipzig in 1811 a miscellaneous set of detached essays on some peculiarities of the skeleton or portions of the skeleton of certain Birds one of the most remarkable of which is that on the component parts of the foot (pp. 101-105) pointing out the aberration from the ordinary structure exhibited by the Goatsucker (Capri- mulgus] and the Swift (Cypsehis) an aberration which, if rightly understood, would have conveyed a warning to those ornithological systematists who put their trust in Birds toes for characters on which to erect a classification, that there was in them much more of importance, hidden in the integument, than had hitherto been suspected; but the warning was of little avail, if any, till many years had elapsed. However, Nitzsch had not as yet seen his way to proposing any methodical arrangement of the various groups of Birds, and it was not until some eighteen months later that a scheme of classification in the main anatomical was attempted. irrein. This scheme was the work of BLASIUS MERREM, who, in a communication to the Academy of Sciences of Berlin on the 10th December 1812, which was published in its Abkandlunyen for the following year (pp. 237-259), set forth a Tentamen Systematis natumlis Avium, no less modestly entitled than modestly executed. The attempt of Merrem must be regarded as the virtual starting-point of the latest efforts in Systematic Ornithology, and in that view its proposals deserve to be stated at length. Without pledging ourselves to the acceptance of all its details some of which, as is only natural, cannot be sustained with our present knowledge, resulting from the information accumu lated by various investigators throughout more than seventy years it is certainly not too much to say that Merrem s merits are almost incomparably superior to those of any of his predecessors as well as to those of the majority of his successors for a long time to come ; while the neglect of his treatise by many (perhaps it would not be erroneous to say by most) of those who have since written on the subject seems inexcusable save on the score of inadvert ence. Premising then that the chief characters assigned by this ill-appreciated systematist to his several groups are drawn from almost all parts of the structure of Birds, and are supplemented by some others of their more prominent peculiarities, we present the following abstract of his scheme -, 1 - 1 The names of the genera are, he tells us, for the most part those of Linnaus, as being the best-known, though not the best. To some of the Linnsean genera lie dare not, however, assign a place, for instance, Ruceros, Ileematopus, Merops, Glareola (Gmelin s genus, by the bye), and Palamedea. I. AVES CARINAT/E. 1. Aves aerese. A. Rapaces. a. Accipitres Vultur, Falco, Sagittarius. b. Strix. B. Hymenopodes. a. Chelidones: o. 0. nocturnae Capri- midyiis; /3. C. diurnse Hirundo. 1. Oscines: a. O. comrostres Loxia,Frin- gilla, Einberiza, Tangara ; /3. 0. ten- uirostres Alanda, Motacilla, Musci- capa, Todus, Lanius, Ampelis, Tur- dus, Paradisea, Buphaga, Sturnus, Oriolus, Gracula, Coracias, Corvus, Pipra 1, Parus, Silta, Ccrildsz queedam. C. Mellisugre. Trochihis, Ccrthise, et Upuyee, plurimse. D. Dendroeolaptre. Picus, Yunx. E. Brcvilingues. a. Upupa ; b. Ispidse,. F. Levirostres. a. PMmpliastus, ticythrops ? ; 1. Psittacus. G. Coccyges. Cuculus, Trogom, Bucco, Crotophaga. 2. Aves terrestres. A. Columba. B. Gallinae. 3. Aves aquaticse. A. Odontorhynchi : a. Boscades Anas; b. Me/ryus; c. Phceni- copterus. B. Platyrhynclii. Pelicanus, Phaeton, Plotus. C. Aptenodytcs. IX Urinatrices: a. Cepplii Alca, Colymli pedibus palmatis; b. Podiccps, Colymbi pedibus lobatis. E. Stenorhynclii. Proccllarin, Diomedea, Larus, Sterna, fihynchops. 4. Aves palustres. A. Rusticolai : a. Phalarides Hall us, Fidica, Parra ; b. Limosugffi Numcnius, Scolopax, Tringa, CharadriitA, Recurvirostra. B. Grallse : a. Erodii Ardcse, ungue intermedio serrato, Cancroma; b. Pelargi Ciconia, Mydcria, Tantali quidam, Scojjiis, Platalea ; c. Gerani Ardess cristatse. Grues, Psophia. C. Otis. II. AVES KATITVE. Strutldo. The most novel feature, and one the importance of which most ornithologists of the present day are fully pre pared to admit, is of course the separation of the Class Aves into two great Divisions, which from one of the most obvious distinctions they present were called by its author Carinatee 2 and Ratitse* according as the sternum possesses a keel (crista in the phraseology of many anatomists) or not. But Merrem, who subsequently communicated to the Academy of Berlin a more detailed memoir on the &quot; flat-breasted &quot; Birds, 4 was careful not here to rest his Divisions on the presence or absence of their sternal character alone. He concisely cites (p. 238) no fewer than eight other characters of more or less value as peculiar to the Carinate Division, the first of which is that the feathers have their barbs furnished with hooks, in consequence of which the barbs, including those of the wing-quills, cling closely together ; while among the rest may be mentioned the position of the furcula and coracoids, 5 which keep the wing-bones apart ; the limitation of the number of the lumbar vertebra to fifteen, and of the carpals to two ; as well as the divergent direction of the iliac bones, the corresponding characters peculiar to the Ratite Division being (p. 259) the disconnected condition of the barbs of the feathers, through the absence of any hooks whereby they might cohere ; the non-existence of the furcula, and the coalescence of the coracoids with the scapulae (or, as he expressed it, the extension of the scapula? to supply the place of the coracoids, which he thought were wanting) ; the lumbar vertebrae being tiventy and the carpals thrft in number; and the parallelism of the iliac bones. &quot; From carina, a keel. 3 From rates, a raft or flat-bottomed barge. 4 Beschreibung der Gerippes eines Casuars nebst einigen beilaufigen Bemerkungen iiber die flachbriistigen Vogel&quot; Abhandl. der Berlin. Akademie, Phys. Klasse, 1817, pp. 179-198, tabb. i.-iii. 5 Merrem, as did many others in his time, calls the coracoids clttvi- cul&&quot;; but it is now well understood that in Birds the real clacicxiic form the furcula or &quot; merry-thought.&quot;