Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/44

 34 ORNITHOLOGY For some time past rumours of a discovery of the highest interest had been agitating the minds of zoologists, Wagner, for in 1861 ANDREAS WAGNER had sent to the Academy of Sciences of Munich (Sitzungsberichte, pp. 146-154; Ann. Nat. History, ser. 3, ix. pp. 261-267) an account of what he conceived to be a feathered Reptile (assigning to it the name Gnphosaurus}, the remains of which had been found in the lithographic beds of Solenhofen ; but he him self, through failing health, had been unable to see the fossil. In 1862 the slabs containing the remains were acquired by the British Museum, and towards the end of Owtu. that year Sir R. OWEN communicated a detailed descrip tion of them to the Philosophical Transactions (1863, pp. 33-47), proving their Bird-like nature, and referring them to the genus Archxopteryx of Hermann von Meyer, hitherto known only by the impression of a single feather from the same geological beds. Wagner foresaw the use that would be made of this discovery by the adherents of the new Philosophy, and, in the usual language of its opponents at the time, strove to ward off the &quot; misinter pretations &quot; that they would put upon it. His protest, it is needless to say, was unavailing, and all who respect his memory must regret that the sunset of life failed to give him that insight into the future which is poetically ascribed to it. To Darwin and those who believed with him scarcely any discovery could have been more welcome ; but that is beside our present business. It was quickly seen even by those who held Arclixopteryx to be a Reptile that it was a form intermediate between existing Birds and existing Reptiles while those who were convinced by Sir R. Owen s researches of its ornithic affinity saw that it must belong to a type of Birds wholly unknown before, and one that in any future for the arrangement of the Class must have a special rank reserved for it. 1 It has been already briefly described and figured in this work (BIRDS, vol. iii. pp. 728, 729). It behoves us next to mention the &quot; Outlines of a Systematic Lillje- Review of the Class of Birds,&quot; communicated by Prof. LILLJEBOKG borg. to the Zoological Society in 1866, and published in its Proceedings for that year (pp. 5-20), since it was immediately after reprinted by the Smithsonian Institution, and with that authorization has exercised a great influence on the opinions of American ornitholo gists. Otherwise the scheme would hardly need notice here. This paper is indeed little more than an English translation of one published by the author in the annual volume (Arsskrift) of the Scientific Society of Upsala for 1860, and belonging to the pre- Darwinian epoch should perhaps have been more properly treated before, but that at the time of its original appearance it failed to attract attention. The chief merit of the scheme perhaps is that, contrary to nearly every precedent, it begins with the lower and rises to the higher groups of Birds, which is of course the natural mode of proceeding, and one therefore to be commended. Other wise the &quot; principles &quot; on which it is founded are not clear to the ordinary zoologist. One of them is said to be &quot;irritability,&quot; and, though this is explained to mean, not &quot;muscular strength alone, but vivacity and activity generally,&quot;^ it does not seem to fi&amp;gt;rm a character that can be easily appreciated either as to quantity or quality ; in fact, most persons would deem it quite immeasurable, and, as such, removed from practical consideration. Moreover, Prof. Lilljeborg s scheme, being actually an adaptation of that of Sundevall, of which we shall have to speak at some length almost immediately, may possibly be left for the present with these remarks. Huxley. In the spring .of the year 1867 Prof. HUXLEY, to the delight of an appreciative audience, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England a course of lectures on Birds, and it is much to be regretted that his many engagements hindered him from publishing in its entirety his elucidation of the anatomy of the Class, and the results 1 This was done shortly afterwards by Prof. Hik kel, who pro posed the name Suururae for the group containing it. 2 On this ground it is stated that the Passeres should be placed highest in the Class. But those who know the habits and demeanour of many of the Limicolse would no doubt rightly claim for them much more &quot; vivacity and activity&quot; than is possessed by most Passeres. which he drew from his investigations of it ; for never assuredly had the subject been attacked with greater skill and power, or, since the days Buffon, had Ornithology been set forth with greater eloquence. To remedy, in some degree, this unavoidable loss, and to preserve at least a portion of the fruits of his labours, Prof. Huxley, a few weeks after, presented an abstract of his researches to the Zoological Society, in whose Proceedings for the same year it will be found printed (pp. 415-472) as a paper &quot; On the Classification of Birds, and on the taxonomic value of the modifications of certain of the cranial bones observable in that Class.&quot; Starting from the basis (which, undeniably true as it is, not a little shocked many of his ornithological hearers) &quot; that the phrase Birds arc greatly modified Reptiles would hardly be an exaggerated expres sion of the closeness &quot; of the resemblance between the two Classes, which he had previously brigaded under the name of Sauropsida (as he had brigaded the Pisces and Amjihihia as Ichthyopsida), he drew in bold outline both their like nesses and their differences, and then proceeded to inquire how the Avcs could be most appropriately subdivided into Orders, Suborders, and Families. In this course of lectures he had already dwelt at sonic length on the insufficiency of the characters on which such groups as had hitherto been thought to be established verc founded; but for the consideration of this part of his subject there was no room in the present paper, and the reasons why he arrived at the conclusion that new means of philosophically and successfully separating the Class must be sought are herein left to be inferred. The upshot, however, admits of no uncertainty : the Class Aves is held to be composed of three &quot; Orders &quot; (I.) SAURUR.E, Htickel; (II.) RATIT.E, Merrem: and (III.) CARINAT/E, Merrem. The Saururse have the metacarpals well developed and not ancylosed, and the caudal vertebra} are numerous and large, so that the caudal region of the spine is longer than the body. The furcula is complete and strong, the feet very Passerine in appearance. The skull and sternum were at the time unknown, and indeed the whole Order, without doubt entirely extinct, rested exclusively on the celebrated fossil, then unique, Arch&opteryx (BIRDS, vol. iii. pp. 728, 729). The Ratitx comprehend the Struthious Birds, which differ from all others now extant in the combination of several peculiarities, some of which have been mentioned in the preceding pages. The sternum has no keel, and ossifies from lateral and paired centres only ; the axes of the scapula and coracoid have the same general direction ; certain of the cranial bones have characters very unlike those possessed by the next Order the vomer, for example, being broad posteriorly and generally intervening between the basisphenoidal rostrum and the palatals and pterygoids ; the barbs of the feathers are disconnected ; there is no syrinx or inferior larynx ; and the diaphragm is better developed than in other Birds. 3 The Ratitse are divided into five groups, separated by very trenchant characters, principally osteological, and many of them afforded by the cranial bones. These groups consist of (i.) Struthio (OSTRICH, infra, p. 62), (ii.) RHEA (Y.V.), (iii.) Casuarius and Dromseus (EMEU, vol. viii. 171), (iv.) Dinornis, and (v.) Apturyx (Kiwi, vol. xiv. p. 104) ; but no names are here given to them. The Carinatse comprise all other existing Birds. The sternum has more or less of a keel, and is said to ossify, with the possible exception of Strir/nps (KAKAPO, vol. xiii. p. 825), from a median centre as well as from paired and lateral centres. The axes of the scapula and coracoid meet at an acute, or, as in Didus (DoDO, vol. vii. p. 321) and Ocydromw (OCYDROME, vol. xvii. p. 222), at a slightly obtuse angle, while the vomer is 3 This peculiarity had led some zoologists to consider the Struthious Birds more nearly allied to the Mammalia than any others.