Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/51

 RNITHOLOGY 41 briefly expressed as below; and this expression, so far as it goes, is probably very near the truth, though for simplicity s sake some of the intermediate group-names might perhaps be omitted : PASSERES, ELEUT HEROD A CT YLI, ACROMYODI, NOKMALES, ABNOUMALES, Mcnura, Atricliia, MESOMYODI, HOMCEOMEIU, Traclieophona?, Furnariidne, Pteroptochidie, Dcndrocolaptidw, Conopo- phagtdce, Formicariidx. Haploophona?, Tyrannidae, Rupicola, Pittidx, Philepittidee, Xcnicidiv. HETEROMERI, Cotingidee, Pipridae. DESMODACTYLI, EurylasmidK. It will be seen that no attempt is here made to separate the Normal Acromyodians into Families. Already, in The Wallace. Ibis for 1874 (pp. 406-416), Mr WALLACE had published a plan, which, with two slight modifications that were mani festly improvements, he employed two years later in his great work on The Geographical Distribution of Animals, and this included a method of arranging the Families of this division. Being based, however, wholly on alar char acters, it has of course a great similarity to the schemes of Dr Cabanis and of Sundevall, and, though simpler than either of those, there is no need here to enter much into its details. The Birds which would fall under the category of Garrod s Acromyodi normales are grouped in three series : A. &quot; Typical or Turdoid Passeres&quot; having a wing with ten primaries, the first of which is always more or less markedly reduced in size, and to this 21 Families are allotted ; B. &quot; Tanagroid Passeres&quot; having a wing with nine primaries, the first of which is fully developed and usually very long, and containing 10 Families; and C. &quot; Sturnoid Passeres&quot; having a wing with ten primaries, the first of which is &quot; rudimentary,&quot; with only 4 Families. The remaining Families, 10 in number, Avhich are not nor mally acromyodian are grouped as Series D. and called &quot; Formicaroid Passeres.&quot; clater. In The Ibis for 1 880 (pp. 340-350, 399-411) Mr SCLATER made a laudable attempt at a general arrangement of Birds, 1 trying to harmonize the views of ornithotomists with those taken by the ornithologists who only study the exterior ; but, as he explained, his scheme is really that of Prof. Huxley reversed, with some slight modifications mostly consequent on the recent researches of Prof. Parker and of Garrod, and (he might have added) a few details derived from his own extensive knowledge of the Class. Adopting the two Subclasses Carinafss and Ratitx, he recognized 3 &quot; Orders &quot; as forming the latter and 23 the former a number far exceeding any that had of late years met with the approval of ornithologists. It is certainly difficult in the present state of our knowledge to get on with much fewer groups ; whether we call them &quot; Orders &quot; or not is immaterial. First of them comes the Passeres, of which Mr Sclater would make four Suborders:- (1) the Acromyodi normales of Garrod under the older name of Oscines, to the further subdivision of which we must immediately return ; (2) under Prof. Huxley s term Oligomyodi, all the Haploophonx, Heteromeri, and Desmo- dfictyli of Garrod, comprehending 8 Families Oxyrhamph- idse, 2 Tyrannidx, Pipridy, Cotingidse, Phytotomidse,- Pittidx, Philepittidx, and Eurylsemidx ; 3 (3) Tracheophonse, 1 An abstract of this was read to the British Association at Swansea iu the same year, and may be found in its Report (pp. 606-609). 2 Not recognized by Garrod. 3 To these Mr Sclater would now doubtless add Forbes s Xenlcidtr. containing the same groups as in the older scheme, but here combined into 3 Families only Dendrocolaptidw, Formi- cariidx, and Pteroptochidx ; and (4) the Acromyodi abnor- males of Garrod, now elevated to the rank of a Suborder and called Pseudoscines.^ With regard to the Acromyodi normales or Oscines, Mr Sclater takes what seems to be quite the most reasonable view, when he states that they &quot; are all very closely related to one another, and, in reality, form little more than one group, equivalent to other so- called families of birds,&quot; going on to remark that as there are some 4700 known species of them &quot;it is absolutely necessary to subdivide them,&quot; and finally proceeding to do this nearly on the method of Sundevall s Tentamen (see above pp. 37, 38), merely changing the names and position of the groups in accordance with a plan of his own set forth in the Nomendator Avium Neotropicalium, which he and Mr Salvin printed in 1873, making, as did Sundevall, two divisions (according as the hind part of the &quot; tarsus &quot; is plated or scaled), A. Lamini plantar es and B. Scutiplantares but confining the latter to the Alaudidx alone, since the other Families forming Sundevall s Scutelliplantares are not Oscinian, nor all even Passerine. The following table shews the comparative result of the two modes as regards the Laminiplantares, and, since the composition of the Swedish author s groups was explained at some length, may be found convenient by the reader : Mr Sclater, 1880. Sundevall, 1872-73. 1. DentirostiTS, 5 practically equal to 1. Cichlomorphffi. 2. Latirostres, 5 6. Chelidonomorphffi. 4. Certhiomorphse.&quot; 5. Cinnyrimorphte. 2. Conirostres. 3. Coliomorplise. 3. Curvirostres, 4. Tenuirostres, 5. Oonirostres, 6. Cultriiostres, These six groups Mr Sclater thinks may be separated without much difficulty, though on that point the proceed ings of some later writers (a notable instance of which he himself cites) shew that doubt may still be entertained ; but he rightly remarks that, &quot; when we come to attempt to subdivide them, there is room for endless varieties of opinion as to the nearest allies of many of the forms,&quot; and into further details he does not go. It will be perceived that, like so many of his predecessors, he accords the highest rank to the Dentirostres, which, as has before been hinted, seems to be a mistaken view that must be con sidered in the sequel. Leaving the Passeres, the next &quot; Order &quot; is Picarise, of which Mr Sclater proposes to make six Suborders :(!) Pici, the Woodpeckers, with 2 Families; (2) Cypseli, with 3 Families, 7 practically equal to the Macrochires of Nitzsch ; (3) Anisodactylx, with 12 Families Collides (MOUSE-BIRD, vol. xvii. p. 6), Alcedinidse (KINGFISHER, vol. xiv. p. 81), Bucerotidae, (HORNBILL, vol. xii. p. 169), Upupidx (HOOPOE, vol. xii. p. 154), Irrisoridse, Meropidee, Momotidae (MoTMOT, vol. xvii. p. 3), Todidse, (ToDY, q.v.), Coraciidae (ROLLER, q.v.), Leptosomidx, Podargidse, and Steatornitkidse (GUACHARO, vol. xi. p. 227) ; (4) Heterodactylx, consist ing only of the TROGONS (q.v.) ; (5) Zygodactylx with 5 Families, Galbulidse, (JACAMAR, vol. xiii. p. 531), Bucconidse, (PUFF-BIRD, q.v.), Rhamjihastidx (TOUCAN, q.v.), Capitonidx, and Indicatoridx (HONEY-GUIDE, vol. xii. p. 139) ; and (6) Coccyges, composed of the two Families Cuculidne and Musophagidse,. That all these may be most conveniently 4 A term unhappily of hybrid origin, and therefore one to which purists may take exception. 5 These are not equivalent to Sundevall s groups of the same names. 6 Mr Sclater (p. 348) inadvertently states that no species of Sundevall s Certhiomorphte is found in the New World, having omitted to notice that in the Tentamen (pp. 46, 47) the genera Mniotilta (peculiar to America) as well as Certhia and Sitta are therein placed. 7 Or 2 only, the position of the Caprimvlgidse being left un decided, but in 1883 (see next note) put here. XVIII. 6