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 704: ORMUZD ORNITHOLOGY it retained sufficient importance in the begin- ning of the 17th century to arouse the jeal- ousy of Shah Abbas of Persia, who, aided by the ships of the English East India company, captured the fortress in April, 1622, although it was defended by 300 guns and 2,500 men. The city was destroyed by the shah, who wished to transfer its trade to his new port Bunder Abbas, and a great part of its build- ing material was transported thither. At a later period the sultan of Oman took posses- sion of it. In 1854 the Omanite officials were expelled by the shah, but in 1856 they were allowed by treaty to occupy it for 20 years on payment of an annual tribute. ORMUZD, or Ahnra Mazda, the supreme deity of the ancient Persians. He is the god of the firmament, the representative of goodness and truth, and the creator of the universe and of the beneficent spirits who have charge of the well being of man and all created things. Ac- cording to Zoroaster, an incomprehensible be- ing named Zeruane Akerene (or Zrvan Akara- na, time without bounds), existed from all eter- nity; from him emanated primeval light, and from the latter sprang Ormuzd and Ahriman. Ahriman became jealous of his elder brother, and was condemned by the eternal one to pass 3,000 years in a region of utter darkness. On his release he created a number of bad spirits to oppose the spirits created by Ormuzd ; and when the latter made an egg containing good genii, Ahriman produced another full of evil demons, and broke the two together, so that good and evil became mixed in the new crea- tion. The two great opposing principles are called the king of light and the prince of dark- ness. Ormuzd is described as "sitting on the throne of the good and the perfect in regions of pure light," or as a venerable man seated on a bull, the emblem of creation. A later doc- trine, still professed by the Guebres and Par- sees, reduces Ormuzd from a great creator to a mere demiurge, or organizer of a universe previously created. (See ZEND-AVESTA.) ORE, a N. W. department of France, in Normandy, bordering on Calvados, Eure, Eure- et-Loir, Sarthe, Mayenne, and La Manche ; area, 2,354 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 398,250. The chief rivers are the Orne, Eure, Sarthe, and Mayenne ; there are many ponds and marshes. The soil is generally sandy. Iron, plumbago, and granite are produced. Hemp, fruit, cattle, and poul- try are raised, and needles, linens, cottons, and lace are manufactured. It is divided into the arrondissements of Alencon, Argentan, Dom- front, and Mortagne. Capital, Alencon. ORNITHICHXITES. See FOSSIL FOOTPRINTS. ORNITHOLOGY (Gr. bpvig, bird, and Uyog, dis- course), the department of zoology which treats of the structure, habits, and classification of birds, the second class of vertebrated animals. For their structure see BIRDS. Until after 1825 most ornithologists classified birds accord- ing to the characters of the bill and feet ; since then several authors, especially Oken, Nitzsch, Sundevall, Miiller, Cabanis, Bonaparte, and Burmeister, have drawn attention to the care they take of their young, the song and the vocal muscles, the number and length of the quills, the scales and feathers on the legs, the number of tail feathers, the position of the hind toe, and the absence, presence, and extent of the webs, as data for a natural classification. Aristotle, in the third chapter of his eighth book on animals, mentions the modes in which birds subsist, that some are carnivorous, oth- ers granivorous, and others omnivorous ; that some are terrestrial and others aquatic, and many migratory during winter ; he enumerates the names of the species then known, with- out descriptions except for the eagles. Belon, the reviver of natural history, in his Histoire naturelle des oiseaux (fol., Paris, 1555), classed birds by their habits and the places where they are found, making the four divisions of birds of prey, waders, swimmers, and birds which nes- tle in trees or on the ground; his work is illus- trated with numerous woodcuts. Aldrovandus, in his Omithologia (Bologna, 1599-1606), fol- lows Belon in classifying birds according to their places of habitation and the nature of their food, but adds a great number of new de- scriptions. The work of Willughby, Ornitho- logies libri tres (London, 1676), was the first systematic attempt at classifying birds ; in this the land birds are divided into two groups, one having curved beak and talons, the other with the bill and claws more nearly straight ; the water birds are also subdivided into waders and swimmers. Ray, in the Synopsis Me- thodica Avium (8vo), published in 1713 after his death, made some improvements upon Willughby's system ; and these two furnished the basis of the classification adopted by Lin- naBus. In the 12th edition of the Sy sterna Na- turce (1766), Linna3us divided the class into six orders : I. Accipitres or birds of prey, with the bill bent, and the upper mandible dilated on each side or armed with a tooth ; legs short and robust, toes warty, and claws curved and sharp. II. Piece, with bill convex or rounded above and edged on the lower part ; legs short and robust, but with smooth toes. III. An- seres (swimmers), with bill smooth, covered with an epidermis, and thickened at its point ; feet with palmated toes. IV. Grallce, with bill almost cylindrical, thighs half naked, and legs formed for wading. V. Galling with bill convex, and the upper mandible arched over the under ; feet formed for walking, and the toes rough below. VI. Passeres, with bill conical and pointed, legs formed for hopping, and toes slender and divided. In ornitholo- gy Linnaeus deserves the same credit as in the other departments of zoology, for his excel- lent determination of genera and his admirable system of binomial nomenclature. Brisson, in his Omithologia (4to, Paris, 1760), describes about 1,300 species of birds, arranged in 26 orders and 115 genera, whose characters are drawn from the toes and their membranes, the