Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/719

 ORNITHOLOGY 705 bill, and feathers of the legs ; the descriptions are minute and accurate, and illustrated by nu- merous copperplate engravings. Latham, in his " General Synopsis of Birds " and " Sup- plements" (1781-1801), in his Index Ornitho- logicus (1790), and in his "History" (10 vols. 4to, Winchester, 1821-'4), was the next writer of importance on general ornithology. In the last work he divides land birds into orders : I., rapacious or accipitrine, with 4 genera and 363 species ; II., pies (like the shrikes, crows, par- rots, cuckoos, woodpeckers, and kingfishers), with 32 genera and 1,320 species ; III., passe- rine (finches, swallows, thrushes, and flycatch- ers), with 17 genera and 1,444 species; IV., columbine or pigeons, with a single genus and 136 species; V., gallinaceous (turkeys, pheas- ants, grouse, bustards), with 12 genera and 210 species; VI., struthious (dodo, emu, and os- trich), with 4 genera and 8 species. He divides the water birds into orders : VII., waders, with cloven feet (herons, snipe, sandpiper), with 20 genera and 455 species ; VIII., with pennated feet (coots and grebes), with 4 genera and 29 species ; and IX., web-footed (flamingo, alba- tross, gull, duck, penguin), with 17 genera and 359 species. He thus makes in all 111 genera and 4,324 species, of which many are ill de- termined and improperly made. Lacepede in 1799 (Histoire naturelle} divided birds into two subclasses. Subclass I. (having the legs feath- ered, and no toes completely united by wide membranes) contains divisions: 1, with two toes in front and two behind, large and strong, the climbers (grimpeurs), with 6 orders and 12 genera ; and 2, having three toes in front and one or none behind, with the 1st subdivision of birds of prey, with strong and curved claws, embracing a single order and 10 genera; 2d subdivision, having the external toes free or united only along the 1st phalanx (passer eaux), with 8 orders and 36 genera; 3d subdivision, having the external toes united for almost the whole length (platypodes), like the hornbill, kingfisher, and bee-eater, with 5 orders and 7 genera ; 4th subdivision, having the anterior toes united at the base by membrane (galli- naces), with a single order and 12 genera. Sub- class II. (the legs without feathers, or with many toes united by a wide membrane) con- tains division 1, with three toes in front and one or none behind, with 1st subdivision, hav- ing the anterior toes united by membrane (wa- ter birds, ducks, &c.), embracing 6 orders and 17 genera; 2d subdivision, with all four toes united by a wide membrane (oiseaux d'eau la- tir&mes}, like the cormorant and pelican, having 3 orders and 6 genera; and 3d subdivision, having the toes united at base by membrane (shore birds), with 7 orders and 26 genera; and division 2, with two, three, or four very strong toes, not united at base by membrane (cursores), like ostrich and dodo, with 2 orders and 4 genera : in all, 39 orders and 130 genera. Meyer and Wolff (Almanack des oiseaux de VAl- lemagne), in 1810, made the 11 orders of ra- paces, coraces, pici, alcyones, oscines, chelidones, columbce, gallina, cursores, grallce, and nata- tores ; this seems to be the first work in which the terms oscines, alcyones, and chelidones are applied to the orders of birds. Illiger (Pro- dromus Systematic Mammalium et Amum, 1811) gives the 7 orders scansores, ambulatores (including the 2d, 4th, 5th, and 6th orders of Meyer), raptatores, rasores (including gal- linaceous birds and pigeons), cursores (os- trich, bustard, plover), grallatores, and na- tatores, with 41 families and 147 genera. Cuvier (Begne animal, 1817) preserved the 6 orders of Linnaeus, founded on the characters of the beak and feet, except that he substituted the previously used term of scansores for those of the pices which have two toes before and two behind, placing the remainder among the passeres. His orders are : I., accipitres, divi- ded into diurnal (hawks, &c.) and nocturnal (owls) ; II., passeres, divided into tribes denti- rostres (like shrikes), fissirostres (swallows and goatsuckers), conirostres (crows, buntings, and starlings), tenuirostres (humming birds), and syndactyli (kingfishers) ; III., scansores or climb- ers (woodpeckers and parrots) ; IV., gallince, or birds resembling the domestic cock ; V., gral- lce or waders, divided into brempennes (ostrich), pressirostres (bustards), cultirostres (cranes), longirostres (ibis, curlew, snipe), and macro- dactyli (rail, jacana) ; VI., palmipedes, divided into brachypteri (penguins and grebes), longi- pennes (terns and petrels), totipalmes (peli- cans), and lamellirostres (ducks). Vieillot in 1817, and in the article Ornithologie of the Nouveau dictionnaire d'Jiistoire naturelle, made 5 orders : I., accipitres, diurnal and nocturnal, with 4 families ; II., sylmcolcs, with 2 tribes, zygodactyli and anisodactyli, equivalent to the climbing and passerine birds of other authors, with 30 families; III., gallince, with families nudipedes and plumipedes ; IV., grallatores, with the tribes di-tridactyli and tetradactyli, with 15 families ; and V., natatores, with the tribes teleopodes, ateleopodes, and ptilopteri, with 7 families. Temminck (Manuel tforni- thologie, 2d ed., Paris, 1820-'40) modified the systems of Meyer, Illiger,' and Latham, and made 16 orders, comprising 202 genera. His orders are : I., rapaces or birds of prey ; II., omnivores (crows, rollers, starlings) ; III., in- sectivores (thrushes, shrikes, flycatchers, war- blers) ; IV., granivores (larks, bunting, finches) ; V., zygodactyli (cuckoos, toucans, parrots, woodpeckers) ; VI., anisodactyli (creepers and hummingbirds) ; VII. ; alcyones (bee-eaters and kingfishers); VIII., chelidones (swallows and goatsuckers) ; IX., columbce or pigeons ; X., galling; XL, alectorides (agami); XII., cur- sores (ostrich and bustard) ; XIII., grallatores or waders; XIV., pinnatipedes (coots and grebes); XV., palmipedes, swimmers; XVL, inertes (apteryx and dodo). This is followed by Naumann in his Vogel Deutschlands (13 vols. 8vo, Leipsic, 1822-'52), and is adopted in Stark's "Elements of Natural History" (Ed-