Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/32

22 ORNITHOLOGY The preceding list is given to shew the very marked agreement of L Herminier s results compared with those obtained fifty years later by another investigator, who approached the subject from an entirely different, though still osteological, basis. The sequence of the Families adopted is of course open to much criticism ; but that would be wasted upon it at the present day; and the cautious naturalist will remember that it is generally difficult and in most cases absolutely impossible to deploy even a small section of the Animal Kingdom into line. So far as a linear arrangement will permit, the above list is very creditable, and will not only pass muster, but cannot easily be surpassed for excellence even at this moment. Experience has shewn that a few of the Families are composite, and therefore require further splitting ; but examples of actually false grouping cannot be said to occur. The most serious fault perhaps to be found is the intercalation of the Ducks (No. 30) between the Pelicans and the Grebes but every systematist must recognize the difficulty there is in finding a place for the Ducks in any arrangement we can at present contrive that shall be regarded as satisfactory. Many of the excellencies of L Herminier s method could not be pointed out without too great a sacrifice of space, because of the details into which it would be necessary to enter ; but the trenchant way in which he showed that the " Passereaux" a group of which Cuvier had said " Son caractere semble d abord purement ne gatif," and had then failed to define the limits differed so completely from every other assem blage, while maintaining among its own innumerable members an almost perfect essential homogeneity, is very striking, and shews how admirably he could grasp his sub ject. Not less conspicuous are his merits in disposing of the groups of what are ordinarily known as Water-birds, his indicating the affinity of the Rails (No. 22) to the Cranes (No. 23), and the severing of the latter from the Herons (No. 24). His union of the Snipes, Sandpipers, and Plovers into one group (No. 26) and the alliance, especially dwelt upon, of that group with the Gulls (No. 27) are steps which, though indicated by Merrem, are here for the first time clearly laid down ; and the separation of the Gulls from the Petrels (No. 28) a step in advance already taken, it is true, by Illiger is here placed on indefeasible ground. With all this, perhaps on account of all- this, L Herminier s efforts did not find favour with his scientific superiors, and for the time things remained as though his investigations had never been carried on. 1 Two years later Nitzsch, who was indefatigable in his endeavour to discover the Natural Families of Birds, and had been pursuing a series of researches into their vascular system, published the result, at Halle in Saxony, in his Observationes <h Avium arteria carotide communi, in which is included a classification drawn up in accordance with the variation of structure which that important vessel presented in- the several groups that he had opportunities of examin ing. By this time he had visited several of the principal museums on the Continent, among others Leyden (where Temminck resided) and Paris (where he had frequent intercourse with -Cuvier), thus becoming acquainted with a considerable number of exotic forms that had hitherto been inaccessible to him. Consequently his labours had attained to a certain degree of completeness in this direc tion, and it may therefore te expedient here to name the different groups which he thus thought himself entitled to consider established. They are as follows: 1 With the exception of a brief and wholly inadequate notice in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural History (i. p. 90), the present writer is not aware of attention having been directed to L Herminier s labours by British ornithologists for several years after ; but considering how they were employing themselves at the time (as is shewn in another place) this is not surprising. T. AVES CAKINAT.E [L H. Oiseaux Normaux "]. A. Avcs Carinatse aerere. 1. Accipitrinx [L H. 1, 2 partim, 3] ; 2. Passerines, [L H. 18] ; 3. Macrochires [L H. 6, 7]; 4. Cuculinx [L YL. 8, 9, 10 (qu. 11, 12?)]; 5. Picinie [L H. 15, 16]; 6. Psittacinse, [L H. 5]; 7. Lipoglossas [L H. 13, 14, 17] ; 8. AmpUMae, [L H. 4]. B. Avcs Carinate terrestres. 1. Columbinte [L H. 19] ; 2. Gallinacese [L H. 20]. C. Aves Carinatse aquaticse. Grallre. 1. Ahdoridcs (= Dicholophus + Otis) [L H. 2 partim, 26 partim]; 2. Gruinse [L H. 23]; 3. Fulicarise [L H. 22]; 4. Hcrodiss [L H. 24 partim]; 5. Pelargi [L H. 24 partim, 25]; 6. Odonto- glossi ( = Phasnico23terus) [L H. 26 partim]; 7. Limicolse. [L H. 26 panic onmes]. Palmatae. 8. Longipenncs [L H. 27] ; 9. Nasutse [L H. 28] ; 10. Unguirostres [L H. 30] ; 11. Steganopodes [L H. 29] ; 12. Pygopodes [L H. 31, 32, 33, 34]. II. AVES RATIT.E [L H. " Oiseanx Anomaux "]. To enable the reader to compare the several groups of Nitzsch with the Families of L Herminier, the numbers applied by the latter to his Families are suffixed in square brackets to the names of the forme:: ; and, disregarding the order of sequence, which is here immaterial, the essential correspondence of the two systems is worthy of all atten tion, for it obviously means that these two investigators, starting from different points, must have been on the right track, when they so often coincided as to the limits of what they considered to be, and what we are now almost justified in calling, Natural Groups. 2 But it must be observed that the classification of Nitzsch, just given, rests much more on characters furnished by the general struc ture than on those furnished by the carotid artery only. Among all the species (188, he tells us, in number) of which he examined specimens, he found only four varia tions in the structure of that vessel, namely : 1. That in which both a right carotid artery and a left are present. This is the most usual fashion among the various groups of Birds, including all the " aerial " forms excepting Passerines, Macrochires, and Picinse. 2. That in which there is but a single carotid artery, springing from both right and left trunk, but the branches soon coalescing, to take a midway course, and again divid ing near the head. This form Nitzsch was only able to find in the Bittern (Ardea stellaris). 3. That in which the right carotid artery alone is present, of which, according to our author s experience, the Flamingo (Phoenicopterus) was the sole example. 4. That in which the left carotid artery alone exists, as found in all other Birds examined by Nitzsch, and there fore as regards species and individuals much the most common since into this category come the countless thousands of the Passerine Birds a group which out numbers all the rest put together. Considering the enormous stride in advance made by L Herminier, it is very disappointing for the historian to have to record that the next inquirer into the osteology of Birds achieved a disastrous failure in his attempt to throw light on their arrangement by means of a comparison of their sternum. This was BEUTHOLD, who devoted Bertholi a long chapter of his Bcitr&ge zur Anatomic, published at Gottingen in 1831, to a consideration of the subject. So far as his introduc tory chapter went the development of the sternum he was, for - Whether Nitzsch was cognizant of L Herniinier s views is in no way apparent. The latter s name seems not to be even mentioned by him, but Nitzsch was in Paris in the summer of 1827, and it is almost impossible that he should not have heard of L Herminier s labours, unless the relations between the followers of Cuvier, to whom Nitzsch attached himself, and those of De Blainville, whose pupil L Hermi nier was, were such as to forbid any communication between the rival schools. Yet we have L Herniinier s evidence that Cuvier gave him every assistance. Nitzsch s silence, both on this occasion and after wards, is very curious ; but ho cannot be accused of plagiarism, for the scheme given above is only an amplification of that foreshadowed by him (as already mentioned) in 1820 a scheme which seems to have been equally unknown to L Herminier, perhaps through linguistic difficulty.