Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/35

He was indeed thoroughly grounded in anatomy, 1 and I though undoubtedly the digestive organs of Birds have a claim to the fullest consideration, yet Macgillivray himself subsequently became aware of the fact that there were several other parts of their structure as important from the point of view of classification. He it was, apparently, who first detected the essential difference of the organs of voice presented by some of the New-World Passerines (subsequently known as Clamatores), and the earliest intimation of this seems to be given in his anatomical description of the Arkansas Flycatcher, Tyrannus verticalis, which was published in 1838 (Ornithol. Biography, iv. p. 425), though it must be admitted that he did not because he then could not perceive the bearing of their difference, which was reserved to be shown by the investigation of a still greater anatomist, and of one who had fuller facilities for research, and thereby almost revolutionized, as will presently be mentioned, the views of systematists as to this Order of Birds. There is only space here to say that the second volume of Macgillivray s work was published in 1839, and the third in 1840 ; but it was not until 1852 that the author, in broken health, found an opportunity of issuing the fourth and fifth. His scheme of classification, being as before stated partial, need not be given in detail. Its great merit is that it proved the necessity of combin ing another and hitherto much-neglected factor in any natural arrangement, though vitiated as so many other schemes have been by being based wholly on one class of characters. But a bolder attempt at classification was that made in 1838 by BLYTH in the New Series (Mr CharlesworthV) of the Magazine of Natural History (ii. pp. 256-268, 314- 319, 351-361/420-426, 589-601; iii. pp. 76-84). It was limited, however, to what he called Insessores, being the group upon which that name had been conferred by Vigors (Trans. Linn. Society, xiv. p. 405) in 1823 (see above, p. 15), with the addition, however, of his Raptores, and it will be unnecessary to enter into particulars con cerning it, though it is as equally remarkable for the insight shewn by the author into the structure of Birds as for the philosophical breadth of his view, which comprehends almost every kind of character that had been at that time brought forward. It is plain that Blyth saw, and perhaps he was the first to see it, that Geographical Distribution was not unimportant in suggesting the affinities and differences of natural groups (pp. 258, 259) ; and, unde terred by the precepts and practice of the hitherto dominant English school of Ornithologists, he declared that anatomy, when aided by every character which the manner of propagation, the progressive changes, and other physiological data supply, is the only sure basis of classi fication." He was quite aware of the taxonomic value of the vocal organs of some groups of Birds, presently to be especially mentioned, and he had himself ascertained the presence and absence of caeca in a not inconsiderable number of groups, drawing thence very justifiable infer ences. He knew at least the earlier investigations of 1 This is not the place to expatiate on Macgillivray s merits ; but the writer may perhaps be excused for here uttering the opinion that, after Willughby, Macgillivray was the greatest and most original ornitho logical genius save one (who did not live long enough to make his powers widely known) that this island has produced. The exact amount of assistance he afforded to Audubon in his Ornithological Biography will probably never be ascertained ; but, setting aside " all the anatomical descriptions, as well as the sketches by which they are sometimes illustrated," that on the latter s own statement (o^?. c/ t. , iv. , Introduction, p. xxiii) are the work of Macgillivray, no impartial reader can compare the style in which the History of British Birds is written with that of the Ornithological Biography without recogniz ing the similarity of the two. On this subject some remarks of Prof. Cones (Bull. Xutt. Ornithol. Club, 1880, p. 201) may well be consulted. 25 L Herminier, and, though the work of Nitzsch, even if he had ever heard of it, must (through ignorance of the language in which it was written) have been to him a sealed book, he had followed out and extended the hints already given by Temminck as to the differences which various groups of Birds display in their moult. With all this it is not surprising to find, though the fact has been generally overlooked, that Blyth s proposed arrangement in many points anticipated conclusions that were subse quently reached, and were then regarded as fresh dis coveries. It is proper to add that at this time the greater part of his work was carried on in conjunction with Mr BARTLETT, the present Superintendent of the Zoological Bartlett. Society s Gardens, and that, without his assistance, Blyth s opportunities, slender as they were compared with those which others have enjoyed, must have been still smaller. Considering the extent of their materials, which was limited to the bodies of such animals as they could obtain from dealers and the several menageries that then existed in or near London, the progress made in what has since proved to be the right direction is very wonderful. It is obvious that both these investigators had the genius for recognizing and interpreting the value of characters ; but their labours do not seem to have met with much encouragement ; and a general arrangement of the Class laid by Blyth before the Zoological Society at this time 2 does not appear in its publications, possibly through his neglect to reduce his scheme to writing and deliver it within the prescribed period. But even if this were not the case, no one need be surprised at the result. The scheme could hardly fail to be a crude performance a fact which nobody would know better than its author ; but it must have presented much that was objectionable to the opinions then generally prevalent. Its line to some extent may be partly made out very clearly, for the matter of that, so far as its details have been published in the series of papers to which reference has been given and some traces of its features are probably preserved in his Catalogue of the specimens of Birds in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which, after several years of severe labour, made its appearance at Calcutta in 1849 ; but, from the time of his arrival in India, the onerous duties imposed upon Blyth, together with the want of sufficient books of reference, seem to have hindered him from seriously con tinuing his former researches, which, interrupted as they were, and born out of due time, had no appreciable effect on the views of systematizers generally. Next must bo noticed a series of short treatises communicated by JOHAXX FRIEDRICH BRANDT, between the years 1836 and 1839, Brandt, to the Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg, and published in its Mewoircs. In the year last mentioned the greater part of these Avas separately issued under the title of Bcitrage zur Kcnntniss Her Naturgcschichte der Vogel. Herein the author first assigned anatomical reasons for rearranging the Order Anscres of Linnaeus and Natatorcs of Illiger, who, so long before as 1811, had proposed a new distribution of it into six Families, the definitions of which, as was his wont, he had drawn from external characters only. Bnmdt now retained very nearly the same arrangement as his predecessor ; but, notwithstanding that he could trust to the firmer foundation of internal framework, he took at least two retro grade steps. First he failed to see the great structural diffe:ence between the Penguins (which Illiger had placed as a group, Iwpcnncs, of equal rank to his other Families) and the Auks, Divers, and Grebes, Pygopodes combining all of them to form a " Typus " (to use his term) Urino tores ; and secondly he admitted among the Natatorcs, though as a distinct "Typus" Podoida the genera Podoa and Fulica, which are now known to belong to the Rallidie the latter indeed (see COOT, vol. vi. p. 341) being but very slightly removed from the MOOU-HEX (vol. xvi. p. 808). At the same time he corrected the error made by ]lliger in associating the PiiALARorr.s (q.r.) with these forms, rightly declaring their 2 An abstract is contained in the Minute-book of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society, 26th June and 10th July 1838. The Class was to contain fifteen Orders, but only three were dealt with in any detail. XVIII. --4