on each side and is attached to the sternum. 1 The fourth pair, the tcnsorcs jwsteriores breves, is the smallest of all, and, arising near the middle of the lower end of the trachea, has its fibres inserted on the extremity of tlic first of the incomplete rings of the bronchi. The fifth pair, the tc/isorcs antcriorcs, originates like the last from the middle of the trachea, but is somewhat larger and thicker, appearing as though made up of several small muscles in close contact, and by some ornithotomists is believed to be of a com posite nature. Its direction is obliquely downward and forward, and, attached by a broad base to the last ring of the trachea and cartilage immediately below, reaches the first or second of the half- rings of the bronchi in the normal Oschws at their extremity; but, in another section of that group, which it will be necessary to mention later, it is found to be attached to their middle. There is no question of its being by the action of the syringeal mnscles just described that the expansion of the bronchi, both as to length and diameter, is controlled, and, as thereby the sounds uttered by the Bird are modified, they are properly called the Song-muscles. It must not be supposed that the muscles just denned were first discovered by Miiller; on the contrary they had been described long before, and by many writers on the anatomy of Birds. To say nothing of foreigners, or the authors of general works on the subject, an excellent account of them had been given to the Linnean Society Yarrell. by YARRELL in 1829, and published with elaborate figures in its Transactions (xvi. pp. 305-321, pis. 17, 18), an abstract of which was subsequently given in the article " Raven " in his History of British Birds, and Macgillivray also described and figured them with the greatest accuracy ten years later in his work with the same title (ii. pp. 21-37, pis. x.-xii.), while Blyth and Nitzsch had (as already mentioned) seen some of their value in classification. But Miiller has the merit of clearly outstriding his predecessors, and with his accustomed perspicuity made the way even plainer for his successors to see than he himself was able to see it. What remains to add is that the extraordinary celebrity of its author actually procured for the first portion of his researches notice in England (Ann. Nat. History, xvii. p. 499), though it must be confessed not then to any practical purpose ; but more than thirty years after there appeared an English translation of his treatise by Prof. Jeffrey Bell, with an appendix by Garrod con taining a summary of the latter s own continuation of the same line of research, and thus once more Mr Sclater, for it was at his instigation that the work was undertaken, had the satisfaction of rendering proper tribute to one who by his investigations had so materially advanced the .study of Ornithology. 2 Cornay. It is now necessary to revert to the year 1842, in which Dr COUXAY of Rochefort communicated to the French Academy of Sciences a memoir on a new Classification of Birds, of which, how ever, nothing hut a notice has been preserved (Compf.es Rendus, xiv. p. 164). Two years later this was followed by a second contri bution from him on the same subject, and of this only an extract appeared in the official organ of the Academy (ut supra, xvi. pp. 94, 95), though an abstract was inserted in one scientific journal (L fnstitut, xii. p. 21), and its first portion in another (Journal dcs iJ&ouvcrtcs, i. p. 250). The Revue Zoologiquc for 1847 (pp. 360-369) contained the whole, and enabled naturalists to consider the merits of the author s project, which was to found a new Classification of Birds on the form of the anterior palatal bones, which he declared to be subjected more evidently than any other to certain fixed laws. These laws, as formulated by him, are that (1) there is a coincidence of form of the anterior palatal and of the cranium in Birds of the same Order ; (2) there is a likeness between the anterior palatal bones in Birds of the same Order ; (3) there are relations of likeness between the anterior palatal bones in groups of Birds which are near to one another. These laws, he added, exist in regard to all 1 According to Blytli (May. Xat. History, ser. 2, ii. p. 264). Varrell ascertained that this pair of muscles was wanting in "the mina genus" (qu. Graculal], a statement that requires attention cither for confirmation or contradiction. 2 The title of the English translation is Johannes Mailer on Certain Variations in the Vocal Organs of the Fasseres that have hitherto escaped notice. It was published at Oxford in 1878. By some unaccountable accident, the date of the original communication to the Academy of Berlin is wrongly printed. It has been rightly given above Eirts that offer characters fit for the methodical arrangement of irds, but it is in regard to the anterior palatal bone that they unquestionably offer the most evidence. In the evolution of these laws Dr Cornay had most laudably studied, as his observations prove, a vast number of different types, and the upshot of his whole labours, though not very clearly stated, was such as to wholly sub vert the classification at that time generally adopted by French ornithologists. He of course knew the investigations of L llermiuier and De Blainville on sternal formation, and he also seems to have been aware of some pterylological differences exhibited by Birds whether those of Nitzsch or those of Jacquemin is not stated. True it is the latter were never published in full, but it is quite conceiv able that Dr Cornay may have known their drift. Be that as it may, he declares that characters drawn from the sternum or the pelvis hitherto deemed to be, next to the bones of the head, the most important portions of the Bird s framework are scarcely- worth more, from a classificatory point of view, than characters drawn from the bill or the legs ; while pterylological considerations, together with many others to which some systematists had attached more or less importance, can only assist, and apparently must never be taken to control, the force of evidence furnished by this bone of all bones the anterior palatal. That Dr Cornay was on the brink of making a discovery of con siderable merit will by and by appear ; but, with every disposition to regard his investigations favourably, it cannot be said that he accomplished it. No account need be taken of the criticism which denominated his attempt " unphilosophical and one-sided," nor does it signify that his proposals either attracted no attention or were generally received with indifference. Such is commonly the fate of any deep-seated reform of classification proposed by a compara tively unknown man, unless it happen to possess some extraordinarily taking qualities, or be explained with an abundance of pictorial illustration. This was not the case here. Whatever proofs Dr Cornay may have had to satisfy himself of his being on the right track, these proofs were not adduced in sufficient number nor arranged with sufficient skill to persuade a somewhat stiff-necked generation of the truth of his views for it was a generation whose | leaders, in France at any rate, looked with suspicion upon any one who professed to go beyond the bounds which the genius of | Cuvier had been unable to overpass, and regarded the notion of i upsetting any of the positions maintained by him as verging ! almost upon profanity. Moreover. Dr Cornay s scheme was not ! given to the world with any of those adjuncts that not merely please the eye but are in many cases necessary, for, though on | a subject which required for its proper comprehension a series of j plates, it made even its final appearance unadorned by a single ex planatory figure, and in a journal, respectable and well-known in deed, but one not of the highest scientific rank. Add to all this | that its author, in his summary of the practical results of his in- | vestigations, committed a grave sin in the eyes of rigid systematists by ostentatiously arranging the names of the forty types which he selected to prove his case wholly without order, and without any intimation of the greater or less affinity any one of them might bear I to the rest. That success should attend a scheme so inconclusively
- elaborated could not be expected.
The same year which saw the promulgation of the crude scheme ! just described, as well as the publication of the final researches of Miiller, witnessed also another attempt at the classification of Birds, much more limited indeed in scope, but, so far as it went, regarded by most ornithologists of the time as almost final in its operation. Under the vague title of " Ornithologische Notizen" Prof. Cabanis C abanis of Berlin contributed to the Archiv filr Naturgeschichte (xiii. 1, pp. 186-256, 308-352) an essay in two parts, wherein, following the researches of Miiller 3 on the syrinx, in the course of which a correlation had been shewn to exist between the whole or divided condition of the planta or hind part of the " tarsus," first noticed, as has been said, by Keyserling and Blasius, and the presence or absence of the perfect song-apparatus, the younger author found an agreement which seemed almost invariable in this respect, and he also pointed out that the planta of the different groups of Birds in which it is divided is divided in different modes, the mode of division being gem-rally characteristic of the group. Such a coincidence of the internal and external features of Birds was naturally deemed a discovery of the greatest value by those ornithologists who thought most highly of the latter, and it was unquestionably of no little practical utility. Further examination also revealed the fact 4 that 3 On the other hand, Miiller makes several references to the labours of Prof. Cabanis. The investigations of both authors must have been proceeding simultaneously, and it matters little which actually appeared first. 4 This seeni.s to have been made known by Prof. Cabanis the preceding year to the Gesellschaft dcr Xaturforschender Freunde (cf. Miiller, Stimmo-rgancn dcr Passerinen, p. 65). Of course the variation to which the number of primaries was subject had not escaped the observation of Nitzsch, but he had scarcely used it as a classificatorv character.
