s a science which treats of birds; describes their form, external and internal; and teaches their economy and their uses.

A bird is an animal covered with feathers; furnished with a bill; having two wings, and only two legs; with the faculty, except in a very few instances, of removing itself from place to place through the air.—But before proceeding to analyse the characteristic parts of birds, it will be proper to premise an explanation of the terms used by naturalists in describing them.

EXPLANATION of some Technical Terms in Ornithology used by Pennant and Linnaeus.

Fig.

1. Cere. Cera The naked skin that covers the base of the bill in the hawk kind.

2. Capillus A word used by Linnaeus to express the short feathers on the forehead just above the bill. In crows these fall forwards over the nostrils.

3. Lorum The space between the bill and the eye, generally covered with feathers; but in some birds naked, as in the black and white greebe.

4. Orbita The skin that surrounds the eye, which is generally bare; particularly in the heron and parrot.

5. Emarginatum A bill is called rostrum emarginatum when there is a small notch near the end: this is conspicuous in that of butcher-birds and thrushes.

6. Vibrii Vibrii pelinatae, stiff hairs that grow on each side of the mouth, formed like a double comb, to be seen in the goatfucker, flycatcher, &c.

7. Basford wing Alula spuria

8. Lesser coverts of the wings. Teetrices primae

9. Greater coverts Teetrices secundae

10. Quill feathers Primores

11. Secondary feathers Secondaries

12. Coverts of the tail Uropygium

13. Vent-feathers

14. The tail. Reetrices

15. Scapular feathers

16. Nucha

17. Rostrum subulatum

18. Pes ambulatorius

19. Pes graffarius

20. Pes scamforius

21. Finned foot. Pes cobatus

22. Scalloped foot. Pes pinnatus

23. Pes tridactylus vel curvus

24. Pes didactylus

25. Semipalmated. Pes semipalmatus

26. Ungue pollicis sellati

27. Digits 4 omnibus palmatis Rostrum cultratum

28. Unguiculatum

29. Lingua ciliata

30. Integra

31. Lunbriciformis

Pedes compedes

32. Nares Lineares

33. Emarginate

Those that cover the base of the tail. Those that lie from the vent to the tail. Grifium Linnei.

That rise from the shoulders and cover the sides of the back. The hind part of the head. A term Linnaeus uses for a straight and slender bill. All the toes divided to the bottom. The outer toe more or less united to the middle one, particularly conspicuous in the feet of the kingsfisher. The foot of the woodpecker formed for climbing. Climbing feet. Such as those of the grebes. The webs indented in the sides, as in the coots and scolopendrid sandpipers. Such as want the back toe. In which the foot is composed of two toes, observed only in the ostrich. When the webs reach only half way of the toes. When the hind claw adheres to the leg without any toe, as in the petrels. All the four toes connected by webs, as in the corvoraunts. When the edges of the bill are very sharp, such as in that of the crow. A bill with a nail at the end, as in those of the goosanders and ducks. When the tongue is edged with fine bristles, as in ducks. When plain or even. When the tongue is long, round, and slender like a worm, as that of the woodpecker. When the legs are placed so far behind as to make the bird walk with difficulty, or as if in fetters; as is the case with the auks, grebes, and divers. When the nostrils are very narrow, as in sea-gulls. With a rim round the nostrils, as in the flate.

Sect. Sect. I.

ORNITHOLOGY.

Sect. I. External parts of Birds.

A Bird may be divided into head, body, and limbs.

I. HEAD.

1. Bill (rostrum), is a hard horny substance, consisting of an upper and under part, extending from the head, and answering to the mandibles in quadrupeds. Its edges generally plain and sharp, like the edge of a knife, cultivated, as are the bills of crows; or sometimes serrated, as in the toucan; or jagged, as in the gannet and some herons; or petinated, as in the duck; or denticulated, as in the mergansers; but always destitute of real teeth immersed in sockets.

The base in falcons is covered with a naked skin or cere (cera); in some birds with a caruncle appendage, as the turkey; or a callosity, as the curassio.

In birds of prey, the bill is hooked at the end, and fit for tearing; in crows, straight and strong for picking; in water fowl, either long and pointed, for striking; or slender and blunt, for searching in the mire; or flat and broad, for gobbling. Its other uses are for building nests; feeding the young; climbing, as in parrots; or, lastly, as an instrument of offence or defence.

2. Nostrils, (nares), the nice instruments of discerning their food, are placed either in the middle of the upper mandible, or near the base, or at the base, as in parrots; or behind the base, as in toucans and hornbills; but some birds, as the gannet, are destitute of nostrils. The nostrils are generally naked; but sometimes covered with bristles reflected over them, as in crows, or hid in the feathers, as in parrots, &c.

The fore-part of the head is called the front (capitulum); the summit (vertex), or the crown; the hind part, with the next joint of the neck (nucha); the nape: the space between the bill and the eyes, which in herons, grebes, &c., is naked, (loro), the fraps: the space beneath the eyes (gene), the cheeks.

3. Orbits (orbis), the eye-lids; in some birds naked, in others covered with short soft feathers.

Birds have no eye-brows; but the grouse kind have in lieu a scarlet naked skin above, which are called supercilium; the same word is also applied to any line of a different colour that passes from the bill over the eyes.

4. Ears. Birds are destitute of auricles or external ears, having an orifice for admission of sound; open in all but owls, whose ears are furnished with valves.

5. The Chin, the space between the parts of the lower mandible and the neck, is generally covered with feathers; but, in the cock and some others, has caruncles appendages called wattles (palearia); in others, is naked, and furnished with a pouch, capable of great dilatation (facculus), as in the pelican and corvoraunts.

6. Neck (collum), the part that connects the head to the body is longer in birds than in any other animals; and longer in such as have long legs than in those that have short, either for gathering up their meat from the ground, or striking their prey in the water, except in web-footed fowl, which are, by reversing their bodies, destined to search for food at the bottom of waters, as swans, and the like. Birds, especially those that have a long neck, have the power of retracting, bending, or stretching it out, in order to change their centre of gravity from their legs to their wings.

II. BODY.

1. Consists of the Back (dorsum), which is flat, straight, and inclines; terminated by the

2. Rump (urogyrum), furnished with two glands, secreting a fat-like liquor from an orifice each has, which the birds express with their bills to oil or anoint the discomposed parts of their feathers. These glands are particularly large in most web-footed water-fowl; but in the grebes, which want tails, they are smaller.

2. Breast (pectus), is ridged and very muscular, defended by a forked bone (clavicle), the merry-thought.

The short-winged birds, such as grouse, &c., have their breasts most fleshy or muscular; as they require greater powers in flying than the long-winged birds, such as gulls and herons, which are specifically lighter and have greater extent of sail.

4. Belly (abdomen), is covered with a strong skin, and contains the entrails.

5. The Vent, or vent-feathers (crissum), which lies between the thighs and the tail. The anus lies hid in these feathers.

III. LIMBS.

1. Wings, (ala), adapted for flight in all birds except the dodo, ostriches, cormorants, great auk, and the penguins, whose wings are too short for the use of flying; but in the dodo and ostrich, when extended, serve to accelerate their motion in running; and in the penguins perform the office of fins, in swimming or diving.

The wings have near their end an appendage covered with four or five feathers, called the bastard wing, (ala notba), and alula spuria.

The lesser coverts (tectrices), are the feathers which lie on the bones of the wings.

The greater coverts are those which lie beneath the former, and cover the quill-feathers and the secondaries.

The quill feathers (primores), spring from the first bones (digitii et metacarpi) of the wings, and are 10 in number.

Quill-feathers are broader on their inner than exterior sides.

The secondaries (secondarie), are those that rise from the second part (cubitus), and are about 18 in number, are equally broad on both sides. The primary and secondary wing-feathers are called remiges.

A tuft of feathers placed beyond the secondaries near the junction of the wings with the body. This in water-fowl is generally longer than the secondaries, cuneiform, and may not unaptly be called the tertials.

The scapulars are a tuft of long feathers arising near the junction of the wings (brachia) with the body, and lie along the sides of the back, but may be easily distinguished, and raised with one's finger.

The inner coverts are those that clothe the under side of the wing.

The subaxillary are peculiar to the greater Paradise. The wings of some birds are instruments of offence. The anhima of Maregrave has two strong spines in the front of each wing. A species of plover, Edw. tab. 47. and 28c. has a single one in each; the whole tribe of jacana, and the gambo, or spur-winged goose of Mr Willoughby, the same.

2. The Tail is the director, or rudder, of birds in their flight; they rise, sink, or turn by its means; for when the head points one way, the tail inclines to the other side: it is, besides, an equilibrium or counterpoise to the other parts; the use is very evident in the kite and swallows.

The tail consists of strong feathers (rectrices), 10 in number, as in the woodpeckers, &c.; 12 in the hawk tribe, and many others; in the gallinaceous, the mergansers, and the duck kind, of more.

It is either even at the end, as in most birds, or forked, as in swallows; or cuneated, as in magpies, &c.; or rounded, as in the purple jay of Catesby. The grebe is destitute of a tail, the rump being covered with down; and that of the cormorant with the feathers of the back.

Immediately over the tail are certain feathers that spring from the lower part of the back, and are called the coverts of the tail (uropterygium).

3. Thighs (femora), are covered entirely with feathers in all land-birds, except the bustards and the ostriches; the lower part of those of all waders, or cloven-footed water-fowl, are naked; that of all webbed-footed fowl the same, but in a less degree; in rapturous birds, are very muscular.

4. Legs (crura); those of rapturous fowls very strong, furnished with large tendons, and fitted for tearing and a firm grip. The legs of some of this genus are covered with feathers down to the toes, such as the golden eagle; others to the very nails; but those of most other birds are covered with scales, or with a skin divided into segments, or continuous. In some of the pies, and in all the pheasant tribe, the skin is thin and membranous; in those of web-footed water-fowl, strong.

The legs of most birds are placed near the centre of gravity: in land-birds, or in waders that want the back toe, exactly so; for they want that appendage to keep them erect. Auks, grebes, divers, and penguins, have their legs placed quite behind, so are necessitated to sit erect: their pace is awkward and difficult, walking like men in fetters: hence Linnaeus styles their feet pedes compedes.

The legs of all cloven-footed water-fowl are long, as they must wade in search of food: of the palmated, short, except those of the flamingo, the avocet, and the courser.

5. Feet (pedes), in all land-birds that perch, have a large back toe: most of them have three toes forward, and one backward. Woodpeckers, parrots, and other birds that climb much, have two forward, two backward; but parrots have the power of bringing one of their hind toes forward while they are feeding themselves. Owls have also the power of turning one of their fore toes backward. All the toes of the swift turn forwards, which is peculiar among land-birds: the tridactylous woodpecker is also anomalous, having only two toes forward, one backward: the ostrich is another, having but two toes.

6. Toes (digits). The toes of all waders are divided; but, between the exterior and middle toe, is generally a small web, reaching as far as the first joint.

The toes of birds that swim are either plain, as in the single instance of the common water-hen or gallinule; or pinnated, as in the coots and grebes; or entirely webbed or palmated, as in all other swimmers.

All the plover tribe, or charadrii, want the back-toe. In the swimmers the same want prevails among the albatrosses and auks. No water-fowl perch, except certain herons, the cormorant, and the shag.

7. Claws (ungues). Rapturous birds have very strong, hooked, and sharp claws, vultures excepted. Those of all land birds that roost on trees have also hooked claws, to enable them to perch in safety while asleep.

The gallinaceous tribe have broad concave claws for scraping up the ground.

Grebes have flat nails like the human.

Among water-fowl, only the skua, Br. Zool. II. p. 529. N° 243, and the black-toed gull, Br. Zool. II. p. 532. N° 244, have strong hooked or aquiline claws.

All land-birds perch on trees, except the struthious and some of the gallinaceous tribes. Parrots climb; woodpeckers creep up the bodies and boughs of trees; swallows cling.

All water-fowl rest on the ground, except certain herons, and one species of this, the spoonbill, one or two species of ducks and of cormorants.

IV. FEATHERS.

Feathers are designed for two uses; as coverings from the inclemency of the weather, and instruments of motion through the air. They are placed in such a manner as to fall over one another (regulation), so as to permit the wet to run off, and to exclude the cold; and those on the body are placed in a quincuncial form; most apparent in the thick-skinned water-fowl, particularly in the divers.

1. The parts of a feather are, the shafts; corneous, strong, light, rounded, and hollow at the lower part; at the upper, convex above, concave beneath, and chiefly composed of a pith.

2. On each side the shafts are the vanes, broad on one side, narrow on the other; each vane consists of a multitude of thin laminae, stiff, and of the nature of a split quill. These laminae are closely braced together by the elegant contrivance of a multitude of small bristles; those on one side hooked, the other straight, which lock into each other, and keep the vanes smooth, compact, and strong.

The vanes near the bottom of the shafts are soft, unconnected, and downy.

3. Feathers are of three kinds: (1.) Such as compose instruments of flight; as the pen-feathers, or those which form the wings and tail, and have a large shaft. The vanes of the exterior side bending downward, of the interior upward, lying close on each other, so that when spread not a feather misses its impulse on the air. The component parts of these feathers are described before.

(2.) The feathers that cover the body, which may be properly called the plumage, have little shaft, and much vane; and never are exerted or relaxed unless in anger, fright, or illness. Sect II.

Flight.

(3.) The Down (plume), which is dispersed over the whole body amidst the plumage, is short, soft, unconnected, consists of lamellae vanes, and is intended for excluding that air or water which may penetrate or escape through the former. This is particularly apparent in aquatic birds, and remarkably so in the anserine tribe. There are exceptions to the forms of feathers. The vanes of the subaxillary feathers of the Paradise are unconnected, and the lamellae distant, looking like herring-bone. Those of the tail of the ostrich, and head of a species of curassio, curled. Those of the caudal vanes consist of two shafts, arising from a common stem at the bottom: as do at the approach of winter (after moulting) those of the ptarmigans of arctic countries. The feathers of the penguins, particularly those of the wings, consist chiefly of thin flat shafts, and more resemble scales than feathers; those of the tail, like split whale bone.

Sect. II. Flight of Birds.

The flight of birds is various; for, had all the same, none could elude that of rapacious birds. Those which are much on wing, or flit from place to place, often owe their preservation to that cause: those in the water, to diving:

Kites, and many of the falcon tribe, glide smoothly through the air, with scarce any apparent motion of the wings.

Most of the order of pies fly quick, with a frequent repetition of the motion of the wings. The Paradise floats on the air. Woodpeckers fly awkwardly, and by jerks, and have a propensity to sink in their progress.

The gallinaceous tribe, in general, fly very strong and swiftly; but their course is seldom long, by reason of the weight of their bodies.

The columbine race is of singular swiftness; witness the flight of the carrier-pigeon. See Carrier-Pigeon.

The passerine fly with a quick repetition of strokes; their flight, except in migration, is seldom distant.

Among them, the swallow tribe is remarkably agile, their evolutions sudden, and their continuance on wing long.

Nature hath denied flight to the struthious; but still, in running, their short wings are of use, when erect, to collect the wind, and like sails to accelerate their motion.

Many of the greater cloven-footed water-fowl, or waders, have a slow and flagging flight; but most of the lesser fly swiftly, and most of them with extended legs, to compensate the shortness of their tails. Rails and gallinules fly with their legs hanging down.

Coots and grebes with difficulty are forced from the water; but when they rise, fly swiftly. Grebes and also divers fly with their hind parts downwards, by reason of the forwardness of their wings.

Web-footed fowl are various in their flight. Several have a failing or flagging wing, such as gulls. Penguins, and a single auk, are denied the power of flight. Wild geese, in their migrations, do not fly pell-mell, but in a regular figure, in order to cut the air with greater ease; for example, in long lines, in the figure of a >, or some pointed form or letter, as the ancients report that the cranes assumed in their annual migrations, till their order was broken by storms.

Strymona sic gelidum, bruma pellente, relinquunt, Potura te, Nile, Grues, primoque volatu Effingunt varias, caesi monstrante, figuras. Mox ubi percussit tensas Novus aditor alas, Conjuncto temere immobile glomeratur in orbem, Et turbata perit differitis litera* pennis. * TAA.

Lucan. lib. v. l. 711.

From observation it appears, that the flight of birds is much assisted by their being endowed with the peculiar faculty of enlarging their bulk at will; and from this circumstance the animal is enabled to buoy itself up the easier in the air, its specific gravity being lessened in proportion as the bulk is increased.

This arises from certain air vessels communicating with the lungs, and dispersed over various parts of the body, even to the bones; whereby the bird, by filling or emptying these vessels, has the power of contracting or dilating itself according to the occasion it may have for the change. See Comparative Anatomy, no 121—123.

Sect. III. Of the Nuptials, Nestification, and Eggs of Birds.

1. Most birds are monogamous, or pair; in spring fixing on a mate, and keeping constant till the cares of incubation and educating the young brood is past. This is the case, as far as we know, with all the birds of the first, second, fourth, and fifth orders.

Birds that lose their mates early, associate with others; and birds that lose their first eggs will pair and lay again. The male, as well as the female, of several, join alternately in the trouble of incubation, and always in that of nutrition; when the young are hatched, both are busied in looking out for and bringing food to the nestlings; and, at that period, the mates of the melodious tribes, who, before, were perched on some sprig, and by their warbling alleviated the care of the females confined to the nest, now join in the common duty.

Of the gallinaceous tribe, the greatest part are polygamous, at least in a tame state; the pheasant, many of the grouse, the partridges, and bustards, are monogamous; of the grouse, the cock of the wood, and the black game, assemble the females during the season of love, by their cries,

Et venerem incertam rapiunt.

The males of polygamous birds neglect their young; and, in some cases, would destroy them, if they met with them. The economy of the struthious order, in this respect, is obscure. It is probable that the birds which compose it are polygamous, like the common poultry, for they lay many eggs; the dodo, however, is said to lay but one.

All waders or cloven-footed fowl are monogamous; and all with pinnated feet are also monogamous, except the ruffs.

The swimmers or web-footed fowl observe the same order, as far as can be remarked with any certainty; but many of the auks assemble in the rocks in such numbers, and each individual so contiguous, that it is not possible to determine their method in this article.

It may be remarked, that the affection of birds to their young is very violent during the whole time of nutrition, or as long as they continue in a helpless state; but as soon as the brood can fly and shift for itself, the parents neglect, and even drive it from their haunts, the affection ceasing with the necessity of it: but, during that period,

The mothers nurse it, and the fires defend. The young dismis'd, to wander earth, or air, There flops the instinct, and there ends the care: The link dissolves; each seeks a fresh embrace; Another love succeeds, another race.

2. The Nest of a bird is one of those daily miracles that, from its familiarity, is passed over without regard. We stare with wonder at things that rarely happen, and neglect the daily operations of nature that ought first to excite our admiration and claim our attention.

Each bird, after nuptials, prepares a place suited to its species, for the depositing its eggs and sheltering its little brood: different genera, and different species, set about the task in a manner suitable to their several natures; yet, every individual of the same species collects the very same materials, puts them together in the same form, and chooses the same sort of situation for placing this temporary habitation. The young bird of the last year, which never saw the building of a nest, directed by a heaven-taught sagacity, pursues the same plan in the structure of it, and selects the same materials as its parent did before. Birds of the same species, of different and remote countries, do the same. The swallows of Britain, and of the remoter parts of Germany, observe the same order of architecture; and in many instances have been known to return to the same places in which they had reared their young the year before.

The nests of the larger rapacious birds are rude, made of sticks and bents, but often lined with something soft; they generally build in high rocks, ruined towers, and in desolate places: enemies to the whole feathered creation, they seem conscious of attacks, and seek solitude. A few build upon the ground.

Shrikes, allied to the rapacious birds, build their nests in bushes, with moss, wool, &c.

The order of pies is very irregular in the structure of their nests. Parrots, and in fact all birds with two toes forward and two backward, lay their eggs in the hollows of trees. And most of this order creep along the bodies of trees, and lodge their eggs also within them.

Crows build in trees: among them, the nest of the magpie, composed of rude materials, is made with much art, quite covered with thorns, and only a hole left for admittance.

The nests of the orioles are contrived with wonderful sagacity, and are hung at the end of some bough, or between the forks of extreme branches. In Europe, only three birds have pensile nests; the common oriole, the parus pendulinus or hang-nest titmouse, and one more. But in the torrid zone, where the birds fear the reach of the gliding serpent and inquisitive monkey, the instances are very frequent; a marvellous instinct implanted in them for the preservation of their young. See Oriolus.

All of the gallinaceous and struthious orders lay their eggs on the ground. The ostrich is the only exception, among birds, of the want of natural affection: "Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or the wild beast may break them."

The cumbbine race makes a most artless nest, a few sticks laid across may suffice.

Most of the passerine order build their nests in shrubs or bushes, and some in holes of walls or banks. Several in the torrid zone are pensile from the boughs of high trees; that of the taylor-bird, a wondrous instance*. Some of this order, such as larks, and the *See Motacilla, no. 5. goatfucker, on the ground. Some swallows make a cilla, curious plaster-nest beneath the roofs of houses; and an Indian species, nests of a certain glutinous matter, which are collected as delicate ingredients for soups of Chinese epicures. See the article Birds Nests.

Most of the cloven-footed water-fowl, or waders, lay upon the ground. Spoonbills and the common heron build in trees, and make up large nests with sticks, &c. Storks build on churches, or the tops of houses.

Coots make a great nest near the water side.

Grebes, in the water, a floating nest, perhaps adhering to some neighbouring reeds.

Web-footed fowl breed on the ground, as the avocet, terns, some of the gulls, mergansers, and ducks: the last pull the down from their breasts, to make a softer and warmer bed for their young. Auks and guillemots lay their eggs on the naked shelves of high rocks; penguins, in holes under ground: among the pelicans, that which gives name to the genus, makes its nest in the desert, on the ground. Shags, sometimes on trees; corvorants and gannets, on high rocks, with sticks, dried algae, and other coarse materials.

3. Rapacious birds, in general, lay few eggs; eagles and the larger kinds, fewer than the lesser. The eggs of falcons and owls are rounder than those of most other birds; they lay more than six.

The order of pies vary greatly in the number of their eggs.

Parrots lay only two or thee white eggs. Crows lay six eggs, greenish, mottled with dusky. Cuckoos, as far as we can learn, two. Woodpeckers, wryneck, and kingsfisher, lay eggs of a clear white and semi-transparent colour. The woodpeckers lay six; the others more.

The nuthatch lays often in the year, eight at a time, white, spotted with brown. The hoopoe lays but two cinerous eggs. The creeper lays a great number of eggs. The honeyfucker, the least and most defenceless of birds, lays but two: but Providence wisely prevents the extinction of the genus, by a swiftness of flight that eludes every pursuit.

The gallinaceous order, the most useful of any to mankind, lay the most eggs, from 8 to 20. Benigna circa hoc natura, innocua et excellentia animalia facunda generavit, is a fine observation of Pliny. With exception to the bustard, a bird that hangs between the Eggs. the gallinaceous and the waders, which lays only two.

The columbine order lays but two white eggs; but the domestic kind, breeding almost every month, supports the remark of the Roman naturalist.

All of the passerine order lay from four to six eggs; except the titmouse and the wren, which lay 15 or 18, and the goatsucker, which lays only two.

The struthious order disagrees much in the number of eggs: the ostrich laying many, as far as 50; the doo but one.

The cloven-footed water-fowl, or waders, lay, in general, four eggs: The crane and the Norfolk plover seldom more than two. All those of the snipe and plover genus are of a dirty white, or olive spotted with black, and scarce to be distinguished in the holes they lay in. The bird called the Land Rail (an ambiguous species), lays from 15 to 20. Of birds with pinnated feet, the coot lays seven or eight eggs, and sometimes more. Grebes, from four to eight, and those white.

The web-footed, or swimmers, differ in the number of their eggs. Those which border on the order of waders, lay few eggs; the avocet two; the flamingo three; the albatrosses, the auk, and guillemots, lay only one egg a-piece: the eggs of the two last are of a size strangely large in proportion to the bulk of the birds. They are commonly of a pale green colour, spotted, and striped so variously, that not two are alike; which gives every individual the means of distinguishing its own on the naked rock where such multitudes assemble.

Divers only two.

Terns and gulls lay about three eggs, of a dirty olive, spotted with black.

Ducks lay from eight to twenty eggs; the eggs of all the genus are of a pale green, or white, and unspotted.

Penguins probably lay but one egg.

Of the pelican genus, the gannet lays but one egg; the flags or corvortans, fix or seven, all white; the last, the most oblong of eggs.

A minute account of the eggs of birds might occupy a treatise of itself. This is only meant to show the great conformity nature observes in the shape and colours of the eggs of congenerous birds; and also, that she keeps the same uniformity of colour in the eggs as in the plumage of the birds they belong to.

Zinanni published, at Venice, in 1737, A Treatise on Eggs, illustrated with accurate figures of 106 eggs. Mr Reyger of Danzig published, in 1766, a populous work by Klein, with 21 plates, elegantly coloured: but much remains for future writers.

Sect. IV. System.

Considering the many systems that have been offered to the public of late years, Mr Pennant gives the preference to that composed by Mr Ray in 1667, and afterwards published in 1678; but observes, at the same time, that it would be unfair to conceal the writer, from whom our great countryman took the original hint of forming that system which has proved the foundation of all that has been composed since that period.

He was a Frenchman, Belon of Marseilles, who first attempted to range birds according to their natures; and performed great matters, considering the unenlightened age he lived in; for his book was published in 1555. His arrangement of rapacious birds is as judicious as that of the latest writers. For his second chapter treats of vultures, falcons, shrikes, and owls: in the two next, he passes over to the web-footed water-fowl, and to the cloven-footed: in the fifth, he includes the gallinaceous and struthious; but mixes with them the plovers, buntings, and larks: in the sixth are the pies, pigeons, and thrushes; and the seventh takes in the rest of the passerine order.

Notwithstanding the great defects that every naturalist will at once see in the arrangement of the lesser birds of this writer, yet he will observe a rectitude of intention in general, and a fine notion of system, which was left to the following age to mature and bring to perfection. Accordingly Mr Ray, and his illustrious pupil the honourable Francis Willoughby, affirmed the plan; but with great judgment flung into their proper stations and proper genera those which Belon had confusedly mixed together. They formed the great division of terrestrial and aquatic birds; they made every species occupy their proper place, confining at once exterior form and natural habit. They could not bear the affected intervention of aquatic birds in the midst of terrestrial birds. They placed the last by themselves; clear and distinct from those whose haunts and economy were so different.

The joined scheme of arrangement by Mr Pennant, is introduced with the following observations.

"Mr Ray's general plan is so judicious, that to me Pennant's it seems scarcely possible to make any change in it for the better: yet, notwithstanding he was in a manner the founder of systematic zoology, later discoveries have made a few improvements on his labours. My candid friend Linnæus did not take it amiss, that I, in part, neglect his example: for I permit the land-fowl to follow one another, undivided by the water-fowl, the grallæ, and anseræ of his system; but, in my generical arrangement, I most punctually attend to the order he has given in his several divisions, except in those of his anseræ, and a few of his grallæ. For, after the manner of Mr Brisson, I make a distinct order of water fowl with pinnated feet, placing them between the waders or cloven-footed water-fowl and the web-footed. The ostrich, and land-birds with wings useless for flight, I place as a distinct order. The trumpeter (Pophia Linnaei), and the bustards, I place at the end of the gallinaceous tribe. All are land-birds. The first multiparous, like the generality of the gallinaceous tribe; the last granivorous, swift runners, avoiders of wet-places; and both have bills somewhat arched. It must be confessed, that both have legs naked above the knees; and the last, like the waders, lay but few eggs. They seem ambiguous birds that have affinity with each order; and it is hoped, that each naturalist may be indulged the toleration of placing them as suits his own opinion."

TABLE TABLE of Pennant's Arrangement, with the correspondent ORDERS and GENERA in the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus.

DIVISION I. LAND-BIRDS. Div. II. WATER-FOWL.

Order I. Rapacious. II. Pies. III. Gallinaceous. IV. Columbine. V. Passerine. VI. Struthious.

Order VII. Cloven-footed, or Waders.

Div. II.

VIII. Pinnated feet. IX. Web-footed.

DIV. I.

ORD. I. RAPACIOUS.

1 Vulture 2 Falcon

ORD. II. PIES.

4 Shrike 5 Parrot 6 Toucan 7 Motmot 8 Hornbill 9 Redfeather 10 Ani 11 Wattle 12 Crow 13 Roller 14 Oriole 15 Grackle 16 Paradise

ORD. III. GALLINACEOUS.

30 Cock 31 Turkey 32 Pintado 33 Curassio 34 Peacock

ORD. IV. COLUMBINE.

40 Pigeon

ORD. V. PASSERINE.

41 Stare 42 Thrush 43 Chatterer 44 Coly 45 Grobbeck 46 Bunting 47 Tanager 48 Finch

ORD. VI. STRUTHIOUS.

57 Dodo

ORD. VII. CLOVEN-FOOTED, or WADERS.

59 Spoonbill 60 Screamer 61 Jabiru 62 Boarbill 63 Heron

ORD. VIII. PINNATED-FEET.

69 Plover 70 Oystercatcher 71 Jacana 72 Pratincole

ORD. IX. WEB-FOOTED.

76 Phalarope 77 Coot

To the above, we have thought it necessary to subjoin an extract of the orders and genera as they stand in the Index Ornithologicus and General Synopsis of birds as published by Mr Latham; as from the copious manner in which he has treated the subject, and from a very great addition he has been enabled to make to this branch of natural history, some deviations from the plan of preceding authors, as well as the formation of some new genera, have necessarily arisen.

TABLE of the ORDERS and GENERA of BIRDS, according to Mr Latham.

Ind. Orn.

AVIUM ORDINES.

Div. I.

I. Accipitres. II. Pies. III. Passeres. IV. Columbae. V. Gallinae. VI. Struthiones

Div. II.

VII. Grallae VIII. Pinnatipedes IX. Palmipedes