. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . s Cormorant, Phalacrocorce perspicillatus, and the Labrador Duck, Camjjtolcernus labradorius, are lately deceased. (See Newton, Ency. Brit., 9th ed., art. Birds.) §2. PRINCIPLES AN
. Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds . s Cormorant, Phalacrocorce perspicillatus, and the Labrador Duck, Camjjtolcernus labradorius, are lately deceased. (See Newton, Ency. Brit., 9th ed., art. Birds.) §2. PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF CLASSIFICATION. Having seen what a Bird is, and how it is distinguishedfrom other animals, our next business is to inquire how birds arerelated to and distinguished from one another, as the basis of Classification : a prime object of ornithology, without the at-tainment of which birds, however pleasing they are to the senses, donot satisfy the mind, which always strives to make orderly disposi-tion of its knowledge, and so discover the reciprocal relations andinterdependencies of the things it knows. Classification presup-poses that there do exist such relations, according to which we mayarrange objects in a manner which facilitates their comprehension, by bringing together whatis like, and separating what is unlike; and that such relations are the results of evolutionarylaw. It is, Fig. 17. — Restoration ofLeguatia gigantea. FromPackard, after Schlegel. Taxonomy (Gr. Ta|is, taxis, arrangement, and vofios, nomos, law), or the rational,lawful disposition of observed facts. Just as taxidermy is the art of fixing a birds skin in anatural manner, so taxonomy is the science of arranging birds in the most natural manner —in the way that brings out most clearly their natural affinities, and so shows them in theirproper relations to each other. This is the greatest possible help to the memory in itsattempt to retain its hold upon great numbers of facts. B
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirdsnorthamerica
