Among British birds there is none able to imitate the
varied sounds of the human voice more successfully than
the Raven, and many instances are known of its talking
with a distinctness of articulation and accuracy of tone
that are almost perfect, while it will occasionally utter
phrases that by their accidental aptness are positively
startling to the hearer, and produce an effect not to be
exaggerated even in fiction. Here there is no need to
repeat any of the oft-told stories in proof of its mocking
man s speech, but the fact that it can do so leads us to consider
the means whereby the exercise of that faculty is possible,
and this, it will be found, has a direct bearing on some
important points in Systematic Ornithology.
The various powers of voice possessed by birds in general,
caused by the diversity of structure of the windpipe, have
justly excited the^attention of many of the greatest zoologists,
fiom Cuvier to those of our own day, inducing them to
carry on investigations which have finally contributed
(among other things) to the establishment of a far sounder
mode of classifying the forms combined in preceding
Editions of this work in an “ Order ” to which the name of
I n se s so r e s was applied by Vigors*'. Without attempting
to recount fully the progress of these researches, or the
way in which one investigator after another improved on the
method of his predecessor, it will be sufficient and expedient
heie to state briefly the chief results that have been reached,
so far as they affect the members of the British Fauna. It
has been long known that each of the Orders Pica and
Passeres established by Linnaeus was composed of a very
heterogeneous assemblage, artificially grouped together, and
* This “ O r d e r ’’ was propounded in 1823 (Trans. Linn. Soc. xiv. p. 425)
an d th e name pu b lish ed in 1826. I t comprehended a ll th e genera included by
Lmneeus m h is Orders Piece a n d Passeres, w ith th e exception of Oolumba an d th e
ad d itio n of Lanius. I n accordance w ith th e p rin c ip le s of th e “ Qu in a ry Sy stem ’’
— based on an h y p othesis th e n an d la te r ad o p ted by m an y of th e b e st English
zoologists, b u t now finding few or no a d h e ren ts—th e new Order was div id ed
in to five trib e s ” : Dentirostres, Conirostres, Scansores, Tenuirostres an d
Fissirostres, an a rran g em en t followed by th e A u th o r of th is work. T h a t th ese
“ t r i b e s ’ were u n n a tu ra l groups will p re sen tly ap p ea r, an d accordingly allusion
to th em is om itted th ro u g h o u t th is Edition.
in particular that two of the genera, Columba and Capri-
mulgus, included in the latter must be removed from the
rest. Further examination has shewn that several genera
of Piece, such as Gerthia, Sitta, Oriolus and Corvus, have
a much greater affinity to the majority of groups contained
in his Passeres, and these genera, with the addition of
Lanius (placed by him among the Accipitres), have accordingly
been referred thereto. This determination, effected
by Nitzsch, and based on the structure of the vocal organs,
was published in 1829. As the name Piece, through the
removal of the Crows (including Brisson’s genus Pica)
became inapplicable to the remainder, the word P icaree
was subsequently proposed by Nitzsch for them, the genera
Caprimulgus and Cypselus (the latter having in the meantime
been separated from Hirundo) being also added.
Though doubtless the Picarice, as thus constituted and
published in 1840 by Burmeister, contain several groups
that differ from others ranged with them as greatly as they
do from the Passeres in their reformed condition, ornithologists
are by no means agreed as to the best way of dividing
the assemblage, and accordingly for simplicity’s sake the
term Picarice will be here used exactly in the sense, so far
as British forms are concerned, in which it was used by
Nitzsch. He did not know, however, that many genera or
families, which he left among the Passeres (or Passerines as
he called them), do not possess the kind of vocal apparatus,
the presence or absence of which had been the prime cause of
the new division. This was due to the fact that no European
Passerine bird (for to European species his dissections
were confined) lacks it, and the discovery of Passeres (now
known to be chiefly American) not possessing this particular
structure, made some years later by Johannes Muller, compelled
a further division of the Order, based accordingly
again on the vocal apparatus. It is needless here to go
further into this matter. It will be enough to say that,
after various modifications suggested, among others, by
Blasius, Dr. Cabanis, Gloger, Prof. Huxley and Sundevall,
Prof. Garrod seems to have verified the existence of two well