In the joint observations of Francis Willughby and John Ray, published by the latter in 1676, after the death of Willughby, there is found a division of all known birds into two great groups of "land-fowl" and "water-f owl," an arbitrary classification that has been current to the present generation, though now super seded by a more modern grouping based on structural characters.
Linnaeus, the founder of the modern system of scientific names used in systematic zoology, began publication of his Systema Naturae in 1735. His attempt was to be terse and concise, and in 1758, in the loth edition of his work, he proposed that each species be designated by two names, the first of generic sig nificance applying in most cases to a number of somewhat similar allied forms, and the second specific in nature and used in con nection with the genus name for the species in question alone. (See ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE.) In recent years, sub-species, or geographic races, are designated by a third Latin term or sub specific name.
Natural history collections made in connection with the many exploring expeditions of the late 18th and early 19th centuries brought to Europe, particularly to England and France, many specimens of birds that greatly broadened knowledge of the ornithology of the world. In early explorations paintings or drawings were made of birds, or specimens were preserved in spirits, or sometimes dried as mummies. At the beginning of the 19th century, as travellers increased and interest in natural ob jects expanded, methods of preparing skins of birds were evolved that led finally to the making of what are known as scientific specimens, where the skin, with the feathers intact, is removed from the bird, leaving only the bones of the skull, wings, feet and base of the tail. The inner surface of the skin is poisoned, usually with arsenic, filled with cotton, tow or other light vege table substance, and dried after being wrapped or otherwise arranged so that it resembles a dead bird. By means of such preparations it is possible to assemble collections of birds that may be preserved indefinitely for continued study and examina tion. The growth of such collections and their expansion into museums, where birds were mounted in natural positions, changed completely the style and method of published treatises dealing with ornithology. To this time these had been mainly accounts
and descriptions written from hearsay or memory, and involv ing constant repetition of the writings of previous authors. Such accounts were now in large measure supplanted by detailed statements regarding specimens secured during voyages, or mono graphs that brought together all available knowledge concerning genera, families, or larger groups of birds. The art of illustration was amplified, and many works contained series of coloured rep resentations that delineated the bird under discussion more defi nitely than words. Among early writers of such illustrated works or monographs may be mentioned Daubenton, whose Planches Enluminees contained 1,008 plates mainly on birds, Le Vaillant who published on hornbills, cotingas, birds of paradise, and many others ; Vieillot, who produced an array of volumes that dealt with the majority of the known birds of the world; and Tern minck, who wrote on the pigeons and gallinaceous birds.
Audubon's Birds of America, in 4 vols. of elephant f olio size, containing 435 plates, was published in London between 1827 and 1838, and was followed by his Ornithological Biography, in which. with the aid of William MacGillivray, he gave accounts of the habits of North American birds. The writings of John Gould, which began in 1832, covered descriptions and beautiful paintings in colour of birds of all parts of the world and included in all more than 4o folio volumes illustrated by upwards of 3,00o plates.
Modern Contributions.—Af ter the middle of the 19th cen tury ornithological publications increased to a point where it is impossible in brief space to enumerate them. In 1874 there ap peared the first of the great series of volumes comprising the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, begun by R. Bowdler Sharpe, and completed in 27 vols. in 1898 with the assistance of a number of other writers. This, with Sharpe's Handlist of the Birds of the World, in 5 vols. (1899 to 1909), has had pro found influence.