OR'NITHOL'OGY (from Gk. lipvis, orals, bird Ncyfa, togia, account. from XI-yety, to !.ay science of bird study. The word was first used. so far as is known, in 1670, in Blount's ti/ussouraphia, where it is mentioned as the title of a late The Ilebrew scriptures (Jer. viii. 7. and Song of Solomon ii. 12) show that the Hebrew sages had noted the phe nomena of the spring migration. and we are told that Solomon "spoke also of beasts, and of fowl. and of creeping things, and of fishes." But hun dreds of years before Solomon. Egyptian artists were noting birds and drawing and coloring their portraits so well that we may recognize species.
In the writings of Aristotle we find mention of about 170 species of bird, but only about four fifths can he identified. Pliny the Elder devoted one volume of his writings to birds. much of the informatildu in whidi was evidently taken from Aristotle, but after him down to the latter part of the seventeenth century there is hardly a work ou birds that is dmything more than an entertaining compilation of absurdities. The Historic( .1sciudalium of Gesner, published at Zurich (1551-58), and the Historia :Vaturalium of Ahlrovandi, published at Bologna after his death in 1605, are characteristic of the superstitions and utterly unscientific trash which passed for natural history in those days. In 1676 there appeared in Latin Ray and Willughby's Orni thologia, and two years later an English revised edition. 'nth book was really a foundation for modern ornithology It divided birds into the two groups land-birds and water-birds, and the latter group was again divided into swimmers and those which frequent watery places. For 200 years these divisions were made use of by orni thologists, and it is only within very recent years that they have been discarded. In 1735 appeared the first edition of Linndens*s (Toeh-making work Systedna Naturcr, in which eludes was reduced to order and the binomial system of nomenclature was propounded and used. The twelfth edition (1766) is the basis of modern systematic zoology. followed quite closely the gen eral classification of Ray. Following Linmeus are a long list of ornithologists, one of whom was 11..I. Brisson. whose six-voludne Ornitho/ogia was one of the best works on birds published dur ing the eighteenth century. As a descriptive ornithologist he is ranked among the best. An other Frenebman of note was Button, whose nine-volume Ilistoirc natural(' des oiseaux is an extraordinary piece of work, especially when considered from a literary point of view. Then there is Latham, whose Genera/ Synopsis of Birds was completed in 1785. but afterwards appeared
in several revised editions. The compilation by Gmelin in 1788 of a thirteenth edition of Lin nrens's System" was most important, but the rarity of the original has caused some confusion as to what is Lianteus's and what Cfmelin's work. The next writer of importance is envier, whose Ilr'gne animal of 1817 revolutionized zoological classification. envier made use almost exclusive ly of external characters, particularly of the bill and feet. Ile grouped birds in six orders Aceipitres, Passeres. -emus ores, tlalliree, Grana tures. Satatores. This classification has been the foundation of the classification of birds adopted in natural histories, and even in many zoologies, down to the present day. The advan tages of this classification are clear. for the number of orders is small and they are based on obvious external differenees. In addition to this. Cuvier's great reputation as a zoologist gave weight to his views, and consequently the Curierian system has continued almost unbroken, the only very radical change being the recogni tion of the differenves between the Carinatce and Ratit:e, and the separation of the latter from the GraMitoses.
With the opening of the nineteenth century there came a great increase in the number of bird students and the publication of ornitho logical literature. American ornithology has been wholly a growth of the past century. In England the publication of Gilbert W'hite's Nat ural History of Nei/./rite in 1789 did more to stimulate popular interest in ornithology than any other book ever has done. It has passed through more editions, by far. than any other work on natural history. Bewiek's Ilistory of British Birds first appeared in two volumes, in 1797 and 1804. The next works of note are the magnificent monograph-s by John Gould (q.v.) Birds of Europe (5 vols., 1832-37) ; Rhamphasti dw (1834) ; Troy/on/c/a. (1838); Birds of Aus tralia. (7 vols., 1848) : Trod/it/the (5 vols., 1849 G1) ; Odontophorinw (1850) ; Birds of Asia (7 vols., 1350-53) ; and Birds of New Guinea. (1875 S1). We mention all of these because of their wealth of illustration, which consists of more than 3000 colored plates. The works of IItiger, ViviHot, and Temminck appeared between 1810 and 1820, and all three were important leaders in the systematic zoology of their day. The works of C. L. Nitzsch deserve special mention because of his being the founder of the study of pterylosis (q.v.) by his System der Pterylographic.