TRANSACTIONS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, I. Remarks on the Comparative Anatomy of certain Birds of Cuba, with a view to their respective Places in the System of Nature or to their Relations with other Animals. By W. S. MacLeay, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. Communicated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society. Read Nov. 21, 1826; and April 17, 1827. 1 HE daj'^ is now happily gone past when zoologists thought that the infinite variety of animals which inhabit this globe owed their origin to the unsuccessful efforts of Nature before she could attain the human structure as her term of perfection. Nor is the grand object of comparative anatomy now conceived to be the reference of every animal structure to man, — a mode of viewing Nature that tends to point out distinctions rather than affinities, — but to be the formation of such a collection of recorded facts of comparative organization, as may determine in some degree the use of the various organs ; and above all, may lead us to the better knowledge of the natural arrangement of the animal kingdom. For comparative anatomy, indepen-voL. XVI. B dently
I. Remarks on the Comparative Anatomy of certain Birds of Cuba, with a view to their respective Places in the System of Nature or to their Relations with other Animals
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