In order to better understand Strickland’s chart, several schematic depictions of it were produced by Dr. Ari Gross in 2013. The location, shapes, and positions of the groups represented in this chart and the linear connections between them accurately reflect those of the original.

In these depictions we can see Strickland’s orders (denoted by thick blue lines), tribes (thick red lines), families (dashed black lines) and sub-families (solid black lines). For simplicity, genera, represented by Strickland through oval “cartouches”, have been omitted. Connections in these schematized versions are thus shown between sub-families and families, and not between their constituent genera, as was generally the case in Strickland’s original chart.

Following Strickland, sub-families have been depicted as groups of similarly coloured “islands”, corralled by dotted lines. However, the colours selected for these schematized images do not necessarily accord with Strickland’s original (and now faded) colour scheme. These changes were made after carefully considering Strickland’s specific colour scheme and determining that the particular colours selected by Strickland were not themselves meaningful.

Larger versions of these images are available upon request.

Orders, tribes, families, and sub-families (top and bottom). Note how the top and bottom portions of the chart are not connected.

Tribes, families, and sub-families (top only). This is displayed without the blue border, since it is intended to reflect the Strickland’s original 1843 chart, depicting the Order of Insessores, not the Class of Birds.

Orders, families, and sub-families (bottom only). This version closely resembles its original, as Strickland’s bottom addition was unfinished and contained no genera “cartouches”.

Orders and tribes (top and bottom). The lettering depicting the blue order names reflects the positions found in the original chart. The positions of the red tribe letters do not.