Reading the chart

Reading of the names (genus, subfamily, family, tribe, order) was done by Jennifer Coggon, Craig Knox, Ari Gross, and myself (Mary P. Winsor), from images provided by the Museum of Zoology (photo by Dr. Jamie Gundry). None of us were familiar with ornithology, so we compared our reading with published lists, especially G.R. Gray 1840.  I would be grateful for suggested corrections.

Groups above genus level are given roughly in the order on the chart, reading top-to-bottom. However, we have made the generic names alphabetical within each subfamily rather than attempting to replicate Strickland’s arrangement.

I have a special interest in Strickland’s lines of affinity, which tie genera together into subfamilies, but these can only be inspected on an image of the chart. I am even more interested in the slightly longer lines of affinity that connect each subfamily to one or more other subfamilies. In the 1843 chart Strickland was careful to show exactly which genus in one family was linked to which genus in another family, which was a contradiction of George Waterhouse’s opinion of how affinity worked. I therefore asked Ari to record which genus-to-genus links Strickland gave to connect higher groups, and he has indicated in the PDF below by the phrases beginning with the term “**Links”.

Here is a PDF containing our latest efforts to read the complete names of the chart. Again, I would be grateful for any helpful suggestions.

Names of Strickland’s Birds