Considering affinity: an ethereal conversation (part two of three)

Abstract

In 1840 Hugh Strickland published a diagram showing the relationships of genera of birds in the kingfisher family. Three years later he applied this mapping idea to genera of birds of prey and songbirds, creating a large wall chart that he displayed to colleagues but never published. Both of his diagrams featured a scale of degrees of affinity. The meaning of taxonomic affinity was something Darwin thought about deeply. Details in the chart undermine Strickland's claim that his method was purely inductive.