that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 403 
enter the water to a considerable depth in search of their food, 
—their lengthened toes, stretching out in some instances to an | 
apparently disproportionate extent, by means of which, in addi- 
tion to the lightness of their bodies, they find a firm footing 
among the aquatic plants and unstable marshes, where birds of 
a more contracted foot and a heavier form would necessarily sink, 
—the length also of their neck and bill, by which they seize upon 
their food, or draw it out by suction from the above-mentioned 
situations,—all these characters present incontestible indications 
of the part they maintain in Nature, and prevent their being con- 
founded with any other of her groups. The two remaining orders 
of Linnæus, his Pice and Passeres, although kept apart by that 
great master, appear to me to range themselves decidedly into 
only one group of that degree. In this opinion I am borne out 
by the assertion of M. Cuvier*, that he can discover no line of 
demarcation by which they can be separated as distinct orders. 
There is in fact no character assigned to either of these pretended 
orders, which may not be equally applied to some groups in the 
other: while, on the other hand, there are groups in both so 
nearly allied in affinity, that they cannot be kept far asunder, 
much less be asserted to possess such distinctive characters as to 
belong to different orders. The genera Oriolus and Turdus, Linn., 
may be cited as examples of this imperfection of the Linnean 
system ; where the true Oriole of the former genus is removed 
from its close affinity to Turdus, and placed in a totally remote 
situation. Lanius and Muscicapa may be equally adduced as 
* « Malgré tous mes efforts, il m'a été impossible de trouver, ni à l'extérieur, ni à 
l'intérieur, aucun caractére propre à séparer des passereaux ceux des genres compris 
parmi les Picæ de Linnæus qui ne sont pas grimpeurs."— Cuvier, Regne Anim. tom. i. 
p. 335. (note).—M. Vieillot is of the same opinion: “ J'ai supprimé son ordre 
Pice, et jel'ai fondu avec ses Passeres, vu que les uns et les autres ont une parfaite ana- 
logie dans les attributs que m'a fournis le pied, la seule partie que j'aie consultée pour 
caractériser mes ordres."— Analyse d'une Nouv. Ornithologie Elementaire. p. 1. 
VOL. XIV. 3G examples 
