that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 411 
the Insessores, their divided toes and comparatively short legs, 
are weakened by the resemblance which those members bear 
to the same parts of the contiguous order in their general struc- 
ture, and more particularly in the bluntness of the nails, so 
strongly indicative of the rasorial* habits of the Gallinaceous 
tribes, and so strikingly contrasted with the sharpness of the 
nails in the Linnean Passeres. They are much more nearly allied 
to these latter tribes by their habits of perching and building their 
nests in trees or rocks, by the absence of the spur on the legs 
of the male, and by the inferior number of their tail-feathers. 
But these characters are equally found in a group of birds, 
confessedly gallinaceous ; namely, the genus Crax of Linnzus, 
which meets them at the opposite extremity of that order. Such 
points of resemblance, in fact, although not sufficiently strong 
to assign them a place among the Perchers, are yet sufficiently 
* The family of Columbide is one to which I have of late paid particular attention, 
and in the details of which I have found a singular affinity with the other Rasores, 
that will not admit of their being disjoined from each other. The nature of my pre- 
sent observations, too general to allow of my descending into particulars, prevents 
my dwelling on the subject at present. I shall, however, extract a reference or two 
from a popular work of the first authority, to evince the approximation in manners to 
which Lallude. Dr. Latham, speaking of the Columba Nicobarica, observes: “It is 
a heavy bird, with rounded wings, and keeps on the ground in the manner of other 
poultry, and like them feeds on grain, but occasionally eats insects and all kinds of 
worms; will mix with other poultry, and roost with them on the trees at night: they 
fly heavily and not a great way at a time, but run on the ground sufficiently fast.” Syn. 
vol. viii. p. 85. ed. 9.—Of Columba carunculata he says: “ Its nest is made on the 
ground. The young as soon as hatched are covered with grey down, and keep with 
their mother, who covers them with the wings like a hen: these keep all together till they 
pair for a new brood; in this, following the nature of other gallinaceous birds. The 
young run on the ground like partridges, and the old ones call after them as a hen does 
her chickens." Ib. p. 86.—0Of Columba passerina : “ Sloane mentions that these birds 
feed on the ground as partridges, and spring as they do, taking a short flight, and again 
alighting on the ground.” Jb. p. 92. These quotations will be sufficient to direct the 
judgment of those who may be inclined to form their opinion of the manners of the 
Columbide from those of our European species. 
VOL. XIV. 949 decisive 
