that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 493 
tion, and the insufficiency of the data which are afforded us on 
such points, for forming any decisive conclusions. 
If we admit the Gypogeranus among the Raptores, we may ar- 
range it, I conceive, next the Vultures, to which family it bears a 
nearer affinity than to the Falconide, in its naked cheeks and the 
looseness of the plumage about the head. ‘The construction of 
the feet also brings it more close to the Vultures, while the com- 
parative straightness and bluntness of its toes distinguish them 
from the hooked and pointed talons of the Falcons. The greater 
developement of the membrane which connects the toes affords 
an additional reason for placing it near the Vulturide. Its natu- 
ral station, therefore, appears to be immediately preceding this 
family, from which indeed it seems only to deviate in the length 
of its tarsi and its reptile food. 
Passing on now to the succeeding families of the order, —the 
affinity between the Vulturide and Falconide may with equal 
confidence be asserted, from the circumstance of several species 
of each being indiscriminately arrauged in both families by dif- 
ferent systematic writers The external characters of these neigh- 
bouring groups are indeed considerably blended together. The 
long bills of the Vultures, straight at the base and hooked only 
at the point, pass over into many groups of the Falconide ; while 
some species of the latter family, which from their manners 
cannot be separated from it, exhibit the naked face and loose 
plumage that characterize the Vultures. Of this, the Falco Nove 
Zealandie of Dr. Latham affords a notable instance ; and more 
particularly his Falco Braziliensis, another of the Fishing Eagles, | 
forming the genus Polyborus of M. Vieillot, where the throat is 
devoid of feathers, as well as the cheeks. The genus Gypaetus 
of Storr, of which the bearded Vulture of the Alps presents the 
type, appears to form the connecting link between the families. 
Here, not merely the details of the bird's structure partially cor- 
respond with those of the conterminous groups, but in —— 
: also 
