that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 451 
ing itself, as we have perceived in Momotus, is still carried on to 
a corresponding group in the present, the Phytotoma, Gmel., 
where these characters are preserved, though the curve is slighter 
and the serration less strong. United to that genus by some 
intermediate but uncharacterized species, the Coccothraustes, 
Briss., conducts us on to several groups, among which Pitylus, 
Cuv., Strobilophaga, Vieill., the true Lovia of authors, and Psitti- 
rostra, Temm., may be distinguished ; from whence we pass to the 
shorter-billed groups, ‘among which Colius, Linn., and Cissopis, 
Vieill., may be particularized. These are but few of the na- 
tural genera which abound in this extensive family. Many inter- 
vening species, possessing strong generic distinctions, may be 
introducéd among these groups, which at length terminate in 
some of the shorter. and stronger-billed species of the Linnean 
Tanagers. These, it will be remembered, commenced the present 
tribe by their union with the Fringillide : and thus here also the 
circular succession of affinities extends uninterrupted through 
the whole subdivision. 
$ 4. SCANSORES. 
The deviation which has been observed in the Buceride from 
the more perfect formation of the foot, prepares us for the still 
more considerable deviation that takes place in the same parti- 
cular among the Scansorial Birds; and we consequently expect 
to find the passage from the Conirostres to the Scansores in that 
family, which thus opens the way between them. In this expec- 
tation we are not disappointed. Besides the approach which we 
have just noticed in the Buceridæ to the imperfect form of the 
scansorial foot, we may perceive that the large and dispropor- 
tionate bill of that family is carried on* to the Ramphastide, the 
first 
* « Les Calaos, ( Buceros, L.) que leur enorme bec dentelé 
surmonté de proéminences quelquefois aussi grandes que lui, ou au moins fortement 
VOL. XIV. 3N renflé 
Grands oiseaux 
