462 Mr. N. A. Vicors on the Natural Affinities 
of the Suctorial Birds are not only in general unsuited to that 
purpose, but they become gradually weaker and of less use, as 
they come nearer the type of the tribe, where they are so short 
and slightly formed, as to be serviceable only in perching, when 
the bird is at rest. It is one of the greatest beauties of the natu- 
ral system which it is my object in these inquiries to illustrate, 
that it reconciles decided differences with decided aftinities, and 
renders the otherwise discordant views of systematic writers com- 
patible with each other. It is thus that the two groups of the 
Linnean Certhia are disposed in the separate departments to 
which the distinct nature of their food and habits more imme- 
‘diately unites them ; while at the same time, by their forming the 
extremes of their respective tribes, and touching each other at 
the corresponding points of the circles in which they are ar- 
ranged, their obvious affinities are preserved inviolate. 
We thus find ourselves among the Tenuirostres, or Suctorial 
Birds, the most interesting group perhaps of the animal world. 
Deriving their subsistence for the most part from the nectar of 
flowers, we never fail to associate them in idea with that more 
beautiful and perfect part of the vegetable creation, with which, 
in their delicacy and fragility of form, their variety and brilliancy 
of hues, not less than by their extracting their nourishment 
from vegetable juices, they appear to have so many relations. 
As the tribe is confined exclusively to the torrid zone and the 
southern hemisphere, the naturalists of our northern latitudes 
have little opportunity of observing their manners or of inspect- 
ing their internal construction. ‘Much confusion has conse- 
quently arisen in assigning them their respective stations, more 
particularly among the Honeysuckers of New Holland, which 
have been indiscriminately scattered among every group of the 
order. In the absence of that certain and perfect information 
which alone can authorise us to decide upon the station of any 
bird 
