that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 463 
bird in nature, I cannot at present undertake to fill up the details 
of this tribe, with much pretension to accuracy. "The following 
sketch however of the suctorial families will, I imagine, be found 
to afford some approach, in its general outline, to the natural 
divisions into which the tribe branches out, and to the order in 
which they succeed each other *. 
Nectariniade ? 
Cinnyride. 
Trochilide. 
Promeropide ? 
Meliphagide ? 
M. Illiger was the first who separated the true Certhia of the 
present day from the groups of the Linnean Certhia, which feed 
upon vegetable juices, and which he therefore distinguished by 
the generic title of Nectarinia. This latter genus, comprising two 
distinct and strongly marked groups, has again been separated 
by M. Cuvier into two divisions ; to the first of which, consisting 
of birds whose bills are shorter and stronger than those of the se- 
cond, and whose feet are also in general more robust, he has re- 
tained the name of Nectarinia, while he has distinguished the lat- 
ter division, where the bills are longer and more attenuated, and 
the legs and feet are proportionally more delicate, by the appella- 
tion of Cinnyris. The two first families in the above arrangement 
* Arranged according to their typical characters, they thus succeed each other : 
Normal group. s E. 
Rostris pedibusque gracili- Cinny ride. 
oibart s o sn Trochilide. 
Aberrant group. Promeropide ? 
Rostris pedibusque fortior- Me lip ha gide 2 
DOS rss rte s 
— Nectariniade ? 
accord 
