that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 473 
considered as approaching most nearly to the general distribu- 
tion of Nature. Let us refer to the foregoing table, and com- 
pare with it, for instance, the eleven orders into which M. Bris- 
son distributed the birds which correspond with our Insessores. 
All his separate subdivisions, detached and unconnected in his 
system by any mutual bond of affinity, until here linked together 
in one uninterrupted series, may be recognised in the table be- 
fore us, as forming contiguous groups, united by relations either 
of true affinity, or of apparent affinity, but real analogy. The 
same observations may be equally made with respect to the seven 
orders into which M: Temminck has separated the same tribes, 
the names of which, Omnivores, Insectivores, Granivores, Zygo- 
dactyles, Anisodactyles, Alcions, and Chelidons, will at once sug- 
gest those particular groups in the above figure with which they 
correspond. We may extend the same remarks, with some 
slight modification, to the two orders, and sixteen families into 
which M. Illiger has subdivided the same groups; to the two 
tribes and twenty-eight families of M. Vieillot; and the two 
orders and five families of M. Cuvier. It is particularly grati- 
fying to be able to assert, that the two orders of Pice and Pas- 
seres, into which Linnæus disposed the present families, also 
form contiguous groups in the foregoing figure, which divide it 
into two nearly equal departments. If we take away the Laniade 
from the families before us, which, it is to be recollected, that 
great naturalist arranged among his Accipitres in the last edition 
of his ** Systema Nature,” and draw a line which separates the 
greater part of the Sturnide, together with the Fringillide and 
Loviade, the whole of the conterminous Dentirostres, and the 
typical families of the Fissirostres which adjoin them, we have 
the Linnean Passeres grouped together on one side of the line, 
and the Pice on the other. It is to be remembered, that the 
two orders of the Swedish naturalist have been pronounced by 
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