that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 475 
has combined them—and scatter the disjointed elements of an 
otherwise harmonious structure in endless and irretrievable con- 
fusion. 
But there is another peculiarity attending the groups of In- 
sessores on which I must detain the attention of my readers for 
a moment before I quit the order. It has been remarked by 
the author to whom I have so frequently alluded, and who, in 
the splendour which has attended his own progress, has diffused 
sufficient illumination around to direct the researches of his 
more humble fellow-labourers in the conterminous fields of 
science,—it has been remarked*, I say, by that accurate ob- 
server, that among the five subdivisions of any important and 
typical group, one will always be found to contain characters 
peculiar to this group itself, and the other four will represent 
the four contiguous groups that are of the same degree with it. 
The following series of parallel analogies, by which the tribes 
of the Insessores thus represent the different orders of the class, 
will tend to unfold many striking coincidences and reconcile 
many apparent anomalies in the groups of ornithology. 
Dentwonre.. ee ae F RAPTORES. 
Conto. . . vee. Ta INSESSORES. 
SUMET . à — : RASORESs. 
Toure... a ts ee GRALLATORES. 
+ a E NATATORES. 
The Conirostres are the typical group in the first series, and 
as such exhibit a character peculiar to themselves, the strength 
and more perfect formation of those organs, and the greater 
developement of those faculties which distinguish the Insessores 
from the other orders. The analogical relations that connect 
the other four opposite groups will serve to explain the cause 
* See Hore Entomologice, p. 518. 
why 
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