2 6C 



AVES. 



ment they quit the shell (Aves pracoces) ; 

 while in others the young are excluded feeble, 

 naked, and blind, and dependent on their pa- 

 rents for support (Aves altrices). 



SCOPOLI, in his ' Introduction to Natural 

 History,' published in 1777, proposed a dicho- 

 tomous systematic distribution of Birds, found- 

 ed on the form of the scales covering the 

 tarsus. The species which have these scales 

 small and polygonal are the Retepedes of this 

 author; those which have the legs covered 

 anteriorly with unequal semicircular plates are 

 the Scutipedes. 



NITZSCH,* the celebrated professor of natural 

 history at Halle, has synthetically grouped to- 

 gether the feathered tribes under three grand 

 orders, according to the great divisions of the 

 terraqueous globe which form the principal 

 theatres of their actions. f The first order con- 

 sists of the birds of the air par excellence, Aves 

 aercte (Luft-vogeln) ; the second order em- 

 braces the birds of the earth, Aves terrestres 

 (Erd-vijgeln) ; the third great division includes 

 the birds which frequent the waters, Aves aqua- 

 tics (Wasser-vogeln). The Eagle and the 

 Sparrow may be named as examples of the first; 

 the Ostrich and the common fowl of the 

 second; the Heron and the Gull of the third 

 of these extensive divisions. 



A more definite arrangement of Birds, in 

 which a similar principle may be traced, has 

 been proposed by a distinguished naturalist of 

 our own country, Mr. VIGORS. He divides the 

 class Aves inlojive orders. The first includes 

 the birds which soar in the upper regions of the 

 air, which build their nests and rear their 

 young on the highest rocks and loftiest trees, 

 and which may be regarded as the typical 

 species of Nitzsch's Aerial Birds ; this order is 

 termed Raptorcs, from the rapacious habits 

 and animal food of the species so grouped to- 

 gether. 



The second order affects the lower regions of 

 the air ; the birds composing it are peculiarly 

 arboreal in their habits, and are therefore term- 

 ed Perchers or Insessores. 



The third order corresponds to Nitzsch's 

 Aves terrestres, and is denominated Rasores, 

 from the general habit which these granivorous 

 species present of scratching up the soil to 

 obtain their food . 



By dividing the aquatic birds of Nitzsch into 

 those which frequent the fresh waters, and are 

 limited to wading into rivers, lakes, &c. in 

 search of their food, and those which possess the 

 power of swimming in the great ocean, we ob- 

 tain ti.e two remaining orders of the quinary 

 arrangement of Mr. Vigors, viz. the Grallatores, 

 or Waders, and the Natatores, or Swimmers. 

 The merit of this system is not, however, 

 confined to the defining of the different groups 

 in as clear and readily appreciable a manner as 

 the subject will admit; but it also aims at 



* See Schoepfs, in Mecltel's Archiv fur Physio- 

 logie, B. 12, p. 73. 



t Blumenbacb. more vaguely proposes a Binary 

 arrangement of Birds on the same principle ; he 

 divides the class into Lund-Birds and Water-Birds, 

 Jn Lawrence's Blumenbach, Comp. Anat. p* xxxiii. 



displaying the natural affinities by which the 

 several orders and families are connected with 

 and pass into one another. In the ornitholo- 

 gical systems of other naturalists, who have 

 made this branch of zoology their particular 

 study, we find the greatest discrepancy both as 

 to the number and value of the primary divi- 

 sions of the class. 



Sandewall lias four orders or cohorts. 



Vieillot, like Vigors, has jive orders. 



Linnaeus, Cuvier, Carus, and Dumeril have 

 six orders. 



Illiger has seven. 



Scopoli, Latham, Meyer, Wolf and Blain- 

 ville have nine. 



Temminck (1820) has sixteen. 



SchcefFer has seventeen. 



Brisson has twenty-eight, and 



Lacepede has thirty-eight orders. 



Where so many masters of die science differ, 

 it is difficult for one less profoundly versed in 

 ornithology to select the most unexceptionable 

 system of arrangement, and as KIR BY* ob- 

 serves, ' the choice perplexes.' We have here 

 adopted the arrangement proposed by that dis- 

 tinguished naturalist as being the one which 

 facilitates the expression of the leading ana- 

 tomical differences which obtain in the class of 

 Birds, and which may therefore be considered 

 as the most natural. 



ORDERS. 



1. RAPTORES, Vig. Syn. Accipitrcs, Linn. 

 Cuv. Birds of Prey or Raveners.f 



II. INSESSORES, Vig. Passeres, Linn. Cuv. 

 Perchers. 



III. SCANSORES, Illig. Cuv. Climbers. 



IV. RASORES, Illig. Gallinff, Cuv. Scratchers. 

 V. CURSORES, Illig. Brevipennes, Cuv. 



Coursers. 

 VI. GRALLATORES, Illig. Grallce, Linn. Cuv. 



Waders. 

 VII. NATATORES, Illig. Palmipedes, Cuv.; 



Anseres, Linn. Swimmers. 

 The following are the characters of these orders. 



Class AVES (Birds.) 

 Animal vertebrated, oviparous, biped. 

 Anterior extremities organized for flight. 

 Integument plumose. 

 Blood, red, warm. 

 Respiration and circulation double. 

 Lungs fixed, perforated. 

 Negative characters, no auricles, lips, teeth, 

 epiglottis, diaphragm, fornix, corpus callosum, 

 scrotum. 



Fig. 112. 



Order I. RAPTORES. 



Bodi/, very muscular. 



Beak, strong, cur- 

 ved, sharp-edged and 

 sharp-pointed, often 

 armed with a lateral 

 tooth ; upper man- 

 dible the longest. 

 (Fig 112.) 



* Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. p. 444. 



t This word is proposed by Mr. Kirby as the 

 English for Ruptores ; it is the substantive of rave- 

 notLS, from the verb te raven. 





