204< AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



example, Geophilus Nicobarensis) which are evidently inter- 

 mediate. 



The game-birds, grouse, partridges, quails, &c. (Tetraonidce) 

 appear as descendants of the rails and bustards, appropriate 

 to the healthy moorland and mountain. So ends the first 

 great stirps of the class of Birds. 



Some general principles are clearly to be observed in the 

 genealogy. Each subdivision preserves its own character, par- 

 ticularly as to food, through all the transformations which it 

 undergoes. Thus the anserine birds, the cranes, and the poultry 

 and pigeons, are all of them innocent vegetable-feeding animals. 

 There is also an invariable diminution of size of body from 

 the oceanic original to the inland descendants ; for example, 

 the anserine birds sink in the cranes, these fall oft again in the 

 poultry, and these again in the pigeons. At the same 

 time, intelligence and the tendency to domesticity always 

 increase. 



The Second great stirps is composed of birds destined by 

 their organization and dispositions to act as destructives over 

 the rest. Its chief subdivision commences in a swimming 

 family (Procellaridce), of which the huge Albatross, with its 

 ten-feet expanse of wings and its great hooked bill, is an ex- 

 ample. The tendency of this family, as determined by the 

 temptation of food, was not generally to low shores, but to 

 cliffy wildernesses. Accordingly, it Las no intermediate stilted 

 forms, unless a solitary species, the Secretary of India and the 

 Mauritius, be an exception. It may be regarded as passing at 

 once into the majestic Eagle, the grandest of all birds, and a 

 terrible image of unrelenting destructiveriess. Some of the 

 aquiline genus, as the Osprey, still haunt the shores and rivers, 

 while others take up their abode in inland and generally Alpine 

 grounds, frequenting the plains only for the sake of prey. The 

 Kites and Buzzards show an affinity, as of descent, to the 

 Eagles. Another subdivision presents, in suite, the Falcons 

 (including hawks), and the Owls (Strigidee), the latter being 

 addicted to living near the haunts of men and pursuing prey 

 by night. A link between the two is seen in the peregrine 

 falcon, both in its owlish visage and its inclination to live in 

 tall buildings. Another swimming family, composed of the 

 Pelicans and Cormorants (Pelicanid^), gives rise to the Vul- 

 tures ; and thus is completed the raptorial stirps. 



The Third stirps is in some respects the most remarkable of 

 all. It spreads out into a much greater variety of species than 



