DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS. 219 



appearance of being true grounds for some such arrangement 

 of the animal kingdom. 



The Birds present the clearest traces of a determinate group- 

 ing, with an analogous sub-grouping. We see three great 

 divisions ; first, birds of solitary, predaceous, carnivorous habits ; 

 second, birds of gregarious habits, accustomed to walking on 

 the ground, slow of movement, large of bulk, generally 

 granivorous, and harmless ; third, birds which are, generally 

 speaking, omnivorous, rapid of movement, comparatively of 

 small bulk, not merely gregarious, but social, often marked by 

 garrulity, imitative power, cunning, and mischievousness. The 

 eagle and vulture mark the first ; the common fowl, pigeons, 

 and game birds, the second ; the crow, pie, parrot, thrush, 

 lark, sparrow, the third. As for sub-groupings, it would be 

 rash to attempt precision ; but certainly in the second, the 

 geese, cranes, gallinse, and pigeons, with their peculiarly inno- 

 cent characters, might stand as representatives of the group 

 itself, while the more carnivorous ducks, herons, and plovers 

 appear in analogy to the predaceous or first group, and the 

 rails to the third. In the third group, again, the three are 

 not less strikingly represented by the following in succession 

 the shrikes and warblers, the larks and sparrows, the 

 parrots, toucans, pies, starlings, &c. 



If we start from the birds with these three general characters 

 in our mind, we shall find that the reptiles fall under them in 

 this order ; the Sauria the Chelonia the Batrachia. So 

 do the Mammalia, after we have laid aside those which appear 

 as lateral offshoots through the birds. They rank thus : the 

 Carnivora the Herbivora (using this term to include pachy- 

 derms, equidse, and ruminants) and the Primates. Thus, 

 again, analyse the Carnivora, and it seems allowable to regard 

 the viverrine and musteline animals as representing the order 

 itself, and the Ursidse and Canidae in their bulk and compara- 

 tive innocence of character as standing for the herbivora, while 

 the Primates are reflected in the FelinaB, to which belongs a 

 remarkable clutching power. 1 In the Herbivora we may 

 regard such animals as the pig and rhinoceros as representing 

 the carnivores, the ruminants as representing the innocent 

 group, and the equidce, with their rapid movements and 

 familiar character, as standing appositely to the third. So 



1 "The Felinee appear as the typical carnivores, while the viverrine 

 and musteline animals must be regarded as aberrant." MS. Notes of a 

 Physiologist. 



