264: Analytical Notices of Books. 



to our previous numbers, and particularly from his essay " On the 

 Groups of the Falconidje." Founded on the quinary distribu- 

 tion of Nature-aud circular succession of affinities first pointed out 

 by Mr. W. MacLeay, and illustrated by him chiefly with refer- 

 ence to Insects, Mr. Vigors has carried this principle, which he here 

 developes at considerable length, into the arrangement of Birds. 

 Retaining four of the orders established by Linne, his Predaceous, 

 Gallinaceous, Webfooted, and Wading Birds (to designate which, 

 for the sake of referring to the same set of organs in the con- 

 struction of the terms, as well as for uniformity of termination, 

 he employs the names of Illiger, Raptores^ Rasores^ Natatores^ 

 and Grallatores^) he throws together the remaining two, the 

 Piece and Passeres of the great Swede, to form a fifth, under the 

 names of Insessores^ or Perching Birds. In this union he is sup- 

 ported by the authority of Cuvier, who has declared that he can 

 discover no line of demarcation by which they can be separated 

 into distinct orders. 



Having thus laid down his five leading divisions, Mr. Vigors 

 next proceeds to point out the chain of affinities by which these 

 are connected together. Commencing with the Raptoresy he 

 finds in the genus Strix that inferior degree of organization and 

 of strength which shows that it recedes farthest from the typical 

 character of the order, and brings it into close approximation with 

 Caprimulgusy an Insessorial genus, strikingly resembling it in 

 manners, flight, and numerous other particulars. Between these 

 genera a most beautiful link is supplied by the Podargus of 

 Cuvier, which thus forms the immediate passage from the RaptO' 

 res to the Insessores. To connect these latter with the Rasores^ 

 we have on the one hand the genera Musophaga and Corythaix^ 

 already pointed out by Cuvier as uniting these two orders, and 

 on the other the Columbidce^ which are referred by modern conti- 

 nental writers to the Gallinaceous Birds, although their affinity 

 to the Perchers is so marked as to have induced Linne to arrange 

 thera among his Passeres, The passage from the Rasores to the 

 Grallatores is formed by the Cursores of Illiger, which differ 

 in fact from the Wading Birds in scarcely any other respect than 

 their terrestrial habits, and which are met by the Gruidce, a 



