506 Affinities of the feathered Race, 



of them centres of radiation (at least, to any extent), such as 

 the form of ^4 s nas Z?6schas undoubtedly is in the duck family ; 

 and such as the godwits (Limosa) at least approximate to 

 be in the natural family to which the snipes appertain. 

 Corvus and A'rdea are good examples of thoroughly typical 

 forms, which, modified in every possible way, radiate and 

 ramify in every direction around ; and so, also, is Merula, and 

 that central division of the finch family to which the term 

 Coccothraustes has been given. All these graduate, through 

 a series of species, into almost every form referable to their 

 respective groups ; and such must necessarily be the case 

 with the more characteristic examples of every general plan 

 of structure, of whatever value. Typical forms, in fact, as 

 a leading rule, are merely those examples of each plan which 

 are the least bound, as a matter of necessity, to particular locali- 

 ties ; and we accordingly find them (I mean the forms, rather 

 than species) to be of comparatively general distribution ; 

 whereas the more one of these plans is modified to suit any 

 particular purpose, the more completely it is adapted to any 

 peculiar sort of locality or mode of life : the adaptation, of 

 course, implies a receding from the general, or central, type ; 

 and the species may therefore, in technical language, be termed 

 aberrant, even though its deviation be a farther developement 

 of characters peculiar to its group. 



It is clear that we must either admit this, or allow of a 

 multiplicity of primary types to every natural family, to every 

 group of species framed upon the same general or leading 

 plan : the which must necessarily lead to such gross violations 

 of affinity as the adoption of Phasianidae and Zetraonidae 

 of the Quinarists as separate and independent natural groups, 

 equivalent and equally distinct from each other, as are either 

 of them from the two contiguously ranged families, Cblum- 

 bidae and #truthionidae ; and this, too, while the very genera 

 assumed to be typical of them, Tetrao and Phasianus, are 

 allied so nearly as to hybridise together. 



This is so interesting a subject, that a few additional re- 

 marks may be well devoted to its elucidation. Assuming a 

 type to be merely the abstract plan upon which a certain 

 number of species are organised, the said plan being variously 

 more or less modified according to the purpose for which a 

 species was designed, it certainly does not necessarily follow 

 that organisms simply illustrative of the mere plan should 

 have been created, seeing that all creatures are obviously 

 framed in direct relation to their indigenous haunts, and not 

 as mere counterparts of one another. At the same time, 

 wherever an extensive array of species are organised upon 



