and Classification of Birds. 257 



mary to the attention of naturalists ; reserving, until the con- 

 clusion of it, some remarks on the principles upon which it is 

 founded. 



The class of Birds appears to me to be resolvable into three 

 primary divisions, which might be respectively styled, — 

 INSESSORES, 

 GRESSORES, and 

 NATATORES; 

 for I think it will be admitted, that, with regard to the first, 

 (to which alone I am now desirous to call attention), a king- 

 fisher and a sparrow, a parrot and a humming-bird, are fully 

 as remote in their affinities from one another, as are either of 

 them from a member of the Accipitres, (Linnaeus) ; while, on 

 the other hand, the whole of these present decidedly a closer 

 mutual physiological relation, than either of them evinces for 

 any species pertaining to the Gressores or Natatores. These 

 three comprehensive primary groups, I prefer to denominate 

 Sub-classes. 



For the sake of perspicuity, it is here necessary to remark, 

 that under the designation Gressores, I unite the Rasores and 

 Grallatores of the quinary systematists, for similar reasons to 

 those which have prompted the junction of the Raptores and 

 Insessores. On no other principle could I accede to the sup- 

 pression of the strongly-characterized struthious genera, or 

 the 'oiseaux abnormaux' of recent French systematise, as a 

 primary division ; in which distinct group, it may be remark- 

 ed, the bustards, which are little else than massive plovers, 

 have been strangely misplaced. 



It is also proper to add, before proceeding farther, as con- 

 firmatory of a position advanced in the preceding paragraph 

 but one, that the genus Alectura, (Gray), or the " New Hol- 

 land vulture" of Latham, classified among the Vulturidce by 

 Mr. Swainson, is in every respect a true Gallinaceous bird, 

 which picks up grain voraciously, like other poultry, (as T am 

 informed by an eye-witness of the fact). Indeed there are very 

 few, who do not entirely confine their attention to the most 

 superficial characters, who could for a moment suppose that 

 the skeleton, or the digestive organs, of a vulture and poultry 

 bird, could admit of combination. Again, the Megapodius 

 and Menura, arranged by the same systematist among the 

 curassows, depart, in no essential particular, (so far as is 

 known), from the thrush tribe : the species of the former ge- 

 nus even progressing by a saltatory gait, which is observable 

 in no member of the Gressores ; and the Menura, as I have 

 been informed, being a bird of song. Examination of a sin- 

 gle feather even, plucked from either of these two genera, 



y 2 



