B46 Mr. Vigors's Sketches in Ornithology. 



Had sufficient attention been paid to a minute character observable in 

 these birds — the deficiency of the nail of the hind toe ; or rather, had 

 that character been deemed of sufficient importance to serve as a guide to 

 the affinities of the birds, for the deficiency itself did not pass unno- 

 ticed,* the original errour w^ould have been avoided. The identity of 

 this singular character in these two apparently distinct species, observable 

 in them only, and in one more species, among the whole series of birds 

 known at the time, would have led to the comparison of other characters ; 

 and thus the similarity of structure in their bill, wings, and tail, as well 

 indeed as their general appearance would have brought the original de- 

 scribers to the conclusion, that the birds, if not sexes of the same species, 

 were at least species next to each other in affinity. 



But attention to this character, which probably may at once be pro- 

 nounced minute and unimportant by the adherents of the older schools 

 of Zoology, would have brought the earlier describer of these birds to 

 results of a still higher nature. It would have led him beyond the disco- 

 very of the immediate connexion of the birds themselves to the know- 

 ledge of their general station in nature. The typical station of the Ra- 

 sorial Birds, as I have elsewhere observed, f is the ground. Here supe- 

 riour powers of flight are needless ; but powers of limb are essential — 

 essential for the purposes of running, the mode of locomotion appropri- 

 ate to the birds of that peculiar station, and of scratching up the grains, 

 seeds, and roots, which form the chief article of their food. It appears 

 expedient, however, that these powers of limb should be centered chiefly 

 in the tarsus and the front toes : the hind toe, the general use of which is 

 that of grasping, needs no strong developement in the birds of this 

 group, who want it not, like the Raptorial Birds, for the purpose of 

 seizure, nor like the Insessorial Birds, for that of perching. The more, 

 in fact, the strength of the hind toe is transferred to those in front, the 



•coronata, in consequence of there having already been a species named cristata 

 among the true Perdices. The prior name of cristata may now be restored to 

 the bird, as belonging to a different group from Perdix. 



* In the original descriptions of both sexes of this bird, Dr. Latham points 

 out the " digitus posticus muticus." See his description of Colnmba cristata^ 

 CInd. Orn. p. 596, No. 10; and of Perdix viridis, fib. p. 650, No. 22. J 



t Linn. Trans., Vol. XIV. p. 479. 



