that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 475 



has combined them — and scatter the disjointed elements of an 

 otherwise harmonious structure in endless and irretrievable con- 

 fusion. 



But there is another peculiarity attending the groups of In- 

 sessores on which I must detain the attention of my readers for 

 a moment before I quit the order. It has been remarked by 

 the author to whom I have so frequently alluded, and who, in 

 the splendour which has attended his own progress, has diffused 

 sufficient illumination around to direct the researches of his 

 more humble fellow-labourers in the conterminous fields of 

 science, — it has been remarked*, I say, by that accurate ob- 

 server, that among the five subdivisions of any important and 

 typical group, one will always be found to contain characters 

 peculiar to this group itself, and the other four will represent 

 the four contiguous groups that are of the same degree with it. 

 The following series of parallel analogies, by which the tribes 

 of the Insessores thus represent the different orders of the class, 

 will tend to unfold many striking coincidences and reconcile 

 many apparent anomalies in the groups of ornithology. 



Dentirostres Raptores. 



Conirostres IisfSEssoRES. 



Scansores Rasores. 



Tenuirostres Grallatores. 



Fissirostres Natatores. 



The Conii'ostres are the typical group in the first series, and 

 as such exhibit a character peculiar to themselves, the strength 

 and more perfect formation of those organs, and the greater 

 developement of those faculties which distinguish the Insessores 

 from the other orders. The analogical relations that connect 

 the other four opposite groups will serve to explain the cause 



* See Hora Efitomologica, p. 518. 

 VOL. XIV. 3 Q why 



