that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 403 



enter the water to a considerable depth in search of their food, 

 — their lengthened toes, stretching out in some instances to an 

 apparently disproportionate extent, by means of which, in addi- 

 tion to the lightness of their bodies, they find a firm footing 

 among the aquatic plants and unstable marshes, where birds of 

 a more contracted foot and a heavier form would necessarily sink, 

 — the length also of their neck and bill, by which they seize upon 

 their food, or draw it out by suction from the above-mentioned 

 situations, — all these characters present incontestible indications 

 of the part they maintain in Nature, and prevent their being con- 

 founded with any other of her groups. The two remaining orders 

 of Linnaeus, his Piece and Passeres, although kept apart by that 

 great master, appear to me to range themselves decidedly into 

 only one group of that degree. In this opinion I am borne out 

 by the assertion of M. Cuvier*, that he can discover no line of 

 demarcation by which they can be separated as distinct orders. 

 There is in fact no character assigned to either of these pretended 

 orders, which may not be equally applied to some groups in the 

 other : while, on the other hand, there are groups in both so 

 nearly allied in affinity, that they cannot be kept far asunder, 

 much less be asserted to possess such distinctive characters as to 

 belong to diflferent orders. The genera Oriolus and Turdus, Linn., 

 may be cited as examples of this imperfection of the Linnean 

 system ; where the true Oriole of the former genus is removed 

 from its close affinity to Turdus, and placed in a totally remote 

 situation. Lanius and Muscicapa may be equally adduced as 



* " Malgr6 tous mes efforts, il m'a 6te impossible (\e trouver, ni a I'exterieur, ni a 

 rint6rieur, aucun caractere propre a s6parer des passereaux ceux des genres compris 

 parmi les Pica de Linnaeus qui ne sont pas grimpeurs." — Cuvier, Regne Anim. torn. i. 



p. 335. (note). — M. Vieillot is of the same opinion : " J'ai supprim6 son ordre 



Pkx, et jel'ai fondu avec ses Passeres, vu que les uns et les autres ont une parfaite ana- 

 logic dans les attributs que m'a fournis le pied, la seule partie que j'aie consultee pour 

 caracteriser mes ordres." — Analyse (Tune Nouv. Ornithologie Elementaire. p. 1 . /. 



VOL. XIV. 3 G examples 



