that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 405 



tribe which contains the Raven and the Hornbill. I should wish in 

 general to adopt those names which M. Illiger has assigned* to 

 his orders, as most expressive of the typical character of each ; 

 but in the present instance, his term of Ambulatores is not suitable. 

 In addition to its excluding the tribe of scansorial birds whose feet 

 are not formed for walking, it offers no distinguishing character 

 sufficient to separate the group from the families of the Gallina- 

 ceous and Wading orders, all of which may be said to be walkers, 

 and walkers per excellentiam. As the distinctive characters in the 

 other orders are taken from the peculiarities of the feet, and their 

 names consequently derived from that part of their structure, I 

 wish, for the sake of uniformity, to follow the same plan in the 

 present case, and to designate this order by the title of Ins es so- 

 res, or Perching Birds. Some of the extreme genera in the 

 conterminous orders, it must be admitted, approach this charac- 

 ter of perching. But this very character by which such genera 

 deviate from the type of their own order, (more particularly in the 

 Gallinaceous groups, as will be observed more fully hereafter,) is 

 that which indicates the affinity that unites them with the true 

 Perchers. It may also be objected to the above title, that it is not 

 applicable to certain genera in the order, which, strictly speak- 

 ing, do not perch : — part of the Linnean genus Alauda, for in- 

 stance, the true Motacilla, and perhaps the Pezophorus of Illiger. 

 But it must be observed that there are no groups, particularly of 

 the more extensive kind, where some of the extreme branches do 

 not depart more or less from the typical character ; preserving 

 at the same time some rudiments of it, as is the case in the ex- 

 ceptions just brought forward. Though their habits are not 

 those of the more perfect Perchers, their feet are not incapaci- 

 tated from perching, as we may observe to be the case in the 



* The term Raptatores of that naturaUst I have ventured to alter to that of Raptores, 

 which appears to me more classical. The former I believe is not in use. 



3 G 2 more 



