that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 451 



ing itself, as we have perceived in Momotus, is still carried on to 

 a corresponding group in the present, the Pht/tofonia, Gmel., 

 where these characters are preserved, though the curve is slighter 

 and the serration less strong. United to that genus by some 

 intermediate but uncharacterized species, the i'occothraustes, 

 Briss., conducts us on to several groups, among which IHlylus, 

 Cuv., Strobilophaga, Vieill., the true Loxia of authors, and Vsitti- 

 ros^ro, Temm., may be distinguished ; from whence we pass to the 

 shorter-billed groups, among which Colius, Linn., and Cissopi.s, 

 Vieill., may be particularized. These are but few of the na- 

 tural genera which abound in this extensive family. Many inter- 

 vening species, possessing strong generic distinctions, may be 

 introduced among these groups, which at length terminate in 

 some of the shorter and stronger-billed species of the Linnean 

 Tanagers. These, it will be remembered, commenced the present 

 tribe by their union with the FringilUda : and thus here also the 

 circular succession of affinities extends uninterrupted through 

 the whole subdivision. 



§ 4. SCANSORES. 



The deviation which has been observed in the Bucerida from 

 the more perfect formation of the foot, prepares us for the still 

 more considerable deviation that takes place in the same parti- 

 cular among the Scansorial Birds ; and we consequently expect 

 to find the passage from the Conirostres, to the Scansores in that 

 family, which thus opens the way between them. In this expec- 

 tation we are not disappointed. Besides the approach which we 

 have just noticed in the Bucerida to the imperfect form of the 

 scansorial foot, we may perceive that the large and dispropor- 

 tionate bill of that family is carried on* to the Ramphastidce, the 



first 



* " Les Calaos, ( Buceros, L.) Grands oiseaux que leur enorme bee dentele 



surmont6 de pro6ininences quelquefois aussi giandes que lui, ou au moins fortement 

 VOL. XIV. 3 N renfle 



