462 Mr. N. A. Vigors on the Natural Affinities 



of the Suctorial Birds are not only in general unsuited to that 

 purpose, but they become gradually weaker and of less use, as 

 they come nearer the type of the tribe, where they are so short 

 and slightly formed, as to be serviceable only in perching, when 

 the bird is at rest. It is one of the greatest beauties of the natu- 

 ral system which it is my object in these inquiries to illustrate, 

 that it reconciles decided differences with decided affinities, and 

 renders the otherwise discordant views of systematic writers com- 

 patible with each other. It is thus that the two groups of the 

 Linnean Certhia are disposed in the separate departments to 

 which the distinct nature of their food and habits more imme- 

 diately unites them; while at the same time, by their forming the 

 extremes of their respective tribes, and touching each other at 

 the corresponding points of the circles in which they are ar- 

 ranged, their obvious affinities are preserved inviolate. 



We thus find ourselves among the Tenuirostres, or Suctorial 

 Birds, the most interesting group perhaps of the animal world. 

 Deriving their subsistence for the most part from the nectar of 

 flowers, we never fail to associate them in idea with that more 

 beautiful and perfect part of the vegetable creation, with which, 

 in their delicacy and fragility of form, their variety and brilliancy 

 of hues, not less than by their extracting their nourishment 

 from vegetable juices, they appear to have so many relations. 

 As the tribe is confined exclusively to the torrid zone and the 

 southern hemisphere, the naturalists of our northern latitudes 

 have little opportunity of observing their manners or of inspect- 

 ing their internal construction. Much confusion has conse- 

 quently arisen in assigning them their respective stations, more 

 particularly among the Honeysuckers of New Holland, which 

 have been indiscriminately scattered among every group of the 

 order. In the absence of that certain and perfect information 

 which alone can authorise us to decide upon the station of any 



bird 



