that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 463 



bird in nature, I cannot at present undertake to fill up the details 

 of this tribe, with much pretension to accuracy. The following 

 sketch however of the suctorial families will, I imagine, be found 

 to afford some approach, in its general outline, to the natural 

 divisions into which the tribe branches out, and to the order in 

 which they succeed each other*. 



Nectariniada ? 

 Cinnyrida. 

 Trochilidce. 

 Promeropida ? 

 Meliphagidce ? 



M. lUiger was the first who separated the true Certhia of the 

 present day from the groups of the Linnean Certhia, which feed 

 upon vegetable juices, and which he therefore distinguished by 

 the generic title of Nectarinia. This latter genus, comprising two 

 distinct and strongly marked groups, has again been separated 

 by M. Cuvier into two divisions ; to the first of which, consisting 

 of birds whose bills are shorter and stronger than those of the se- 

 cond, and whose feet are also in general more robust, he has re- 

 tained the name of Nectarinia, while he has distinguished the lat- 

 ter division, where the bills are longer and more attenuated, and 

 the legs and feet are proportionally more delicate, by the appella- 

 tion of Cinnyris. The two first families in the above arrangement 



* Arranged according to their typical characters, they thus succeed each other : ' 



Normal group. 

 Rostris pedibusque gracili- f CinnyrideE. 



oribus J^ TrochilidUe. 



Aberrant group. r Promeropid(E ? 



Rostris pedibusquefortior- ) Meliphagida'^ 



ibus 



I. NectariiiiadtE '^ • 



accord 



