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IV. VAGATORES. WANDERERS. 



OR CROWS AND ALLIED GENERA. 



Continuing our survey of the land birds, after separating 

 from the mass the orders Rasores, Gemitores, and Deglubitores, 

 we might next detach a group consisting of the Crows, Jays, 

 Starlings, and other allied genera, possessing a certain not 

 difficultly perceived affinity of form, with a corresponding 

 agreement of character and manners. To this group, con- 

 sidered as an order, I would give the name of Vagatores, or 

 Wanderers, by which term may be designated a habit different 

 from the migratorial or periodical removal from one country 

 to another, namely, that of visiting a large extent of surface in 

 procuring their daily subsistence. It is true that the Raptores 

 are equally Vagatores, as are Gulls, Gannets, and other birds ; 

 but it is utterly impossible to give an unexceptionable name to 

 a group, and that which I have selected appears to me more 

 applicable than that of Omnivorous, applied by M. Temminck 

 to nearly the same section, since in reality only the genus 

 Corvus is of the character implied by the term, and even of it 

 some species are more properly vermivorous. 



The order Vagatores is composed of five groups : the Bu- 

 cerinac or Hornbills, Corvince, Thremmaphilinae, Paradisese, 

 and Lampratorninse. The Quiscalinre, composed of the genera 

 Icterus, Cassicus, Quiscalus, and some others, which various 

 authors have associated with the Corvinse, I should refer to 

 the Coni rostral order. It is only of the second and third of 



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