482 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



being fused into continuous laniiiin, or ' boots.' Professor Newton has made a very 

 successful assault u])on this arrangement, the most forcible argument being the rather 

 generalized state of their coloration, the young ones being very ilifferent from the 

 adults, and spotted. But iie is probably going too far when he tliiiiks that "so far 

 from the Turdidoe being at the head of the Oscines, they are among its lower mem- 

 bers." This view is entirely ojiposed to that of Professor Parkei', whom Xewton quotes 

 in defence of his assigning tiie iirst ]iosition to the crows. But if Parker's o|iinion 

 has any weight as to one family, it probably is of some importance in regard to 

 another ; and as to the " warblers," as typiKed by the European redstart, which 

 most certainly belongs to the Turdidie, the latter gentlem;m says that "in the fulness 

 of their organization as to all that lifts a liird on high above a rci)tile, or above a rej> 

 tilian bird, these tyjjcs are, as to famibj, what a blooil-horse is as to breed ; they are 

 of the highest and the purest blood. That these birds (the very ;iristocraey of the 

 ' Oscines,' or songster.s) are small does not much affect the (juestion ; for if wo wish 

 to look for a low bird of mean reiitilian blood, we search for it amongst the ponderous 

 giants." 



In order to find out the most s])ecializcd form of the Passeres, we must look for 

 tlie bird which is most s])ecialized in all directions, not only as to the coloration of its 

 plumage, or the fusion of its tarsal covering. Thi; ideally hif/hest form of this super- 

 family would have booted tarsi, nine ]>rimaries, long mandibular sym])hysis, jjowerful 

 bill for grain-crushing, a digestive system adapted to grain-feeding, and coloration of 

 yoimg and adults unspotted and similar. That this is the regular course and ultimate 

 end of the evolution among the higher birds is evident from the fact that we can trace 

 it in nearly all the groujis, and in the individual development of the birds jiossessing 

 these characters. Thus the young of birds with booted tarsus have the tarsal cover- 

 ing yet divided into scutellre; in nine ])rimaried birds tlie tenth primary can be seen 

 in the unfledged young, aiul in those with the tenth (usually called the Iirst) primary 

 aborted, it is longer in the young bird than in the adult ; grain-feeding species are 

 insectivorous and feeble-billed when young, and in young birds the symphysis of the 

 mandibular rami is shorter than in the adults; and, tin.ally, a uniformly colored 

 ]iluninge usually develojis from a spotted one, and, as far as we know, never a spotted 

 plumage out of a uniform one. 



A passeroid bird combining all these characters is not known, but the above com- 

 bination is that standard V)y which tlie diffcniit claimants have to bi.' eom|>ared. The 

 form which comes nearest to the standard will have to take the 'highest' place. 



It is then .ippaniit tliat tlie Turdida% w luilur including both thrushes and Old 

 World warblcis, or t)nly tlie former, do not 111! the bill, in s])ite of the booted tarsi. 

 The little kinglets {Ilef/uhts) which combine this character with an unspotted young 

 plumage make a good showing, aiul should stand highest in their family ; but their 

 beak and i)alate are not ])articularly s])ecialized, and the wing has ten primaries. 



The Corvida>, or crows, have recently come to the front, advocated by Professor 

 Newton, who thinks that "he would be a bold man who would venture to gainsay" 

 Parker's ojiinion, that "in all respects, ])hysiological, morphological, and ornithologi- 

 cal, the crow nuiy be placed at the head, not only of its own great series (birds of the 

 croic fonii), but also as the unchallengcil chief of the whole of the ' Carinataj.'" Not 

 only has Parker himself j)artly neutralized, not to say g;iiusaid, this passage by the 

 one quoted above, but I think that the risk in challenging the crow's claims can- 

 not be so very great. This type of the genus Corous does certainly not stand the 



