62 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
represent different branches, or genera. Chippy 
goes into No. 4 to wait for the other “finches, 
sparrows, etc.,” the barn swallow will go into No. 
6, which belongs to “the swallows,” the catbird 
into No. 10, the chickadee into No. 12, and the 
robin and bluebird into No. 14, — the last hole, — 
as they belong to the most highly developed fam- 
ily of all the birds, that of the “ thrushes, blue- 
birds, ete.” 
This simplifies matters. The chimney swift 
belongs to an entirely different order from the 
swallows, —a much lower one, — and so was put 
in the drawer, together with the kingfisher, whose 
feet are weak and who nests in the ground. Now 
all the “ perching birds” we have had fall readily 
into place. The crow is by himself in No. 2, as 
the blackbirds in No. 3 differ from him in having 
wives smaller than themselves, and in anatomical 
and technical peculiarities that are the foundation 
of all the divisions we have. 
But here is chippy in No. 4; let us see how he 
is related to the other birds. First, what does he 
look like? Although one of those “little gray 
birds” that vex the spirit of the tyro, he is well 
known as the smallest and most friendly of our 
sparrows. All the sparrows are small, dull colored 
birds, none of them being much more than half as 
large as arobin. But he is marked by a reddish- 
brown cap, edged by a delicate white line over eye 
and cheek. His back is streaked with grayish- 
