OF NEW ENGLAND. nd 
CHAPTER I. 
FIRST ORDER. /PASSERES. 
Tuess birds “are the typical Insessores, as such representing 
the highest grade of development, and the most complex or- 
ganization, of the class. Their high physical irritability is 
coordinate with the rapidity of their respiration and circula- 
tion; they consume the most oxygen, and live the fastest, of 
all birds.” 1 All our forms, at least, are characterized as fol- 
lows: bill without a cere, or a soft basal membrane; front-toes 
never only two, or united throughout (7. e. two of them), hind 
toe never wanting; tail-feathers twelve. This group may be 
characterized, as a whole, as the only order of birds, of which 
all the species invariably build a nest in which to lay their 
egos. Among the birds breeding in Massachusetts there is no 
exception to this rule, except the parasitic Cow-bird. 
*¢ Passeres, corresponding to the Insessores proper of most 
ornithologists, and comprising the great majority of birds, are 
divisible into two groups, commonly called suborders, mainly 
according to the structure of the lower larynx. In one, this 
organ is a complex muscular vocal apparatus ; in the other the 
singing parts are less developed, rudimentary, or wanting. In 
the first, likewise, the tarsus is normally covered on either side 
with two entire horny plates, that meet behind in a sharp ridge ; 
in the other, these plates are subdivided, or otherwise differ- 
ently arranged. ‘This latter is about the only eaternal feature 
that can be pointed out as of extensive applicability ; and even 
this does not always hold good. For example, among our 
birds, the larks (Alaudide), held to be Oscine, and certainly 
to be called songsters, have the tarsus perfectly scutellate be- 
hind.” ! 
The Oscines, or singing Passeres, technically considered the 
1Dr. Coues; “‘ Key to North American Birds.” 
