FISSIROSTRES. 185 



may be said to run more or less through all birds. They, how- 

 ever, separated this order into five tribes or divisions, under 

 the names of Fissirostres, Dentirostres, Conirostres, Scansores, 

 and Tenuirostres — jaw-breaking terms no doubt many of my 

 young readers may think, and wish that Latin and all such 

 mystifying technicalities could be left out of our scientific 

 works altogether. Of these, the Dentirostres and Conirostres 

 are the more typical tribes, being more perfect in construction, 

 and having qualities — for certain purposes, superior to the 

 others. Like the more typical falcons in the Raptores, I have 

 placed these in the centre, beginning and finishing with the less 

 typical. In an order of such extent, which contains such a 

 variety of form, difficulty has been found by systematisers in 

 defining their various groups and divisions. Some have 

 selected their species from the absence of certain distinctive 

 features which others had ; others have pointed out certain 

 distinct characteristics — notably Swainson, who has given three 

 such distinct marks — two of which are universal, the third 

 applicable to the more typical groups. The " first is, feet of 

 that construction most adapted for perching or grasping, the 

 hind toe always present, and articulated on the same plane with 

 the fore toes ; second, the absence of the strongly-defined tooth 

 which gives the rapacious birds the exclusive power of tearing 

 their food before swallowing it ; thirdly, by the presence (in 

 the typical groups) of a small notch on one or both mandibles, 

 enabling the bird to hold, but not to divide its food, which is 

 swallowed whole." So, from such marks any naturalist can 

 collect, study, divide, make groups, tribes, and families for 

 himself, and much pleasure he will find in the interesting- 

 occupation. 



Tribe I. 



Fissirostres. Cuvier. 



The birds which constitute this tribe are distinguished from 

 the more typical by their shortness of legs and toes, length of 

 wing, width of gape (the bill being always broad at the base), 

 and their habit of feeding upon wing. This habit, however, as 

 well as their weak structure of legs, is also met with in the 

 typical families of the Tenuirostres — the tribe which meets this 

 N 



