UNIFORMITY IN NATURAL GROUPS. 245 



assort objects into natural assemblages, than one 

 whose ideas are shackled by the dogmas of nomen- 

 clators, and the prejudices of systematists. Nature, 

 in the midst of her astonishing, endless diversity of 

 forms, still seems to delight in preserving a marked 

 degree of uniformity and consistency in her own 

 groups ; not only in regard to their habits and general 

 structure, but in such things as are most likely to 

 strike common observers — such as size, colour, and 

 geographic distribution. She rarely, if ever, places 

 in the same genus, animals of any striking dispro- 

 portion in their dimensions. We have, for instance, 

 no eagles of the size of thrushes ; nor any finches, 

 out of some hundreds, that are larger than sparrows. 

 The typical gallinaceous birds, as the peacock, 

 pheasant, Turkey fowl, &c, are all large ; and have 

 so many points of general resemblance, that the 

 ordinary observer, caring nothing for systems, sees 

 at once that they all belong to a natural group. It 

 matters not, in the first instance, whether we call 

 such a group a genus or a family, because the rank 

 it holds in the scale of creation is a subject for 

 ulterior research : when, in reality, this rank is to 

 be determined and demonstrated by an extensive 

 analysis of all the other groups, large and small, 

 in ornithology. Looking to the gallinaceous birds 

 above named, we immediately perceive that, al- 

 though they belong to the same family, they are 

 of different genera : a peacock is as much unlike a 

 pheasant, as a turkey differs from a fowl. We 

 therefore proceed to define all these differences, 

 making their distinctions from such characters as 

 are most striking and most intelligible. The pea- 

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