318 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



fleshy caruncle, which is subservient to its sense of scenting. The 

 Falcon secures its prey by sight, and the organ of vision is accord- 

 ingly powerful ; the Owl by hearing, and that bird is equally re- 

 markable for the comi)licated structure of its ear, to which the 

 aigrette is designed to collect and confine the sound. 



The Canine and Feline race of quadrupeds, Mr. Vigors remarked, 

 also presented similar faculties by which they secured their prey. 

 The ne.Nt analogy alluded to, was that between the bills of the 

 Snipes and Toucans, the former using it for probing the soft mud; 

 and the latter likewise employing it for probing, but in a different 

 manner. The majority of birds who were cohabitants with the 

 Toucans in the South American Forests, had the elongated pensile 

 nests, suspended from the extreme branches of trees, beyond the 

 reach of Snakes and ^Monkeys. Nature had however appointed the 

 Toucans to regulate their number, by providing them with a bill 

 adapted for the purpose of inserting, in those nests and dragging 

 forth the eggs or callow young. 31r. Vigors then adverted at some 

 length to Mr. BIyth's observations on the pectinated claws of birds, 

 and concluded with an eulogium on that gentleman's valuable infor- 

 mation, more particularly as regarded the cininection between the 

 eye-lashes and rostral-protuberance of the Hornbills and the Cro- 

 t/iop'agtv, and requested I\Ir. INIacleay to communicate his own per- 

 sonal observations on the latter. 



l\Ir. IMacleay then rose and remarked it would be presumptuous 

 in him, after the interesting discussion which had taken place, to 

 add any observations. From his long residence in the West Indies, 

 he had frequent opportunities of studying the habits of Aiii : it was a 

 bird extremely sensitive of cold, and does not live in captivity, even 

 in that climate, unless kept by a fire; they usually congregated in 

 c(msiderable numbers, like the Tit, and thus obtained additional 

 ^varmth. On dissecting the bird and closely examining the stomach, 

 he fomid it contained a portion of animal food. He considered the 

 cye-lashes protected the sight (in the manner stated by Mr. Blyth) 

 when passing through the briars. He then called attention to a 

 highly interesting fact, which he had lately discovered, and which 

 furnished an exclusive definition to the great order of Insessores or 

 Perching birds, allowed on all hands to be a natural group, but 

 which had hitherto baffled the ingenuity of naturalists to define sa- 

 tisfactorily. 



The character to which ]Mr. Macleay had alluded, was one com- 

 mon and peculiar to the Insessorial order, viz. that their young are 

 hatched naked or callow. 



^Ir. Blyth again rose and stated, the same character had also 

 occurred to him, as JMr. Yarrell and many other naturalists were 

 aware, but he pointed out certain exceptions to exist, as the Capri- 

 -tnulgidie on the one hand, among the Insessores and the Cormorants 

 on the other, which were hatched quite naked, not being Insessores. 

 In the first case, the reason that the Caprimnlgidcv were excluded 

 covered with down was sufficiently obvious, when we remember 



