PASSERINE BIRDS 



and Pedionomus ; (19) Ralli, rails and coots ; (20) 

 Otides, bustards ; (21) Limicolce, snipes, plovers, curlews, 

 etc. ; (22) Alcce, auks, guillemots ; (23) Grues, cranes, 

 the New Caledonian kagu, the American cariama, the 

 trumpeters and the sun bird Eurypyga ; (24) Colymbi, 

 divers and grebes ; (25) Sphenisci, penguins ; (26) 

 Steganopodes, pelicans, cormorants, etc. ; (27) Hero- 

 diones, herons and storks ; (28) Tubinares, albatross and 

 petrels ; (29) Palamedece, screamers ; (30) Anseres, 

 ducks, geese, and swans ; (31) Accipitres, eagles, vul- 

 tures, hawks ; (32) Tinami, tinamous ; (33) Struthiones, 

 ostrich tribe. In the following pages will be found 

 accounts of birds belonging to the majority of these 

 groups. 



THE COW-PEN BIRD 



The enormous preponderance of Passerine birds over 

 all others is shown by the fact that in the list of animals 

 published by the Zoological Society, no less than 516 

 species out of a total of 1,676 are members of the 

 Passerine group, which are, or have been, on view in 

 the Society's menagerie. This being the case, we cannot 

 hope to give an adequate idea of their endless variety 

 of colour and, though to a much less extent, of form, 

 but must content ourselves with saying something 

 about one or two types only. Passerine birds do not 

 run large. The biggest is the raven ; but they are 

 some of them excessively small, though the humming 

 birds seem to include the smallest members of the bird 

 creation, and the humming birds are not Passerine, but 

 members of a distinct group. In the Passerines the 

 organ of voice, or the syrinx, to use Prof. Huxley's 

 term, reaches its highest complications in the way of 

 structure and consequent efficiency as an organ of sound- 

 production. A larger number of muscles, each moving 

 the sound-producing membrane and the cartilages to 



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