CHAPTER II 

 THE PERCHING BIRDS ORDER PASSERES 



CROWS TO HONEY CREEPERS 

 Families CORVID^E to 



THE order of Passeres, which includes by far the great majority of existing 

 birds; and especially those popularly termed song birds, may be regarded as occupy- 

 ing a position analogous to that held by lizards among the Reptiles, and by the 

 bony fishes in the Fishes, all its members being more or less specialized and highly 

 organized. On this account the group is now, by general consent, regarded as the 

 highest in the class. All these birds are characterized by having the palate con- 

 structed on what is termed the segithognathous modification, the structure of which 

 is illustrated on p. 1469. They are further distinguished by producing their 

 young in a helpless and nearly naked condition, having merely a few patches 

 of down scattered here and there over the body. In the skeleton the slender 

 metatarsus has its three nearly equalized condyles placed almost in the same 

 transverse line; while the arm bone, or humerus, has a well-marked bifurcate 

 process at the outer sides of its lower end; and, as a minor characteristic, it may be 

 mentioned that the breastbone has but a single notch. The first toe is always 

 present, and is mobile and directed backward, in addition to being worked by a 

 muscle independently of the other digits. A covering of feathers invests the legs as 

 far down as the ankle joint. There are usually twelve feathers in the tail ; while 

 the primary quills of the wings vary in number from nine to ten, the latter being 

 the usual complement among the typical members of the order. 



With three exceptions, the perching birds of the Old World belong to a section 

 characterized by having the intrinsic muscles of the syrinx, or organ of voice, 

 attached to the cords of the open rings of the bronchial tube, and technically termed 

 the Acromyodi. The Indian members of the order, provided with ten primary quills 

 in the wings, may be divided, according to an arrangement suggested by Mr. Oates, 

 into five groups. In the first of these the nestling resembles that of the adult 

 female; this is likewise true of the second group, in which the coloration of the 

 young bird is more brilliant than that of its parent, being in the Indian forms gen- 

 erally suffused with yellow. On the other hand, in the third group, the nestling is 

 transversely barred; while in the fourth it is striated; and in the fifth group the 

 nestling plumage is either mottled or squamated. 



Although certain species of the perching birds, such as the snow bunting and 

 the sand martin, have a circumpolar distribution, numerous genera of this order are 



(H77) 



