142 ANTHREPTES. 



found. Nectarlnea belongs exclusively to South 

 America, and it may be called a tropical genus. 

 The range of Diceum is between that of Nectarinea 

 and Anthreptes ; that is to say, it lies between South 

 America and continental India; so that Australia, 

 including New Holland, is its more particular abode. 

 Last of all, and quite different from either of the 

 preceding, comes Melithreptes, a group especially 

 restricted to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, where 

 none of the other genera of this family, so far as 

 our knowledge extends, have yet been discovered. 

 The circle of the Cinnyridce being thus established 

 by the affinity of the different groups to each other 

 in the order in which we have arranged them, let 

 us now see what analogies result therefrom; and 

 let us examine whether our proposition, that the 

 primary types of the feathered creation follow each 

 other in a definite series, is verified in this, as it 

 has been in numberless other instances. The value 

 of a theory, in fact, whether in this or in any other 

 branch of physical science, must eventually be 

 brought to bear upon the minute details of that sci- 

 ence ; and by these details it will either stand or fall. 

 It is idle to talk of some of the analogies being re- 

 mote, and therefore tending to invalidate the theory 

 itself. If some affinities are more remote than 

 others, which every man of common understanding 

 knows to be true, it follows, as a necessary conse- 

 quence, that some analogies will also be more re- 

 mote than others ; for both are no other than different 

 sorts of resemblances. The resemblance of a Euro- 



