194 Mv. A. \{. ^^';lllacc on the Xaliiral Arrangement of Birds. 



Columbae should form a distinct order, and should be considered 

 as an abnormal and passerine development of Rasores, repre- 

 sentinjr the Perchers, but having: no direct affinity with them. 



Having thus eliminated a considerable number of generally 

 large-sized birds, we have still remaining by far the larger por- 

 tion, forming the Passeres, Insessores, or Perching birds. Out 

 of about 7000 known birds, upwards of 5000 are Perchers. It 

 is to this great group, or rather to a limited portion of it, that 

 we intend to devote the present paper. 



The Passerine order comprises at once the most perfect, the 

 most beautiful, and the most familiar of birds. The feathered 

 inhabitants of our fields, gardens, hedge-rows and houses belong 

 to it. They cheer us with their song, and delight us with their 

 varied colours. Their activity and elegant motions are constant 

 sources of pleasure to every lover of nature. They are the birds 

 with which from our infancy and boyhood we are most familiar, 

 and yfc therefore involuntarily derive from them that ideal or 

 typical form of animal life with which we connect the general 

 term, Bird. And thus doing, who can doubt but that we are 

 correct ? The lightness, activity, elegant forms, brilliant colour 

 and harmonious voice by which birds as a whole are peculiarly 

 distinguished from all other animals, find in this groiip their 

 fullest expression and most complete development. Here too 

 the greatest variety of forms and habits is found, which are all 

 connected together by such insensible gradations, that to dis- 

 cover in eveiy case their true affinities has ever been and still 

 remains one of the most difficult, and at the same time most 

 interesting problems the naturalist has to solve. 



The writer of this paper has enjoyed the great privilege of 

 observing the habits of many tropical birds in a state of nature 

 in S. America, and is at pi'csent doing so in the Indian Islands. 

 Every naturalist knows how important this is towards a proper 

 appreciation of the affinities of Birds, to which their habits are 

 generally a sure guide, or at all events of much value in con- 

 junction with other structural characters. Without pretending 

 to any great knowledge of anatomy, he believes that no intel- 

 ligent person can be in the constant habit of skinning birds 

 without obtaining much information on vei-y important parts of 

 their internal structure. Even mere external characters, such 

 as the texture and arrangement of the feathers, the form and 

 structure of the tarsi, the form of the nostrils and of the tongue, 

 can be examined far better in a recently killed bird than in a 

 dried or mounted specimen. In the process of skinning we 

 also ascertain the thickness and tenacity of the skin, the solidity 

 of the bones, the form and strength of the skull, and the 

 texture and contents of the stomach, which characters are 



