DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS OF ANIMALS. 187 



accipitres; picae; anseres; grallae; gallinae ; passeres. In English syno- 

 nyms, birds of prey ; pies; web-footed birds; waders; gallinaceous birds; 

 and the mixed class of thrushes, sparrows, and finches. These orders are 

 chiefly distinguished from each other by the peculiar make of the bill, and of 

 the feet. Under M. Cuvier's classification, the divisions, and even the names, 

 are the same, with the exception that for picas or pies, he has given the better 

 appellation of scansores or climbers. Every one of them, or rather every 

 distinct kind under every one of them, might agreeably occupy us through an 

 entire lecture ; so curious, so attractive, so interesting, are their structures, 

 their powers, their habits, their instincts. But all these must be re- 

 served for subsequent studies.* Our only concern at present is to give a 

 glance at the manner in which they are grouped under the Linnaean system. 

 It is the mere alphabet of the science to which we must at present confine 

 ourselves. 



The ACCIPITRES, or predacious birds, constituting the FIRST ORDER, with a bill 

 somewhat hooked downward, and four claws hooked and sharp-pointed. It 

 consists of not more than four genera, the vulture, including the coudur (v 

 Gryphus), as one of its species ; the falco, including the numerous families 

 of the eagle, falcon, hawk, osprey, buzzard, and kite, together with various 

 others ; the owl and the lanius or shrike, of which the butcher-bird (1. Collurio) 

 is one of the chief species. 



The PIOE or PIES, form the SECOND and most numerous order. The bill is 

 here compressed and convex, which constitutes the ordinal character. A 

 secondary distinction, taken from the feet, divides them into tribes formed for 

 perching, formed for climbing, or formed for walking. To this order belongs 

 the trochilus or humming-bird, the minutest animaf of the bird tribes ; and 

 which seems to connect the bird with the insect-class. In one of its species, 

 trochilus minimus, or least humming-bird, it sometimes does not weigh more 

 than twenty grains, nor measure much more than an inch ; it is, consequently, 

 less than several of the bee-tribes, and, like the bee, feeds on the nectar of 

 flowers, which it hovers about and extracts while on the wing with a de- 

 lighted hum. 



To this order, also, from similarity of bill and foot, belong the very nume- 

 rous families of the psittacus or parrot kind, including the proper parrot, mac- 

 caw, parrakeet, cockatoo, and lory ; equally celebrated for their imitative 

 powers, their longevity, and the splendid variety of their colours ; the para- 

 disea or bird of Paradise, chiefly a native of New-Guinea, and distinguished 

 by the long and taper elegance of its bending feathers ; the monstrous rham- 

 phastos or toucan, whose bill is, in some species, larger than its body, and 

 whose tongue is quaintly tipped with a bundle of feathers, probably answer- 

 ing the purpose of an organ of taste. 



All thus far glanced at are exotics. Among the kinds a few of whose spe- 

 cies are inhabitants of our own country, I may mention the social and clamo- 

 rous corvus or crow-tribe, including the rook, raven, jay, jack-daw, and various 

 others ; the picus or woodpecker, that drives into the stoutest and toughest 

 timber-trees of the forest its hard and wedge-like bill, and often with a force and 

 echoing sound like the stroke of the woodman ; and whose bony and pointed 

 tongue transfixes the various insects upon which it feeds, and in this state 

 not unfrequently draws them out from a considerable depth in the bark of 

 trees into which they have crept for protection. The alcedo, or kingfisher, 

 is another genus of this order, whose species haunt streams and rivers for the 

 little fishes on which they feed, and are most dexterous anglers in catching 

 them. To these we may add the cuculus or cuckoo, that, with the same 

 want of natural affection which marks the ostrich, builds no nests for its 

 eggs, except under particular circumstances, but avails itself of that of the 

 hedge-sparrow, or some other bird, and abandons to foster-parents the care of 

 its eggs. 



The THIRD ORDER of birds is denominated ANSERES, and in English WEB- 



See Lectures lv. v. viii. Ix of this Series. 



