112 BIRDS OF PREY. 



divisions, and encounter much more labour; but even 

 thus much is a beginning, and may prove an incentive 

 to some, though it may also lead others to be content 

 with the shadow without the substance, as has been 

 remarkably the case with the Ltnnaean artificial 

 system of Botany. 



As we cannot show the connexion which thfcre is 

 between the three great systems, to which the bills, 

 the wings, and the feet, are, as it were, the keys, 

 without some notice of the general characters on 

 which the orders are founded, or at least their fitness 

 for being such a foundation, we must devote a few 

 words to each. 



ACCIFITIIF.S. 



This order is the most natural in the system, 

 and it is so, because it is founded not upon a 

 single character, but upon the general habit of the 

 birds, in the formation of which all their leading 



organisations bear a part. The distinctions of the 

 two primary subdivisions of diurnal, and nocturnal 



