178 AFFINITIES OF THE OMNIVORA. 



There is still another division that may be traced 

 from the crow tribe, and the portion of the character 

 of the bill which they carry along from the raven, is 

 that of snapping with the mandibles. We find this 

 rudimentally in the jackdaw, a little more developed 

 in the chough, and so on till we come to those birds 

 which catch insects upon the wing ; and here again 

 we find a subdivision : one race having the toes 

 united, and terminating in the bee-eaters, and other 

 tribes with bills very long, sharp at the points, slightly 

 arched, not very heavy, but beautifully formed for 

 possessing the maximum of effective strength and 

 ready motion. The other subdivision leads to the 

 swallow tribe, in which the bill is not so much an 

 instrument of death as of capture ; and they, as well 

 as the former subdivision, are dependent on the air 

 for the chief part of their food ; and, as might natu- 

 rally be supposed, have their proper characteristic in 

 the organs of flight. 



To trace out these connections with all that minute- 

 ness which they would require, in order to see clearly 

 the resemblances and differences of birds, as depend- 

 ing on the nature of their food and their organisation 

 for capturing it, would far exceed the limits to which 

 this sketch is restricted. But the hints which have 

 been thrown out may serve to call the attention of 

 observant readers to this very instructive part of the 

 subject ; and if such should be the case, the object of 

 what has been said will be, in a great measure, accom- 

 plished ; and that object, if we are to allow that the 

 great business of human life, is pleasurable enjoy- 

 ment is one of far greater importance than those 

 who have not reflected on it are aware of. Birds 

 are always about us, in a state of nature, go almost 

 where we will ; and the greater part of them, instead 



