172 BIRDS. 



remarked that Professor Blumenbach long since noticed the 

 same principle as applicable to the arrangement of the feathers 

 of birds on the skin, which he observed always to follow a 

 quincunx ord&r. 



This arrangement according to natural affinities is certainly 

 curious, and affords room for hoping, should the principle be as- 

 certained to pervade the families of animals very universally, that 

 a more philosophical classification of the objects of nature may 

 in time be perfected. But in the meantime we consider any 

 such arrangement as merely theoretical, and that it would re- 

 quire all the species to be known, and the individuals examined, 

 both with regard to their external appearance and internal struc- 

 ture, before such a method could be completed. The theory is 

 however very ingenious, and deserves the consideration of na- 

 turalists. 



Finally, M. C. J. Temminck, in his Manuel tfOrnithologie, 

 the first edition of which was published in 1815, and the second 

 in 1820, divides the class of Birds into sixteen orders, and nu- 

 merous minor subdivisions. This gentleman, with opportuni- 

 ties beyond most others, in the possession of a splendid museum, 

 of comparing birds, particularly the European species, at all 

 ages, and in every stage of plumage, has rendered the know- 

 ledge of the class more precise, by referring to one species 

 many individuals which had been characterized by preceding 

 ornithologists as distinct, from having examined only young or 

 imperfect specimens. 



The arrangement of Birds into Orders has for its basis the 

 conformation of the bill and feet, which are adopted to their dif- 

 ferent modes of living and food. Birds of Prey are characterized 

 by a hooked bill, and feet armed with strong and crooked nails ; 

 Climbers are those the structure of whose feet is calculated for 

 motion on an inclined or vertical surface ; and web-footed birds 

 are evidently adapted for swimming. Others again have the legs 

 very long and naked for wading ; and a large number, with the 

 claws short and feeble, live chiefly on insects. But though it 

 be thus easy to separate the more strongly marked groups into ex- 

 tended families, yet it has been found extremely difficult to dis- 

 tribute them in subordinate groups, so as to facilitate the know- 

 ledge ,of species in a class so widely extended. In adopting the 



3 



