120 FAMILY CHARACTERISTICS. 



variety of details in the finish of special parts of 

 the structure, such as the number of toes, the pe- 

 culiarities of the bill, etc., it is impossible to over- 

 look the peculiar form characteristic of each. No 

 one who is familiar with the outline of the Par- 

 rot will fail to recognize any member of that 

 Family by a general form which is equally com- 

 mon to the diminutive Nonpareil, the gorgeous 

 Ara, and the high-crested Cockatoo. Neither 

 will any one, who has ever observed the small 

 head, the straight bill, the flat back, and stiff tail 

 of the Woodpecker, hesitate to identify the fam- 

 ily form in any of the numerous Genera into 

 which this group is now divided. The family char- 

 acters are even more invariable than the generic 

 ones ; for there are Woodpeckers which, instead 

 of the four toes, two turning forward and two 

 backward, which form an essential generic char- 

 acter, have three toes only, while the family form 

 is always maintained, whatever variations there 

 may be in the characters of the more limited 

 groups it includes. 



The Turtles and Terrapins form another good 

 illustration of family characters. They consti- 

 tute together a natural Order, but are distin- 

 guished from each other as two Families very 

 distinct in general form and outline. Among 

 Fishes I may mention the Family of Pickerels, 

 with their flat, long snout, and slender, almost 



