(402 ) 



ORDER III 

 RASORES. ILLIG. 



As no members of the fifth or Tenuirostrdl Tribe of the 

 Insessores are found in Britain, we are next led to the Ra- 

 sores of ILLIGER, forming the Third Order of the Class 

 Aves, which order, in addition to the Gallinaceous birds 

 (Gallince of former authors), embraces the Columbae. kind, 

 and the Struthiones ; this last group containing some of the 

 largest species of the feathered race, as the Ostrich, Casso- 

 wary, &c. As those orders whose members exhibit a struc- 

 ture the most generally perfect, that is, adapted for the most 

 extensive sphere of action, are considered the typical repre- 

 sentatives of this class, the one now under consideration ha- 

 ving its members generally deficient both in the power of 

 flight and in the faculty of grasping with the feet, and ex- 

 hibiting a corresponding weakness in particular parts of their 

 anatomy, forms what is called the Aberrant Division of the 

 Class. It is not, however, to be inferred that the structure 

 of these last birds, so far as it is calculated to promote their 

 peculiar economy, is less perfect than that of the typical or- 

 ders ; for, although deprived, by the shortness of their wings, 

 of that extensive power of flight possessed by the Raptores 

 and Insessores^ and unable, from the formation of their feet, 

 to perch with the same firmness and security, these disad- 

 vantages are admirably counterbalanced by the peculiar and 

 powerful structure of such parts as are most necessary to 

 their welfare in the station they hold. Thus we find, in the 

 groups of this order, whose security principally depends up- 

 on the swiftness and continuance of their running, that the 

 limbs are fully developed, and furnished with muscles of ex- 

 traordinary power, and the feet constructed upon a plan 



