260 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 



ease, or climb trees with singular facility. These~ fa- 

 culties, nevertheless,, are never found in the same in- 

 dividuals ; but are distributed on the same principle as 

 that illustrated by the instance of the horse and the ox. 

 This is manifestly the case in the rasorial order of birds, 

 and the Scansores, or rasorial tribe of the perchers. The 

 first never climb, but seem to delight in dry soils ; they 

 never perch upon trees but to roost ; whilst the Scan- 

 sores, comprehending the parrots and woodpeckers, re- 

 verse the picture, and show us the climbing property 

 Of the type in its greatest perfection. The same dis- 

 position is observed among the rasorial groups 'of qua- 

 drupeds. The habits of the ruminants are those of the 

 gallinaceous order of birds, while those of the sloths are 

 precisely similar to the climbing habits of the wood- 

 peckers. The food, in conformity to their dispositions, 

 is almost always vegetable. The peaceful order of 

 ungulated quadrupeds seek their food from the vegetable 

 world, and the parrots live entirely upon fruits. This 

 is, again, one of the strong points of opposition between 

 this and the last type ; for natatorial groups are almost 

 always purely carnivorous ; and it is only among such 

 forms as serve to connect the two, that we find species 

 that live both upon animals and vegetables : the trogons 

 (Trogonidfs) and the toucans (Ramphastidce) are striking 

 examples of this union of different foods. 



(319.) But what more especially distinguishes the 

 type we are now describing, is the superior degree of 

 intelligence and docility that runs through all the 

 groups of vertebrated animals belonging to it. It seems 

 to have been ordained, by ALMIGHTY WISDOM, that there 

 should be one type, above all others, whose powers were 

 to be more especially devoted to MAN, and which should 

 evince an aptitude and a disposition to submit to his 

 dominion, far above all other created things. This is 

 the grand characteristic of all rasorial types among the 

 more perfectly formed vertebrated animals, whose size 

 or structure are in any way adapted to answer the end 

 proposed. This principle of nature was partially per- 



