ANALOGIES OF GROUPS. 297 



division of another. If the group under comparison be 

 natural, all the other analogies of the types will be ap- 

 parent. Thus, if we wished to test the tribe of Te- 

 nuirostres with the order of the Insessores, and the 

 orders of the class Aves, the three series would stand 

 thus : 



For although the Trochilida are pre-eminently the 

 tenuirostral type of the Insessores, they are not to be 

 so denominated in their own circle. This,, indeed, will 

 be abundantly evident, when we consider that this very 

 pre-eminence places them at the head of their own 

 tribe, precisely on the same principle that the Insessores 

 stand in the same relative situation among the orders 

 of the whole class. In further proof of this mode of 

 judging, we find that the climbing Meliphagidee come 

 opposite to the Scansores, and the syndactyle-footed 

 Promeropidce represent the Fissirostres and the web- 

 footed Natatores. None of these beautiful relations 

 would be apparent, if the series of the Tenuirostres 

 had been so placed that the Trochilidice stood parallel to 

 the tenuirostral division, in the column of the Inses- 

 sores : it seems, in fact, absolutely essential to reduce 

 every group to its primary divisions, before the analogies 

 of the group itself can be properly verified. 



(36l.) Against the above opinion, however, there 

 seems to be a serious objection ; inasmuch as that, upon 

 looking to the last table, it will be perceived that the 

 tribes of the Insessores follow each other, in the column, 

 precisely in the same order as they do in nature, but in 

 that of the orders of birds (Aves), the series is irregular, 

 because, naturally, the Natatores, and not the Rasores, 

 come after the Raptores ; the question therefore is, In 

 what manner can this be accounted for ? does it result 

 from placing the Trochilidce as representatives of the 

 Conirostres, rather than of the Tenuirostres? or is 



