304 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCIENCE. 



a powerful beak, sometimes especially fitted for chiseling and 

 hammering. They have strong climbing feet and a stiff plumage 

 that often aids in climbing. They generally inhabit forests, living 

 on insects, small birds, or on fruits and vegetable matters. The 

 toucans, trogans, cuckoos, woodpeckers, parrots, cockatoos, 

 etc., belong to this somewhat miscellaneous group. 



The Passeres or Passerine Birds. The birds of this order are 

 generally of a small size, well fitted for flight, dwelling mainly 

 among the trees and bushes. They are sometimes divided into 

 singing birds or oscinesand shrieking birds or clamatores. They 

 are usually divided on the character of the beak into Levirostres, 

 light beaks, as the hornbills, king-fishers and bee-eaters. Tenui 

 rostres, slender-billed birds, as the humming-birds, honey-suckers 

 and tree creepers. Fissirostres or birds with a deeply-cleft beak, 

 and usually long-pointed wings, as the swallows, swifts, and 

 goat-suckers. Dentirostres, birds with the beak more or less 

 notched at the point, as the crow, starling, shrike, flycatcher, 

 titmouse, warblers and thrushes. And the Conirostres, birds 

 with conical beaks, that feed on seeds, etc., as the larks, spar- 

 rows, buntings and others. 



The Raptores or Birds of Prey. These birds are of powerful 

 build, having strong hooked beak and claws, and they are usually 

 well adapted for vigorous long-sustained flight. Their sense 

 organs in most cases are highly developed, thus fitting them well 

 for their particular mode of life. They live mainly on warm- 

 blooded animals, and the food is softened in the crop before diges- 

 tion, the feathers and hair being rejected. To this group belong 

 the owls, vultures, eagles, hawks, buzzards, kites, etc. 



The Cursores include the ostrich, rhea, cassowary, emu, etc., 

 large birds that are incapable of flight. The sternum has no keel, 

 and the bones generally are massive and dense, more like those 

 of the mammalia. The apteryx sometimes called dwarf ostrich, 

 clothed with long hair-like feathers is also a member of this 

 group. The recently extinct moa, and the dinornis giganteus, 

 both enormous birds, were near relatives of the birds just men- 

 tioned. 



