DISTRIBUTION OP ORGANISMS. 199 



orders of the class mammalia, and so on, the general character 

 of each class being represented in a corresponding order, and 

 the same character being further reflected even in the fami- 

 lies or genera into which the orders were subdivided. There 

 were striking appearances of a basis of truth in this theory, 

 though, in the excessive ardour of its first advocates, it was 

 carried to a pitch of refinement in which nature was lost sight 

 of, and the whole was greatly marred by the notion that 

 all the groups arranged themselves in circles. Acknow- 

 ledging the value of the theory as, with all its faults, a great 

 step in philosophical zoology, I shall proceed to show what 

 appeared to me as true grounds for some such arrangement 

 of the animal kingdom. 



To me, as to Mr. Macleay and his followers, the Birds 

 present the clearest traces of a determinate grouping, with an 

 analogous sub-grouping. We see three great divisions ; first, 

 birds of solitary, predaceous, carnivorous habits ; second, birds 

 of gregarious habits, accustomed to walking on the ground, 

 slow of movement, large of bulk, generally granivorous, and 

 harmless ; third, birds which are, generally speaking, omni- 

 vorous, rapid of movement, comparatively of small bulk, 

 not merely gregarious, but social, often marked by garru- 

 lity, imitative power, cunning, and mischievousness. The 

 eagle and vulture mark the first ; the common fowl, pigeons, 

 and game birds, the second ; the crow, pie, parrot, thrush, 

 lark, sparrow, the third. As for sub-groupings, it would be 

 rash to attempt precision ; but certainly in the second, the 

 geese, cranes, gallinae, and pigeons, with their peculiarly in- 

 nocent characters, might stand as representatives of the group 

 itself, while the more carnivorous ducks, herons, and plovers 

 appear in analogy to the predaceous or first group, and the 

 rails to the third. In the third group, again, the three are 

 not less strikingly represented by the following in succession 

 the shrikes and warblers, the larks and sparrows, the 

 parrots, toucans, pies, starlings, &c. 



If we start from the birds with these three general charac- 

 ters in our mind, we shall find that the reptiles fall under 

 them in this order; the Sauria the Chelonia the Ba- 



