202 AFFINITIES AND GEOGRAPHICAL 



amongst birds, and the shark amongst fishes, to the dog 

 amongst the mammalian carnivora : behold all of these animals 

 furnished alike with the most acute powers of smell, for the 

 discovery of their prey. A living naturalist speaks thus of 

 the resemblance of the parrots to the monkeys : " There can 

 be little doubt that the parrots, among birds, emulate the 

 monkeys among placentals : they eat all kinds of food they 

 can procure ; they obtain it in the same situations ; they seek 

 it in the same way, by climbing, for a parrot actually 

 climbs like a monkey; it does not leap or run like other 

 birds ; but, like a monkey, or more especially a lemur, climbs 

 slowly and solemnly from bough to bough : its toes are 

 placed two and two, presenting an exact analogy to the op- 

 posable thumb of the Primates ; and its foot is constantly used 

 as a hand for conveying food to the mouth : its chattering 

 voice is also similar, and in the gift of speech it rivals man 

 himself: its large brain and peculiar tact in imitation are still 

 additional similarities. I should, therefore, place the genus 

 Psittacus as one of the Primates among birds. ( 82 ) The ex- 

 planation is easy : the monkeys either are the descendants of 

 the line which at an earlier period gave parrots, or the par- 

 rots come from a sub-line representing the monkeys in their 

 greater line. In the same way, the pig is the relative or ana- 

 logue of the duck, the bullock of the turkey, the squirrel of 

 the monkey, the furtive springing cat of the equally furtive 

 springing serpent, and so forth. Strange thus to trace in the 

 humble and ancient animal a prophecy of the higher and 

 more recent ; the cephalopod, for example, foreshowing the 

 shark the shark the saurian, the saurian the vulture and 

 mammalian carnivore. Equally curious to see the migratory 

 habits of the chelonia reproduced in the migratory habits 

 which attach both to birds and to the ruminants : thus the 

 voyage of three thousand miles which the turtle will make in 

 order to lay her eggs on Ascension island, the vast vernal 

 flight of the swallow from Africa to England for incubation, 

 the roaming disposition of the hyperborean deer and the Ame- 

 rican bison, are all kindred phenomena, comprehended under 



