26 USE OF THE TABLES. 



to the first feather of the wing, which he finds to he . 

 shorter than the second. He next looks to the beak, 

 which is not lengthened, and straight from its base, 

 but is bent throughout, and hooked at the point. 

 His bird must, therefore, be of the Buteo or Astur 

 genus. But the wings do not extend beyond two- 

 thirds of the tail, it therefore belongs to the Astur 

 genus; and he has then only to ascertain the species, 

 which he will easily do by consulting museums, or 

 books with minute descriptions and plates. 



Again: a bird is brought to him, which, on com- 

 paring with the characters given in the first Table, 

 he finds to have no back -toe, and that the fore-toes 

 are united by a membrane; he rightly, therefore, 

 concludes, that it belongs to the order Palmipedes, 

 or Web-footed; and he is directed for further par- 

 ticulars to Table XXVI. Thus he perceives, that 

 as his specimen has only three front-toes, that its 

 beak is not toothed, or serrated like a file or saw, 

 and that its wings are very short, it must be of the 

 tribe Brevipennes, and he is referred to Table XXX. 

 Then, as the wings are feathered, and it has 110 back- 

 toe, it must be of the genus Alca; and he will have 

 little difficulty, on referring to its colours, size, and 

 a few other particulars, to ascertain its species. 



In the above references, the birds for considera- 

 tion were a Sparrow-hawk and Puffin, species more 

 or less known to most of our readers. One more, 

 however, shall be added, entirely foreign. Its colour 

 a brilliant green, beautifully mottled and variegated 

 on the upper part, the lower part of the breast and 

 leg-feathers being of a delicate lemon colour; the 

 size, rather smaller than a Thrush. On looking to 



