NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 201 



that they must be, in some instances, much mixed up 

 with each otlier, and consequently obscured. If an 

 animal, for example, is the suctorial member of a circle 

 of species, forming the natatorial type of genera, forming 

 a family or sub-family Avhieh in its turn is rasorial, its 

 qualities must evidently be greatly mingled and ill to 

 define. Bat, on the other hand, if we take the rapa- 

 cious or sub-typical group of birds, and look in it for the 

 tribe which is again the rapacious or sub-typical group 

 of its order, we may expect to find the qualities of that 

 group exalted or intensified, and accordingly made the 

 more conspicuous. Such is i-eally the case with the 

 vultures, in the rapacious birds, a family remarkable 

 above all of their order for tlieir carnivorous and foul 

 habits. So, also, if we take the typical group of the 

 birds, the insessores or perchers, and look in it for its 

 typical group, the conirostres, and seek there again for 

 the typical family of that group, the corvidae, we may 

 expect to find a very marked superiority in organisation 

 and character. Such is really the case. '' The crow," 

 says Mr. Swainson, " unites in itself a greater number 

 of properties than are to be found individually in any 

 other genus of birds; as if in fact it had taken from 

 all the other orders a portion of their peculiar qualities, 

 for the purpose of exhibiting in what manner they could 

 be combined. From the rapacious birds this ' type of 

 types,' as the crow has been justly called, takes the 

 power of soaring in the air, and of seizing upon living 

 birds, like the hawks, whilst its habit of devouring 

 putrid substances, and picking out the eyes of young 

 animals, is borrowed from the vultures. From the 

 scansorial or climbing order it takes the faculty of 

 picking the ground, and discovering its food when 

 hidden from the eye, while the parrot family gi\'cs it 



