34 



NATURAL ARRANGEMENT OF INSECTS. 



Analogies of the Cirbhipedes to the Fissirostral 

 Birds. 



Classes of the 

 Annulosa, 



Aptbra. 



Ptilota. 



Anneudes. 

 Vermes. 



ClRKHIPEDES- 



Analogies. 



f Eminently carnivorous ; sub-typi- 7 

 I cat i 



fThe most typical in perfection of J 

 I structure. J 



f Ornamental appendages to 

 \ head. 



Feed upon juices. 



rCarnivorous ; watch for their 

 ■J prey ; locomotion imperfect, or 

 C none. 



the? 



Tribes of 

 Perching Birds, 



Dentibostbbs. 



conibostres. 



scansores. 



TENtnROSTRES. 

 FiSSIROSTRBS. 



The regularity with which the groups in each of these 

 cohimns follow each other in absolute affinity, and 

 thereby form two circles, is always one of the proofs 

 that analogies are founded in nature. Perhaps the 

 most singular representation which this table elicits, is 

 that by which the worms (^Vermes) typify the hum- 

 ming-birds ( Tenuirostres). It is among the vermiform 

 or tenuirostral types of the Vertebrata, that we always 

 find those animals which have an unusually long and 

 pointed snout — whether it is modified into the muzzle 

 of a quadruped, or the bill of a bird ; the mouth, also, 

 is invariably small. Now, this character, under a new 

 appearance, shows itself among the intestinal worms, 

 which are the most pointed at their extremity of all 

 the others ; the mouth being so small as sometimes 

 not to be visible. The suctorial birds, in like manner, 

 have the longest bills, but the smallest mouth, in pro- 

 portion to their size, of all the Insessores ; and they live 

 chiefly upon vegetable juices, while the worms live 

 upon those of animals. It is the beauty of the theory 

 of representation, that if once the natural series has 

 been discovered, it receives new strength and demon- 

 stration from all other natural groups in the animal 

 kingdom : so that the foregoing table is but a clue to 

 a hundred others, which may be taken from those por 



