110 Mr. Vigors's Reply to some Observalions 



doubly so ia consequence of the station which the group itself 

 holds in the great series of ornithology. We may observe that 

 the whole of the birds which feed chiefly or exclusively by the 

 tongue, whether upon insects, or upon vegetal)le juices, such as the 

 birds already mentioned, including the families of Picidte, and 

 Cerihiadce, and the five families of the Tribe of Tcnuiroatres, are 

 united together by one continued chain of ailinities, and may be 

 arranged in one contiguous group among the Inscsaores. Now 

 the birds that come next in allinity to the Picidcv, which com- 

 mence this series of tongue-feeding Birds, are the Parrots. The 

 approach in these latter birds to the typical character of the con- 

 spicuous assemblage which succeeds, consequently exhibits another 

 striking instance of the mode in which nature gradually blends 

 the characters of her groups into each other. And the naturalist 

 who marks this gradation by a strong distinction gives additional 

 truth to his ideal representations, and strengthens their similitude 

 to the disposition of nature which they profess to copy. 



Such are the considerations and such the characters upon which 

 the subdivisions of the Psittacidcc have been founded. With all 

 due deference to the authority of the critick of the " Dictionnatre,'^ 

 I cannot persuade myself, that,either viewed abstractedly, or with 

 reference to the characters on which other groups have been 

 established in ornithology, they are " minute and without value." 

 How far these characters have "any regard to the mode of life of 

 the animals which compose them," has already been partially 

 pointed out. And I think I shall sufficiently illustrate the dif- 

 ference in the manners and habits of these birds by instancing 

 three species ; whose economy I will assert, — and let it be re- 

 membered that assertion is the only argument made use of by my 

 opponent, — exhibits as strong marks of distinction as that of any 

 other species of a natural group, which have hitherto been 

 considered worthy of generlck separation. The birds I shall 

 instance, are, the iMaccazo, breaking with its powerfully constructed 

 bill the hardest vegetable substances in the tropical forests of 

 America; — the Platj/cercus, with its comparatively feeble bill 

 seeking a softer substance upon the ground in the high latitude of 

 Macquarrie's Island, where not a tree is to be seen ; — and the dc- 



