PASSERINiE. 177 



THE SECOND ORDER OF BIRDS. 



THE PASSERINiE. 



This is tlie most numerous order of the whole class. Its character seems, at first sight, 

 purely negative, for it emhraces all those Birds which are neither swimmers, waders, climbers, 

 rapacious, nor gallinaceous. Nevertheless, by comparing them, a very great mutual resem- 

 blance of structure becomes perceptible, and particularly such insensible gradations from one 

 genus to another, that it is extremely difficult to establish the subdivisions. 



They have neither the violence of the Birds of Prey, nor the fixed regimen of the Poultry 

 and Water-fowl ; insects, fruit, and grain, constitute their food, which consists more exclu- 

 sively of grain as the beak is stouter and stronger, and of insects as it is more slender. Those 

 in which it is strong even pursue other Birds. 



Their stomach is a muscular gizzard. They have, generally, two small cocca : and it is 

 among them that we find the singing Birds, and the most complicated inferior larynx. 



The proportional length of their wings and the power of their flight are as various as their 

 habits. 



The adult sternum has ordinarily but one emargination on each side of its posterior border. 

 There are, however, two in the Rollers, Kingfishers, and Bee-eaters, [also in the Cohes, 

 Motmots, and Todies, which the author includes in this group,] and none whatever in the 

 Swifts and Humming-birds. 



We institute our first partition according to the feet, and have then recourse to the beak. 



The first and most numerous division comprehends those genera in which the external toe 

 is connected to the middle one as far as the first or second joint only. 



[This ordinal subdivision, properly restricted, is one of the most rigorously defined through- 

 out natiu-e, quite as much so as that of the Parrots. 



The entire skeleton, ihgestive and vocal organs, are peculiar ; and those genera included 

 by the author which chffer in one particular differ also in the rest, and accord in all their 

 essential characters with another great group that follows. 



The lower larj-nx is always complicated, and operated upon by four distinct pairs of 

 muscles ; besides which, the long sterno-tracheal pair — found in most other Birds — is gene- 

 rally present, but reduced to extreme tenuity. This character excludes the Cuvieran genera 

 Cypselus, Caprimulgus, Podargus, Colius, Coracias, Colaris, Ujntpa, Merops, Prionites, Alcedo, 

 Ceyx, Todus, and Buceros,- — ten of which have also no intestinal coeca, and the three others 

 very large cceca, exactly resembling those of the Owls (fig. 79). All the remaining genera, 

 except the Humming-birds, which also require to be excluded, have two minute cceca. 



With the sole exception again of the Humming-birds, which have the lower larynx diffe- 

 rently complicated, all sincjing Birds belong to this great order : the conformation alluded to 

 enables them to inflect and modulate the voice ; though there are many species, possessing 

 the same structure, which nevertheless utter only monotonous cries, and others of which the 

 notes are harsh and little varied ; even these, however, are very generally capable of being 

 taught to speak, to whistle airs, and to imitate almost any sound ; and in such individuals as 

 cannot be brought to do so, it by no means follows that there is any physical deficiency, as 

 indicated by the diversity noticeable in this respect in individuals of the same species : there 

 are indeed very few of them, if any, that do not sing, or utter some peculiar note or chatter 

 analogous to song, during the season of courtship. 



The sternal apparatus, whether of a Swallow or Tree-crccpcr, a Promerops, Finch, Crow, 

 Thrusli, or Manakin, presents invariably the same jieculiar characters, with scarcely any modi- 

 ficiitioM. The long manubrial process in front between the coracoids, with slantingly truncate 

 bifurcate tiji ; the costal process, expanding anteriorly much Ijeyond the articulations of the 



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