332 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 
Sen eR a eee Insessores 
pc een nm ww ee ern we Rpm men enn mn en wn mnnn ao faneen- ann — ~~~ -- == 
Myotherinez 
AVES 
MERULINE 
Crateropodine Natatores 
jaswdewes— sone os won smeminna) Jancnamoomere cen\ a mace m= aan ame nn aaewcoen 
Brachipodine 
Rasores 
Oriolinz Grallatores 
ee eae See Fae 
(408.) By this diagram the two circles are brought 
into immediate comparison, and we are now to consider 
their component divisions. The most perfect or typical of 
the minor groups, among the thrushes, are the black-. 
birds and throstles ; and the most perfect of all birds 
are the Jnsessores, or perchers. The typical groups of 
each circle, therefore, agree in analogy, and are there- 
fore placed opposite each other. The ant thrushes 
(Myotherine) are more especially distinguished by the 
tip of their bill being abruptly hooked, and the notch very 
deep, so as to assume the appearance of a tooth; this 
character gives us a beautiful representation of the Rap- 
tores, or birds of prey, in the opposite circle, one of 
whose chief characteristics is a hooked bill armed with 
a strong tooth. The two groups further agree in living 
only upon other animals. Next come the Brachypodine, 
or short-legged thrushes, distinguished from all the 
other divisions of their family by the unusual shortness 
of their feet. Now this very circumstance is one of the 
most prominent distinctions of the Matatores, or swim- 
mers ; for it is notorious that the ducks, pelicans, grebes, 
penguins, &c. are the shortest-footed birds in creation ; 
just, in fact, as the Brachypodine are the shortest-footed 
thrushes. To these succeed the orioles, Orioline, re= 
markable for living only upon the softest nourishment, 
as caterpillars and tender berries. Now this is precisely 
the description of food — in substance, although not in 
kind — of the great majority of the waders ; with this 
difference only, that, instead of soft caterpillars and 
pulpy fruits, they eat soft worms, and pulpy marine 
animals — the caterpillars of the sand, and the fruits of 
