346 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 
&c. among birds, they come immediately after orders. 
This, next to genera and sub-genera, is perhaps, the most 
prevalent description of group in the animal kingdom ; 
it is used, in artificial systems, to designate an in- 
definite number of genera, having a few characters in 
common ; but in natural classification its meaning is as 
determinate as any other of the circular groups here 
named. The crows, shrikes, parrots, woodpeckers, &c. 
are so many families, both in a natural and philosophic 
sense of the word, and speak at once to the apprehension 
of the reader. The genera of the old authors are more 
similar to the families of the moderns, in the nature of 
their contents, than to any of the groups here enumerated. 
According to our views, the groups called stirpes, or 
races, by Mr. MacLeay*, are no other than families of 
the Predatorial tribe of beetles. Among birds, the 
shrike, thrush, warbler, chatterer, and flycatcher repre- 
sent the five families of the tribe Dentirostres ; while 
Papilio, Nymphalis, Satyrus, Ericina, and Hesperia 
of Latreille give us the types of the families in the tribe 
of Diurnal butterflies (Diurnes). It is essential here 
to remark, that the names of all families are terminated 
in -ide, as Papilionide, Nymphalidae, &c.: a plan of 
nomenclature which at once points out the rank of the 
group bearing a name so constructed. 
(428.) Sub-families constitute the primary divisions 
of the last group ; and, although the term is but seldom 
met with in artificial systems, yet groups of this rank are 
every where to be found in nature. To account for this 
omission, it may be observed, that it is comparatively 
easy, in most cases, to know the family to which a bird 
or an insect belongs, even at first sight, but to ascertain 
into which of the primary divisions of that family it na- 
turally enters, imposes the necessity of a severe and fre- 
quently a laborious analysis, which few have the leisure 
or the opportunity of undertaking. Hence, in describ- 
ing a new object, it is usual to designate the family, 
and then at once proceed to the genus (or rather the 
€ Annvlosa Javanica, p. 6. 
