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224 “ated AVES. 
plumage, impermeable to water, all concur with the feet in 
making good navigators of the Palmipedes. 
In other birds, which most commonly are partially web- 
footed, at Jeast between the external toes, we observe elevated 
tarsi; legs divested of feathers at their lower extremities; a 
long, thin shape, and in fine, all the requisites for wading 
along the shores of rivers to seek their food. Such, in fact, 
is the regimen of the greater number; and although some of» 
them inhabit dry grounds, they are cited: Shore-Birds, or 
Waders. 
Among the true land birds, the Gallinacezx, like our domes- 
tic Cock, have a heavy carriage, a moderate beak, the upper 
mandible of which is arched; the nostrils partly covered by a 
soft and inflated scale; the toes almost always indented on the 
edges, and short membranes between the bases of the anterior 
ones. They fly heavily, and but a short distance at a time. 
Their chief food is grain. 
Birds of prey have a hooked beak, the point of which is 
sharp, and curved downwards; the nostrils pierced in a mem- 
brane which invests the whole base of that beak, and feet. 
armed with vigorous talons. They live on flesh, 1 pursue other 
birds, and are consequently, for the most part, vigorous in 
flight. ‘The greater number have still a slight web between 
the external toes. SD 
The Passerine comprise many more species than all the 
other families; but their organization presents so many analo- 
gies that they cannot be separated, although varying greatly 
in size and strength. Their two external toes are united at 
the base, and sometimes for a part of their length. 
Finally, the name of Scansoriz, or Climbers, has been 
given to those birds whose external toe, like the thumb, is 
directed backwards, because the greater number profit, by a 
conformation so favourable to a vertical position, to climb 
trees.(1), 
(1) From my first Tableau Elementaire, in 1798, I was ebliged to suppress the 
Linnean order of the Pice, which has no one determined character. Mlliger and 
the greater number of late naturalists have assented to this suppression. 
