ORDER PASSERES. 261 



THE SECOND ORDER OF THE BIRDS, 



OR 



THE PASSERES, 



Is the most numerous of the entire class. Its cha- 

 racter appears at first purely negative, for it embraces 

 all the birds which are neither swimmers, nor waders, 

 nor climbers, nor rapacious, nor gallinaceous. Never- 

 theless, on a close comparison, we soon discover 

 between the birds of this order a great resemblance 

 of structure, and gradations so insensible from one 

 genus to another, that subdivisions become difficult of 

 establishment. 



The Passeres have neither the violent character of 

 the birds of prey, nor the fixed regimen of the galli- 

 nacea, or of the water-fowl. Their aliment consists 

 in insects, fruits, and grains. It is more exclusively 

 granivorous in proportion to the thickness of their 

 bill, and more exclusively insectivorous, as the latter 

 is more attenuated. Some, which possess a tolerably 

 strong bill, are even found to pursue small birds *. 



Their stomach is in the form of a muscular gizzard, 

 and they have, in general, two very small caecums. 

 Among them we find the singing birds, and the most 

 complicated conformations of the lower larynx. 



* I have been unable to find, externally or internally, any proper 

 character of separation between the passeres and the genera com- 

 prehended in the pices of Linnaeus, which are not climbers. 



