SUPPLEMENT 



THE DENTIROSTRAL FAMILY 



ORDER PASSERES. 



But few observations can be offered, in a general way, on this 

 immense order of the feathered race. It comprehends more 

 species than all the others put together, and though they vary 

 considerably in size and strength, yet they exhibit so great an 

 analogy in other particulars, that they must be classed together. 

 In the muscular stomach, the two small csecums, the capacity 

 of singing, the complication of the lower larynx, the conforma- 

 tion of the sternum, they all, with few exceptions, generally 

 resemble each other. Their aliment consists of fruits, grains, 

 and insects. Some few give chase to the smaller birds, and 

 one group subsists on fish. They exhibit, of all other birds, the 

 greatest variety and ingenuity in the construction of their nests. 

 All, with the exception of a single group, are monogamous. 

 The male, in a great majority of the species, administers food 

 to the female, while she hatches the eggs, and partakes the 

 cares of incubation. Both feed the little ones in the nest ; 

 the latter do not quit it until they can fly with perfect ease, 

 and even after their departure they are for some time nou- 

 rished by their parents, until they acquire the complete capacity 

 of providing for themselves. 



As the Passeres are so very numerous, and are divided into 

 five families, or principal sections, differing materially in some 

 respects from each other, notwithstanding their general relative 

 simiUtude, it has been thought most advantageous to insert our 

 supplementary observations at the end of each of these families 

 in the text. The reader will thereby be relieved from too 



