TYPES OF ABERRANT CIRCLES. 243 



liar instances. The crow has been most truly consi- 

 dered the pre-eminent type of all birds*, it is also 

 the type of a typical circle. It consequently unites, 

 in itself, a greater number of properties than are to be 

 found, individually, in any other genus of birds ; as if, 

 in fact, it had taken from aU the other orders a portion 

 of their peculiar qualities, for the purpose of exhibiting 

 in what manner they could be combined. From the 

 rapacious birds this " type of types/' as the crow has 

 been justly called, takes the power of soaring in the 

 air, and of seizing upon living birds like the hawks, 

 while its habit of devouring putrid substances, and 

 picking out the eyes of young animals, is borrowed 

 from the vultures. From the scansorial or climbing 

 order it takes the faculty of pecking the ground, and 

 discovering its food when hidden from the eye, while 

 the parrot family gives it the taste for vegetable food, 

 and furnishes it with great cunning, sagacity, and 

 powers of imitation, even to counterfeiting the human 

 voice. Next come the order of waders, who impart 

 their quota to the perfection of the crow, by giving to 

 it great powers of flight, and perfect facility in walking, 

 such being among the chief attributes of the grallatorial 

 order. Lastly, the aquatic birds contribute their por- 

 tion, by giving this terrestrial bird the power of feeding 

 not only upon fish, which are their peculiar food, but 

 actually of occasionally catching it.t In this wonderful 

 manner do we find the crow partially invested with the 

 united properties of aU other birds, while in its own or- 

 der — that of the Insessores, or perchers — it stands the 

 pre-eminent type. Here, then, is an example of the 

 characteristic properties of the type of a typical circle. 



(303.) Let us now look to the type of an aberrant circle. 

 The woodpecker is of this description, for it is the pre- 

 eminent type of the climbing birds (^Scansores), which 

 is an uherrunt tribe. Here, instead of finding a com- 

 bination of diversified characters, similar to those be- 



* Linn Trans, vol. xiv. p. 445 



+ Wilson's American Ornithology, article, Fishing Crow. 



B 2 



