246 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 



that even among insects, where no other power is pos- 

 sessed but that of causing annoyance or temporary 

 pain, we find, in the sub-typical order of the Annulosa 

 {Aptera Lin.), the different race of scorpions, Acari, 

 spiders, and all those repulsive insects, whose very aspect 

 is forbidding, and whose bite or sting is often capable of 

 inflicting serious bodily injury. If, again, we look to 

 the sub-typical groups of quadrupeds and of birds, this 

 principle of evil is developed in the highest degree; 

 both are armed with powerful talons, both live on 

 slaughtered victims, and both are gloomy, unsocial, and 

 untameable. The formidable toothed bill, which so 

 strikingly distinguishes rapacious birds, will be found 

 in every group which represents them in the entire or- 

 der of perchers, and these groups amount to more than 

 one hundred. Even in the genus Sylvicola, among the 

 warblers, the bill of the sub-typical group represents in 

 miniature that of the rapacious order, the peculiar cha- 

 racter of which consists in a conspicuous tooth or notch, 

 placed more remote from the end of the upper man- 

 dible than it is in all other types. Even in the smaller 

 sub -typical groups of larger circles, which are themselves 

 typical, this extraordinary characteristic is manifested, 

 although in a much slighter degree. Take, for instance, 

 the American group of monkeys (Cebidce Sw.) which 

 belong to the typical order of Quadrumanes ; of that 

 circle it is the sub-typical group, and we accordingly 

 find, that while the family of true apes {^Simiadce) live 

 in a state of nature upon vegetable diet alone, the Ce- 

 bidce are partially carnivorous, and that many prowl about 

 to destroy life by feeding upon insects, and even small 

 birds. 



(306.) The above are sufficient demonstrations of 

 this law in larger groups ; but as the best test of a 

 theory is to follow it down into the lowest form of ana- 

 lysis, we will now see in what manner it is exemphfied 

 in species of the same genus. Let us first look to that 

 of Bos, where we have the ox and the bison actually 

 foDowiiig each other in close affinity, and yet no two 



