262 FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 



object;, in another work*, to demonstrate the particular 

 fact of which we have just spoken, by tracing the ra- 

 sorial type through the vast order of perching or land 

 birds ; and had our limits there permitted, we should 

 have continued the demonstration, by giving the result 

 of a similar analysis of all the orders in the feathered 

 class. But it is not among birds only that the sociality 

 and docility of the rasorial type is manifest: the same is 

 apparent through all the chief groups of quadrupeds ; 

 while it can be traced, with equal clearness, in many|of 

 those belonging to the Annulosa. The hymenopterous 

 order of the Ptilota, or winged insects, is, in its own 

 circle, a rasorial type ; and we thus find that the ants 

 and the bees — the most useful insects to man, and the 

 most inteUigent and social of annulose animals — are 

 actual representatives of the ruminating quadrupeds and 

 the gallinaceous birds. In proportion as we recede from 

 those animals whose size, intelligence, and structure 

 renders them fit companions or assistants to man, and 

 advance towards the invertebrated groups, this analogy, 

 of course, becomes fainter and fainter. Thus, on look- 

 ing to the testaceous Mollusca, as the rasorial division 

 of the animal kingdom, their services are simply con- 

 fined to the power of supplying us with a wholesome 

 and nutritious food : for it is remarkable, that nearly the 

 whole of these animals are edible; while, in the natatorial 

 division of the Radiata, where we have the Medusa, 

 the star-fish, and the Echini, scarcely one species is used 

 as food by the most uncivilised people. This property, 

 however universal, is nevertheless modified in an in- 

 finity of ways. It is seen in its greatest developement 

 in the ox, the elephant, and the horse ; for these qua- 

 drupeds actually labour in our service. In the dog it is 

 manifested by affectionate attachment ; in the domestic 

 fowls, by perfect contentment in a state of partial con- 

 finement. The Robin shows his attachment to man by 

 living near his dwelling ; the honey-guide {Indicator^, 

 by assisting him to discover what, in Africa, is an im- 



• Northern Zoology, vol. ii. The Birds. 



