332 PRACTICAIi AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 



Merul ina?>Sr "^Kj' usessores 



'^iyot'henna" "\ / Hapto,-eR"A^ 



MERULIN* d - b ^^^^ 



Crateropodinae/ ^K«sor Natatores ^ 



^ Brachipodinae 



Oriolinae / \. Grallatores 



(408.) By this diagram the two circles are brought 

 into immediate comparison, and we are now to consider 

 their component divisions. The most perfect or typical of 

 the minor groups, among the thrushes, are the black- 

 birds and throstles ; and the most perfect of all birds 

 are the Insessores, or perchers. The typical groups of 

 each circle, therefore, agree in analogy, and are there- 

 fore placed opposite each other. The ant thrushes 

 (^Myotherina) are more especially distinguished by the 

 tip of their bill being abruptly hooked, and the notch very 

 deep, so as to assume the appearance of a tooth ; this 

 character gives us a beautiful representation of the Rap- 

 tores, or birds of prey, in the opposite circle, one of 

 whose chief characteristics is a hooked bill armed with 

 a strong tooth. The two groups further agree in living 

 only upon other animals. Next come the Brachypodince, 

 or short-legged thrushes, distinguished from all the 

 other divisions of their family by the unusual shortness 

 of their feet. Now this very circumstance is one of the 

 most prominent distinctions of the Natatores, or swim- 

 mers ; for it is notorious that the ducks, pelicans, grebes, 

 penguins, &c. are the shortest-footed birds in creation ; 

 just, in fact, as the BrachypodincB are the shortest-footed 

 thrushes. To these succeed the orioles, Oriolince, re- 

 markable for living only upon the softest nourishment, 

 as caterpillars and tender berries. Now this is precisely 

 the description of food — in substance, although not in 

 kind — of the great majority of the waders ; with this 

 difference only, that, instead of soft caterpillars and 

 pulpy fruits, they eat soft worms, and pulpy marine 

 animals — the caterpillars of the sand, and the fruits of 



