34<6 PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ZOOLOGY. 



&c. among birds, they come immediately after orders. 

 This, next to genera and sub-genera, is perhaps, the most 

 prevalent description of group in the animal kingdom ; 

 it is used, in artificial systems, to designate an in- 

 definite number of genera, having a few characters in 

 common ; but in natural classification its meaning is as 

 determinate as any other of the circular groups here 

 named. The crows, shrikes, parrots, woodpeckers, &c. 

 are so many famihes, both in a natural and philosophic 

 sense of the word, and speak at once to the apprehension 

 of the reader. The genera of the old authors are more 

 similar to the famihes of the moderns, in the nature of 

 their contents, than to any of the groups here enumerated. 

 According to our views, the groups called stirpes, or 

 races, by Mr. MacLeay*, are no other than fatitilies of 

 the Predatorial tribe of beetles. Among birds, the 

 shrike, thrush, warbler, chatterer, and flycatcher repre- 

 sent the five families of the tribe Dentirostres ; while 

 Papilio, Nymphalis, Satyrus, Ericina, and Hesperia 

 of Latreille give us the types of the families in the tribe 

 of Diurnal butterflies {Diurnes). It is essential here 

 to remark, that the names of all families are terminated 

 in -idee, as PapilionJrf«, Nymphalirf«, &c.: a plan of 

 nomenclature which at once points out the rank of the 

 group bearing a name so constructed. 



(428.) Sub-families constitute the primary divisions 

 of the last group ; and, although the term is but seldom 

 met with in artificial systems, yet groups of this rank are 

 every where to be found in nature. To account for this 

 omission, it may be observed, that it is comparatively 

 easy, in most cases, to know the family to which a bird 

 or an insect belongs, even at first sight, but to ascertain 

 into which of the primary divisions of that family it na- 

 turally enters, imposes the necessity of a severe and fre- 

 quently a laborious analysis, which few have the leisure 

 or the opportunity of undertaking. Hence, in describ- 

 ing a new object, it is usual to designate the family, 

 and then at once proceed to the genus (or rather the 



* Annulosa Javanica, p. 6. 



