EDITOR S INTRODUCTION. 



13 



be as many different types of organisation as there are districts therein enumerated ; and doubtless 

 a reference to any system of ornithology, however much the classification may be confused by 

 preconceived theories, will convince us that such is essentially the foundation of any natural 

 arrangement 



In taking, therefore, a brief survey of the principal groups, or Orders, under which the feathered 

 races have been distributed, we will begin with those appointed to live on trees, inasmuch as these are 

 regarded by the author of the following pages as being entitled 

 to the highest rank in the class to which they belong, rivalling 

 in intelligence, as some of them do, the apes and monkeys of 

 which they are in general the inseparable companions. 



Few people in this country have any adequate conception of 

 a tropical forest, and, consequently, are scarcely prepared to see 

 whole races of animals constructed specially for a residence in 

 the umbrageous wilderness within its pathless precincts. The 

 great forest of the Amazon, in all its primeval grandeur, 

 stretches for a thousand miles from north to south, and pro- 

 bably three or four hundred from east to west, and over all 

 this vast extent of territory, so closely are the branches inter- 

 woven that, as we are told, a monkey might make his way 

 passing from tree to tree without ever coming to the ground 

 except at those points where the rivers hold their course 

 through the tangled yet sublime scenery. " In these untrodden 

 fastnesses the trees, rising frequently to a height of sixty or 

 eighty feet, with stems perfectly straight and without a branch, 

 give support to the huge creepers that climb around their trunks 

 like immense serpents waiting for their prey, or sometimes 

 stretching obliquely from their summits like the stays of a lofty 

 mast, here twisting round each other till they form living cables, 

 as if to bind securely the patriarchs of the forest ; there 

 wreathed in tangled festoons, and themselves covered with 

 smaller creepers and parasitic plants." Such is Mr. Wallace's 

 description of the interior of the Amazonian forest. 



" The forests of Rio Janeiro," says Mr. Darwin, " are 

 ornamented with the cabbage palm trees no feet high, with a 

 stem so narrow that it might be clasped with two hands. The 

 woody creepers themselves are of great thickness, some of them 

 measuring two feet in circumference. If the eye was turned 

 from the world of foliage above to the ground beneath, it was 

 attracted by the extreme elegance of the leaves of the ferns and mimosa? (sensitive plants). The 

 latter in some parts covered the ground ; in walking across these thick beds, a broad track was 

 marked by the change of colour produced by the drooping of their sensitive leaves. It is easy to 

 specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes, but it is not possible to give 

 an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate 

 the mind." 



These are the localities amongst which species of the Arboreal Orders find their Paradise, and 

 hold undisturbed possession. Myriads of climbing birds — parrots, macaws, and cockatoos — fill the 



II. — VISCERA OF SMALL BIRD 

 (Euphone violaceus). 



a, Crop ; b, termination of the Windpipe, or inferior 

 larynx ; c, one of the Vocal Muscles ; a, lower 

 portion of the Gullet ; e, the Gizzard ; £, Lung 

 of the right side ; /*, Liver ; i, Alimentary 

 Canal. 



