Zoological Society. 2781 



maturity. When full grown it uses its feet rather than its wings ; it trusts much to 

 its legs for means of escape : when it flies, it moves through the air by a series of 

 rapid, powerful, laboured strokes of the wing, and invariably takes the earliest oppor- 

 tunity of settling on the land or water, not on trees ; it never takes wing for recrea- 

 ation or food, but simply as a means of moving from place to place : it is polygamous 

 in its habits, the number of females predominating over the males : the males are 

 pugnacious ; they accompany the females only until incubation has commenced, and 

 abandon the duties of incubation and the care of the young solely to the females : 

 the females make little or no nest, a depression scratched on the surface of the soil 

 generally sufficing: the eggs are large in comparison to the size of the bird: neither 

 sex sings or attempts to imitate the voice of men or animals. Birds included in 

 this division approach more nearly to mammals than do those which it excludes ; for 

 instance, the habitual use of land or water for progression, the swiftness of foot, the 

 strength and muscular development of the legs, the polygamous habits, the want of 

 the extraordinary instinct of nest-making, are characters which — while they seem to 

 degrade these birds as birds — certainly raise them in the list of animals, because they 

 are thus brought nearer those animals which suckle their young, and which are al- 

 ways placed at the head of the animal kingdom. In an economical point of view, 

 and considered in reference to man, the flesh of these birds is wholesome, nutritious, 

 and is generally considered highly palatable. The division comprises the following 

 groups, in each of which partial exceptions to one or other of these general characters 

 occur : — 



1. Gallinae, or the Poultry order. 



2. Brevipennes (Cuvier), or the Ostriches. 



3. Pressirostres (Cuvier), or the Plovers. 



4. Longirostres (Cuvier), or the Snipes. 



5. Macrodactyli (Cuvier), or the Rails. 



6. Plongeurs (Cuvier), or the Divers. 



7. Lamellirostres (Cuvier), or the Ducks. 



2. Gymnogenous Birds. In these, when the shell is broken the chick makes its 

 appearance in a state of helpless infancy. It is naked, blind, and incapable of loco- 

 motion : it cannot distinguish its parent by means of its senses : it gapes for food, 

 but does not distinguish between proper food offered by its parent and a stick or a 

 finger held over it : it cannot feed itself, and would die were not food placed in its 

 mouth : it rapidly attains its full size, often before leaving the nest. When full 

 grown it uses its wings rather than its feet ; it flies with a succession of deliberate 

 and easy strokes : it takes wing for recreation and for food, and not merely for the 

 purpose of moving from place to place : it is strictly monogamous, the sexes being 

 equal in number : males share with females the cares of incubation and feeding the 

 young, until these are able to shift for themselves. Birds possessing these characters 

 build elaborate nests in trees, and perch in trees rather than on the ground : many of 

 them sing melodiously ; others imitate with wonderful facility the voice of man or of 

 animals. As an economical character in connexion with man, their flesh is gene- 

 rally bitter, often offensive and disgusting: hence man has seldom domesticated 

 them for purposes of food. These are birds par excellence : they possess in perfection 

 the essential characters of birds : in the habitual use of air for progression and of 

 trees for resting, in the want of abilities for terrestrial progression, in strength and 

 bulk of pectoral muscle, in monogamous habits, in the fabrication of nests, in power 

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