INSESSOKES. 151 



probably access to ; and partly because I think that the great 

 divisions of the Insessores, adopted by Gray and Horsfield, are on 

 the whole tolerably natural. There may be some families intro- 

 duced into tribes with whom they have no very close affinity, to 

 wit the HornbiUs among the Conirostres ; and there are others, as 

 the Larks placed among the Conirostres, and separated from the 

 Pipits ; but these are acknowledged by all to be the connecting link 

 between the conirostral and dentirostral divisions, and it matters 

 little whether they are placed at the confines of one or the other. 



The following, then, are the groups or tribes of the Insessores, 

 adopted in the present work : — 



\st. — Dentirostres, which have the upper mandible generally 

 toothed near the tip, and live mostly on insects or soft fruit. 



2nd. — Conirostres, which have usually, but not always, the tip of 

 the bill entire, and the bill more or less thickened in both mandi- 

 bles, whilst in the last the upper mandible is generally the thickest. 

 They live mostly on grain, some of them being omnivorous. 



Srd. — Tenuirostres. These have bill slender, acute at the tip and 

 entire, often more or less curved ; and they live on soft insects, 

 the juice of flowers, flower-buds, and soft fruit. 



4(!A. — Fissirostres, whose bill is very varied, but the gape 

 always large, and tlie diet mostly insects, or animal food of some 

 kind, which they usually capture on the wing. 



5th. — Scansores, which, to a very varied form of bill, add the 

 peculiarity of the toes being always in pairs. 



The Dentirostres and Conirostres have the most perfect feet, of 

 moderate length, suitable in most both for perching and for walking 

 on the ground or hopping, and the toes are usually divided nearly 

 to the base, the outer toe alone being slightly syndactyle in some. 

 The Fissirostres have the tarsus usually short and feeble, and the 

 feet more syndactyle than in any other (in two families in 

 pairs) ; and the Scansores have their feet always with two toes 

 before, and two behind. In the Tenuirostres the outer toe is 

 usually more or less joined to the middle toe, the tarsus is gener- 

 ally short, and the toes are sometimes large and strong, with well- 

 curved claws, in others small. This is perhaps the least natural of 

 the tribes, but even here a general similarity of habits and food, 



