CLASSIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF 

 JAPANESE BIRDS. 



Subclass PASSERIFORMES. 



The Passeriformes are the most numerous and the " most highly 

 developed of birds, though they contain some archaic families. So 

 far as is known, they are the only birds which combine the following 

 characters : — 



Young born with a few scattered tufts of down, but never possessing 

 a continuous downy covering before acquiring feathers : flexor longus 

 hallucis (and not flexor perforans digitorum) leading to hallux, or in 

 default of that digit to fourth digit reversed to take its place. 



To these characters others may be added to strengthen the 

 diagnosis : — The young are born helpless, and require to be fed in the 

 nest by their parents for many days. The spinal feather-tract on the 

 neck is well defined by lateral bare tracts, and is not split by a spinal 

 bare tract. The number of the cervical (including the cervico-dorsal) 

 vertebrae does not exceed 15. 



The Subclass Passeriformes contains three Orders. 



Order PICO-PASSERES. 



The Pico-Passeres possess, of course, the five characters which have 

 already been described as found iu all the Passeriformes ; but in 

 order to diagnose them it is only necessary to add to the two cha- 

 racters which are diagnostic of the larger group the following : — 



Ambiens and accessory femoro-caudal muscles absent. 



The Order Pico-Passeres contains six Suborders. 



Suborder I. PASSEBES. 



Palate aegithognathous ; deep plantar tendons not united by a 

 vinculum. 



The Passeres comprise nearly half the known species of birds, and 



