PASSERINiE. 177 



THE SECOND ORDER OF BIRDS. 



THE PASSERIN.E. 



This is the most numerous order of the whole class. Its character seems, at first sight, 

 purely negative, for it embraces all those Birds which arc neither swimmers, waders, climbers, 

 rapacious, nor gallinaceous. Nevertheless, by comparing them, a very great mutual resem- 

 blance of structure becomes pereejitible, and particularly such insensible gradations from one 

 genus to another, that it is extremely difficult to establish the subdivisioas. 



They have neither the violence of the Birds of Prey, nor the fixed regimen of the Poultry 

 and Water-fowl ; insects, fruit, and grain, constitute their food, which consists more exclu- 

 sively of grain as the beak is stoTiter and stronger, and of insects as it is more slender. Those 

 in which it is strong even pursue other Birds. 



Their stomach is a muscular gizzard. They have, generally, two small coeca : and it is 

 among them that we find the singing Birds, and the most com])licated inferior larynx. 



The proportional length of their wings and the power of their fiight are as various as their 

 habits. 



The adult sternum has ordinarily but one emargination on each side of its posterior border. 

 There arc, however, two in the Rollers, Kingfishers, and Bee-eaters, [also in the Colies, 

 Motmots, and Todies, ^idiieh the author incliules in this group,] and none whatever in the 

 Swifts and Humming-birds. 



We institute our first ])artition according to the feet, an<l have then recourse to the beak. 



The first and most numerous division comprehends those genera in which the external toe 

 is connected to the middle one as far as the first or second joint only. 



[This ordinal subdivision, properly restricted, is one of the most rigorously defined through- 

 out nature, quite as much so as that of the Parrots. 



The entire skeleton, digestive and vocal organs, are peculiar ; and those genera included 

 by the author which differ in one particular diifer also iu the rest, and accord in all their 

 essential characters with another great group that follows. 



The lower larynx is always complicated, and operated upon by four distinct pairs of 

 muscles ; besides which, the long stcruo-tracheal pair — found in must other Birds — is gene- 

 rally present, but reduced to extreme tenuity. This character excludes the Cuvieran genera 

 Ci/pselus, Cojirinmlgiis, Podargiis, Coliiis, Coracias, Colaris, Ujnipa, Alerops, Prionites, Alcedo, 

 Ceyx, Todus, and Buceros, — ten of which have also no intestinal coeca, and the three others 

 very large coeca, exactly resembling those of the Owls (fig. 79). All the remaining genera, 

 except the Humming-birds, which also require to Ije excluded, have two minute eccca. 



With the sole cxce])tioi] again of the Ilummiug-birds, which have the lower larvnx diffe- 

 rently complicated, all ringing Birds belong to this great order : the conformation alluded to 

 enables them to inflect and modulate the voice ; though there are many species, possessing 

 the same structure, which nevertheless utter only monotonous cries, and others of which the 

 notes are harsh and little varied ; even these, however, are very generally capable of being 

 taught to speak, to whistle airs, and to imitate almost any sound ; and in such individuals as 

 cannot lie brought to do so, it by no means follows that there is any ])hysieal deficiencv, as 

 indicated by the diversity noticeable in this respect in individuals of the same species: there 

 arc indeed very few of them, if any, that do not sing, or utter some peculiar note or chatter 

 analogous to song, during the season of courtship. 



The sternal apjiaratus, whether of a Swallow or Tree-creeper, a Promerops, Finch, Crow, 

 Thrush, or Manakin, presents invariably the same peculiar characters, with scarcely any modi- 

 fication. The long maniibrial ])roeess in front between the coracoids, with slantingly truncate 

 bifurcate tip ; the costal ]n-ocess, expanding anteriorly much beyond the articulations of the 



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