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CHAPTEE XVI. 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



Most birds are of some economic importance to the farmer and 

 gardener. Many are extremely useful in keeping down an 

 excess of insect life and other vermin more or less destructive to 

 our crops. There are also some birds which are obnoxious by 

 destroying the buds of fruit-trees, by eating grain, and by their 

 depredations amongst poultry and game-birds. The most im- 

 portant species only wLLL be mentioned here, space forbidding 

 a more detailed description. 



The old classification of Birds into N'atatores, Grallatores, 

 Easores, Scansores, Passeres, and Eaptores is not followed here, 

 as by it birds of a totally different structure are grouped 

 together : for instance, the Ducks and Geese, formerly united 

 with the Gulls, are quite distinct in structure, and cannot be 

 reasonably grouped with them. There is no doubt but that the 

 so-called Passerine birds are the most highly developed, while 

 Grebes and Divers are some of the lowest. We therefore com- 

 mence with the latter, as we are here tracing life from the most 

 simple forms, the Protozoa, to the most highly developed 

 animals, the Mammalia. The groups are taken in the order 

 given in Dr Hans Gadow's recent classification.^ 



' A Classification of Vertebrata, Recent and Extinct. Gadow. 1898. 



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