the Family of Cuculidce. 223 



between the other four groups in each column leaves us without any 

 doubt that their station, at least, is natural. The further, indeed, 

 that the philosophic naturalist pursues his researches, the more will 

 he be struck with wonder and admiration at the universality of a 

 few general laws, simple in themselves, yet modified in such a man- 

 ner as to produce the most inconceivable variety. In the present 

 family this is so manifest, that the analogical characters above given 

 might either be employed, with little variation, to designate the pri- 

 mary groups of the Cuculidce, or those of the tribes of the order 

 Insessores. Thus we see that the most conic billed cuckcoos are 

 typical, and represent the conirostral tribe. Those which follow, of 

 all others, have the bill most hooked and compressed, — these charac- 

 ters being also typical of the Dentirostres, The long-billed cuckoos of 

 the genus Saurothera depart from the habits of all their^family, since 

 we are assured by eye-witnesses that they watch, like the fly- catch- 

 ers and tyrant shrikes, for their prey from a fixed station, darting 

 upon insects and lizards when they come within reach, and then re- 

 turn to their former seat, this habit being altogether peculiar to fis- 

 sirostral types. 



The honey-guides, independent of their possessing a tail whose 

 feathers are more stiff than those of any other group in the family, 

 exhibits one of the true characters of a scansorial foot ; that is, a 

 tarsus so short, as to be greatly inferior in length to the outer or 

 versatile fore-toe. This structure is a decided proof that the birds 

 possessing it climb more in a perpendicular position than any 

 other ; since it is carried to its maximum of developement in the 

 two typical forms of the Scansores, the Psittacidce, and the Picidce. If, 

 in short, the analogies of a group are correctly stated, they will bear 

 comparison not only with every other in the same class of animals, 

 but, as I firmly believe, with every other in the animal kingdom. 

 There is a curious circumstance regarding the honey-guides which 

 must not here be omitted. Upon what principle does this cuckoo, and 

 this only, evince such attachment and familiarity towards man, as ac- 

 tually to call in his aid for procuring food ? The answer is deductable 

 from the foregoing table. We have elsewhere shown that in every 

 natural group one of the types is remarkable, above its congeners for 

 its docility or its attachment to man, and that this type is the scanso- 

 rial among the perchers, and the rasorial among birds. We may 

 now add, that it is produced under a different form in the Pachydcrmes 

 among the ungulated quadrupeds, and in the order Ungulata among 

 the Mammalia. These relations, however, will be better comprehend- 

 ed by the following table, each column being viewed as a circular 

 group. 



