BIRDS OF PALESTINE AND PANAMA COMPARED. 357 
The Curassows are their largest modern type, while the Dodo 
represents our knowledge of the extinct forms. 
The group of Struthions is also well represented by the 
vatious Tinamus. One of this group—the true ostrich— 
wanders over the borders of Palestine, but is scarcely an 
“Antachthon.” He stands lower than the Tinamu. 
Coming to the closer test of superiority, the Passeres, — 
those delicate creatures apparently so dependent on those 
laws which govern increase and provision, and so affected by ` 
the changes that man works in the face of nature; what do 
we find? Of the Clamatores, who least tune their voice to 
nature’s harmonies, but rather imitate the fierce tones of the 
cruel, or the wild cries of the dwellers in the shades, we 
count 106 distinct species. There are none in Palestine. Of 
Songsters, the Oscines, ninety-six species, await man’s con- 
quest of the wilderness to increase in numbers and to display 
their gifts, while Palestine rejoices in a whole army of them. 
But the contrast is remarkable if we analyze these forms. Of 
the Isthmus Oscines, seventeén only hold the first rank by ` 
virtue of their additional (the tenth primary) quill, while this 
feature marks 128 species of Palestine. As we rapidly fol- 
low the line to the point where its extreme is manifested, in 
the family of the thrushes, or Turdide, Panama is left but 
© solitary pioneers of these songsters of the north, while 
seventy-five species represent the family in Palestine. 
We naturally inquire, Is there anything in the food, the 
vegetation, or the temperature, to account for this apparent 
diversity ? Are there not seed-eaters, insectivores, and tree- 
climbers, where seeds and insects and forests grow the 
World over? We answer, undoubtedly there are, and these 
aptations to food and climate are indeed as nothing in the 
seneral plan of creation, for every type of every age has per- 
Prmed these functions successively. Those which fill these 
places in the Isthmian and general neotropical bird-fauna, 
re the Clamatores already alluded to. Let us compare these 
mith the Oscines, and see how complete is the parallel. 
