204 HAZEL GROUSE. 



Specific Characters. — Feathers of vertex elongated; tail round, 

 with, a black fascia tipped with grey on all the lateral feathers; 

 inferior parts of the tarsi and the toes naked; throat black in the 

 male, yellow in female. Length thirteen inches and a half; from 

 carpal joint to tip of wing six inches and a half; tail six inches; 

 tarsi one inch; beak nine lines. 



According to modern views of classification we have 

 now arrived at the second great division of the class 

 Aces, The first division comprises all those birds, the 

 young of which require attention in the nest from 

 their parents, before they arrive at maturity in wing 

 and limb. Hence they are called Heterophagi — those 

 the young of which cannot feed themselves. We have 

 gone through this sub-class, and have arrived at the 

 second, or Autopliagi — those the young of which can 

 more or less feed themselves from birth. The former 

 sub-class comprises the Raptor es, Passeres, Sca?isores, 

 and Columbidce ; the latter the Rasores, Cur sores, 

 Gr alia tores, and Natatores. 



Although this work treats of only a section of the 

 birds in one quarter of the globe, and though I have 

 adopted as the simplest, and what I consider (with 

 all its faults) the best of modern classifications — that 

 of Temminck — I still do not consider myself precluded 

 from noticing, from time to time, what I may think 

 as worthy of observation on the great and important 

 subject of scientific arrangement. 



The division to which I have alluded makes but 

 little break in Temminck's arrangement. It merelv 

 excludes the Columbidce from the second sub-class, and 

 places them in the first. The arrangement is, I think, a 

 good one. It is founded on a great natural division 

 in the plan of development in birds, and which is 



