196 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Oriol 



IJKB. 



- Paradisead^e. 



Crateropodince. 



Bill stronger ; frontal feathers soft and generally 

 velvet-like ; rictus smooth ; feet short, robust ; 

 hind toe and tarsus of nearly equal length ; 

 tail short : frugivorous. 



Bill greatly compressed, hard, both mandibles 



generally curved ; tail lengthened, broad, \ Promeropid^e. 

 graduated. 



The results of this comparison will explain many facts of the highest import- 

 ance ; since, if the analogies are true, we shall have no further doubts entertained 

 about the situation of the Paradise-birds, — merely because our previous views on 

 their true affinities * did not coincide with an arrangement founded, as we are 

 told, upon facts. But let us look to these facts more closely. No two groups, 

 in the whole circle of Insessores, can be much more unlike than these ; we are 

 only surprised, therefore, that their typical divisions possess any one character in 

 common. The true Thrushes (Merulee) agree, however, with the Humming-birds 

 in taking both animal and vegetable food : we have repeatedly taken from the 

 stomach of the latter, small dipterous insects, captured by these little birds in the 

 flowers whose juices they also suck. The wings of both groups correspond in 

 being long and pointed ; whereas those of Cinnyris and Pitta are much shorter 

 and considerably rounded : this analogy is even apparent in the disposition of 

 their colours. The beautiful Pitta cyanura, Vieil., for instance, finds its repre- 

 sentative in the Cinnyris Senegalensis. Both are lineated on all their under parts 

 with narrow lines of brilliant violet. But these analogies, after all, are very faint, 

 and are merely touched upon to shew that the typical groups (generally more 

 distant from each other than are the aberrant) do not absolutely disagree. 



On proceeding to the next point of comparison, — that between the Brachypo- 

 dince and the Mdiphagidw, — the value of this table begins to be apparent, since 

 we immediately perceive the true relation between Chloropsis and the Australian 

 Honey-suckers to be one of analogy, and not of affinity. Yet setting aside this 

 table, and merely looking to the immediate affinities of Chloropsis in its own circle, 

 we see that the Honey-suckers could not be introduced among the Brachypodinw 

 without the greatest possible violation of nature ; while, on the other hand, 

 Chloropsis would appear equally excluded from the Meliphagidw, whose circular 



* See Zool. Journ., i., p. 479 ; and Linn, Trans., vol. xiv., p. 4C5, note. 



