Wii § i x ive ~. al Se 
92 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
CHAP. VIII. 
ON THE CONIROSTRES, OR CONIC-BILLED TRIBE. 
(105.) Tux Conrrostrat tribe is the most highly or- 
ganised of allthose which form thegrand division, or order 
of Percuers ; of which, in consequence, it is pre-emi- 
nently typical. The prominent distinctions of these birds, 
and the characters by which they are separated from the 
tribe we have just quitted, have more than once been 
touched upon.* The general reader will form no inac- 
curate idea of the contents of this circle, by looking to 4 
crow ( fig. 150. a), a starling (b), a sparrow (c), a plantain 
eater (d),and a hornbill (e) ; and associating in his mind 
proximate more or less to one or other of these forms 5; 
in none of which do we observe that degree of curvature 
and dentation of the upper mandible, so characteristic 
of dentirostral birds. To define them, however, with 
scientific accuracy and exclusiveness, is much more diffi- 
cult ; seeing that, as in all large groups, they possess no” 
one character which is not found among those birds which 
are connected with, but do not enter into, the circle of) 
the Conirostres. That distinction, however, whi 
appears most general, is the strong conic-shaped fo 
* Vol. I. p. 339. 
