ae Pe 
A 
130 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF 1 — " 
junction of the last with the first ara 
the great hollow-billed genus Phare | 
Sythrops, the Australian genus of toucans. If we ¢ on 
der the woodpeckers as the most perfect of all climbe 
they will constitute the typical group ; for, althous 
the parrots possess the greatest intelligence and the m 
varied organisation, they do not excel in that partic 
lar quality which constitutes the perfection of the scz 
sorial structure: we must, therefore, consider them as 
the representatives of the Dentirostres, and of th 
hawks, —an analogy fully borne out by the structure o 
their bill: these two, therefore, form the typical a 
the subtypical groups of the entire circle. _The great 
head and large size of the toucans, independent of their 
often catching their food in the air, plainly indicate 
the fissirostral type. The cuckows, which are the most) 
imperfect climbers, are therefore the most aberrant; 
while the Certhiade, or creepers, represent the scansorial 
division, as already intimated. We shall now take a 
hasty glance at each of these families, the minor groups’ 
of which will be systematically defined in the subse- 
quent synopsis. : 
(144.) The Currniap#, or creepers, of all other 
climbers, evince the closest affinity to the suctorial 
order of Tenuirostres, like them they are covey 
a small size ; like them, they have a very slender, deli- 
cate bill; and in both groups the hind toe is muc 
developed. Some of the honeysuckers, as the En 
miza cyanotis S.*, climb trees ; and the similarity of | 
Clymasteris Wendaee to a Dickohann is so great, that’ 
no less an ornithologist than M. Temminck has actuall y | 
mistaken it for such. Nothing, therefore, can be more” 
conclusive, if authority were alone to decide the ques-_ 
tion, than that the Scansores pass into the Tenuirostre 
by means of the Certhiad@ in one, and the Meliphagide ¥ 
in the other. .. 
_ (145.) The primary divisions or subfamilies of the 
Certhiade, did our space admit of their full elucidation, — 
* Lewin’s Birds of New Holland, pl. 4. | 
