﻿ANALOGIES OF THE ORDERS. 



17 



types. It is a structure, moreover, belonging only to 

 one solitary family in a large tribe of others, none of 

 which possess it in the least degree. In the order 

 Insessores, on the contrary, this power of grasping is 

 not confined to one group, but is extended to the whole ; 

 and it therefore becomes the first and more distinguish- 

 ing characteristic of the order. The climbing nature of 

 the parrots is at once explained by their forming a pro- 

 minent type of the scansorial tribe ; while the structure 

 of the bill (fig. 6. a), almost pre- 

 cisely, in outward form, similar 

 to that of a falcon (6. 6), and 

 their united powers of grasping, 

 and of climbing, show at once 

 their analogy to the JRaptores ; 

 all the birds of which, like the 

 parrots, hold their prey by their 

 feet while it is devoured. Was 

 this latter property discovered to 

 exist, even in the slightest degree, 

 mong eth remaining families of scansorial birds, it 

 would then assume the consequence that it has errone- 

 ously been invested with ; but seeing that it is altoge- 

 ther partial, it sinks to a secondary character, indicating 

 a subordinate and not a primary analogy. 



(22.) In further support of the relation between the 

 Grallatores and the Glires, elsewhere insisted upon *, 

 we shall advert to the elongation 

 of the upper jaw or mandible of 

 these animals, a peculiarity 

 which is more conspicuous in 

 them and their representatives, 

 than in any other groups. If we 

 examine, for instance, the bill of 

 the woodcock family, we find 

 that its termination (fig*l> a), in 

 regard to the contour, gives an almost ludicrous resem- 

 blance to the muzzle of a rat (fig. 7. b) 3 particularly if 



* Classification of Animals, p. 304. 

 C 



