﻿PRIMARY TYPES, 



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Animals so endowed are called,, for the sake of brevity, 

 typical of their own group. Thus the crow is the type 

 of the whole feathered creation, because it unites in it- 

 self some part of the properties of all other birds; while, 

 upon the second principle, the woodpecker is the type 

 of the climbing tribe, because it possesses that particu- 

 lar faculty more perfectly than any other. The swallow, 

 again, is the pre-eminent type of the fissirostral birds, 

 because it not only flies with the greatest comparative 

 swiftness, but its feet are more perfectly organised than 

 those of the night-jars (Caprimulgus). The insessorial 

 type, in a word, is that which exhibits nil the characters 

 of the division in which it is placed. It thus becomes 

 pre-eminently typical, and stands in opposition to an 

 aberrant type, which possesses part only of such charac- 

 ters. In regard to the external characters, the bill, in most 

 instances, is more or less conical, and slightly notched 

 {fig. 1. &), while the feet are well developed: but there 

 are so many variations, that 

 it will be necessary to enter 

 into further particulars 

 when we come to enume- 

 rate the orders and tribes, 

 (11.) The Raptorial, 

 or sub- typical form, has the 

 upper mandible much more 

 hooked; and, in a large 

 proportion of the groups, there is a deep notch near the 

 tip on each side, by which a process, performing the 

 office of a tooth, is produced. (Fig. 1. a.) Carnivorous 

 habits especially belong to this type, which corresponds 

 to the Feline order among quadrupeds. Its highest 

 development is seen in birds of prey, Raptores, where 

 the claws of the toes are also retractile, like those of the 

 cats (Felines). 



(12.) The aberrant types come next. Of the indica- 

 tions of the Natatorial, or aquatic structure, the two 

 which are most universal are the shortness and limited 

 power of the feet, and the broad obtuse form of the bill. 



