﻿8 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



which these types are distinguished in Ornithology, are, 

 1. The Raptorial; 2. The Insessorial ; 3. The Natato- 

 rial, or aquatic ; 4. The Grallatorial, or Tenuirostral ; 

 and, 5. The Rasorial, or Scansorial. 



(9-) The first, or pre-eminent type, is termed the 

 Insessorial, or typical, because it corresponds to the order 

 Insessores, the most perfect in this class. We use the 

 term perfect, on this and all other occasions, not as im- 

 plying that other groups — when compared to such as are 

 thus termed — are imperfectly formed, but as indicative 

 only of a higher or more complicated organisation. 

 Nothing that the Universal Creator has made, can, 

 by any possibility, be imperfect, in the usual meaning of 

 the word ; because, as one of His attributes is perfection, 

 it of course follows that all His works are equally so ; that 

 is, they are most beautifully and most completely formed 

 for the station in the the scale of nature they are intended 

 to fill, and for performing the functions belonging to 

 their particular organisation. But while this truth is ap- 

 parent to all who wish to know it, there cannot be a doubt, 

 that some animals have their instincts more developed 

 and their forms more highly organised than others. A bee 

 is a more perfect animal than a butterfly, and this latter 

 than an oyster. Why ? Because, although each, " after 

 its kind," is perfection, yet a wonderful degree of in- 

 stinct has been given to the first, great beauty of form 

 to the second, and both have been denied to the third, 

 — which, moreover, is barely capable of voluntary 

 motion. We have thought it right to enter upon this 

 explanation — not that it is necessary towards men of real 

 science and good feeling — but to take from one or two 

 obscure writers the power of wilfully misinterpreting the 

 sense in which we use the terms perfect and imperfect, 

 when applied to animals. Regarding circles which are 

 distinguished by these epithets, we have already said 

 sufficient. But to return. 



(10). The Insessorial, or pre-eminent type, as just 

 intimated, is that which is most highly organised, either 

 with a variety of powers, or with any one power in 

 particular, nearly to the exclusion of many others. 



