﻿104 



ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



ated. A miniature re- 

 presentation of the 

 same form will be 

 found in one of the 

 little European sand- 

 pipers ( Tringa Tern- 

 minchii). A few other 

 instances might be men- 

 tioned^ but these are 

 quite sufficient for our 

 present purpose. All 

 those tails which have 

 the two middle fea- 

 thers shorter than the 

 outermost are, of course, 

 simply forked. 

 (97») 10. Lyre-shaped tails belong exclusively to the 

 Rasorial order, and to the different genera and groups 

 which are its prototypes. The gradation in the length 

 of the feathers is precisely similar to that in a simply 

 forked tail ; but their direction, instead of being straight, 

 as in that of the common sparrow (fig. 52. a), is out- 

 wardly curved, so as to 

 resemble in some sort 

 the frame work of the 

 ancient lyre (c). The 

 development of this 

 form, like all others, is 

 gradual; it commenc- 

 ing with some of the 

 Drongo shrikes, whose 

 external feathers are 

 nearly straight (6), 

 and proceeding to 

 others (c), where they 

 are conspicuously curv- 

 ed, until, in the Ly- 

 urus tetrix, or black game of Britain, it reaches its 

 ull development. In the Drongo shrikes, which con- 



