﻿148 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



strained and unusual attitudes seen in the tomtits 

 (Parus), sometimes hanging by their feet to reach a 

 bunch of flowers, which could not otherwise be ap- 

 proached ; the feet, therefore, of the two families, in 

 all essential points, are precisely the same. 



(128.) The name of Syndactyle has been given by 

 writers to all such feet as have the outer toe more or 

 less joined to that of the middle: hence, as such feet 

 occur in almost every natural group among the perchers, 

 the term has become altogether vague, from its in- 

 discriminate use. M. Cuvier, more especially, has so 

 far neglected a due restriction to the meaning of this 

 term, that he has actually, from this one circumstance, 

 classed the hornbills (Buceridce) with the bee-eaters, 

 and the kingfishers ! Syndactyle feet, in short, are 

 even more varied than the scansorial, but with this 

 essential difference, that the birds possessing them do 

 not, like the Scansores, constitute a natural group ; but 

 are merely one of the indications of the natatorial type. 

 Hence it follows, that every modification of foot 

 which we have described (even among the Raptor es) 

 presents instances of this union of the two outer toes, 

 which, according to M. Cuvier's views, makes them 

 syndactyle, and entitles them to a place in his artificial 

 tribe of Syndactyles. As it is quite unnecessary to point 

 out the inconsistency of such a classification, we shall 

 merely observe that the most striking examples of this 

 union of the two outer toes will be found in the genera 

 Malaconotus, Pitta, Eurylamus, Prionops, Dasycephala, 

 Buceros, Leiothrioc, Myothera, Rupicola, Todus, Phce- 

 nicircus, Pipra, Dendrocolaptes, &c, genera, in fact, 

 which are spread over the whole order Insessores, 

 Nevertheless, the term is good, if limited to such feet, 

 with united toes, as are of a different formation to all 

 others, and would not, even if their toes were free, 

 come under any of the definitions we have already 

 given. Such a form of foot will be found in the genera 

 Merops and Alcedo, containing the bee-eaters and the 

 kingfishers, to whose feet, par excellence, we shall limit 



