﻿INSESSORIAL ORDER. CONIROSTRES. 339 



the feet are generally adapted more for perching than 

 for walking, and the notch of the upper mandible is 

 very rarely obsolete. At the head of this tribe stand 

 the family of shrikes (Laniadce) , which is followed by 

 those of the thrushes (Merulida), and the warblers 

 (Sylviadce) : these latter pass into the chatterers (Am- 

 pelidce), which, from their frugivorous diet and general 

 structure, are the farthest removed from the type of 

 their circle. In the last family, however, composed of 

 the flycatchers (Muscicapidce), the insectivorous habits 

 and structure are again resumed ; and these birds finally 

 blend into the shrikes, by means of the tyrant flycatchers 

 of America. It need hardly be observed that this is the 

 subtypical tribe of the order before us ; it is analogous 

 to the true rapacious birds, and represents them in the 

 circle of Insesswes. 



(276.) The Conirostres are pre-eminently the typi- 

 cal assemblage of the whole order : their organisation is 

 more perfect, or, rather, their faculties are more varied. 

 They feed indiscriminately both upon insects and vege- 

 tables, and are therefore termed omnivorous. Their 

 feet are so constructed that they can walk upon the 

 ground with nearly the same facility as they perch upon 

 branches — a double faculty which is rarely found in 

 the last tribe, where the outer and middle toes are often 

 connected at their base. The bill is thicker, more conic, 

 and the notch of the upper mandible very slight : the 

 tip, also, is still more rarely hooked ; the mouth is not 

 defended by rigid bristles, as none of these birds, like 

 so many of the Dentirostres, seize their food upon the 

 wing. Finally, they include the largest and the most 

 powerful birds of the whole order. The families in- 

 cluded in this tribe are the crows (Corvidce), the star- 

 lings (SturnicUe), the finches (Fringillidce), the plan- 

 tain-eaters (Musophagidce), and the hornbills (Buce- 

 rides). These, collectively, form a circular group, 

 representing, by the great and varied powers of their 

 foot, the order Quadrumana among quadrupeds, at the 

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