﻿344 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



other, the whole of our domestic poultry : how can 

 relations of analogy be more complete than these ? 



(284.) Our proposition is, that this circle of the 

 Insessores will be verified by its internal affinities, 

 independent of any support from the analogies we are 

 now bringing forward. But to substantiate what has 

 been said, and said most truly, that " a natural group 

 will stand any test," we shall now compare this with 

 the corresponding divisions in the class of quadrupeds 

 as a collateral evidence of its correctness, and in sup- 

 port of the remark we have quoted. 



Orders of Tribes of the Orders of the 



Birds. Insessores. Analogical Characters. Mammalia. 



C Pre-eminent in their powers ~\ 

 Insessores. Conirostres. ) SjESS^SS [ 

 C or nails not acute. } 



C Rapacious, feeding upon - ! 

 Raptores. Dentirostres. < other animals ; claws >-Fer^e. 



C acute. J 



r Head very large ; feet obso- ~) 

 Natatores. Fissirostres. < lete, or short and imper. >Cetacea. 



C. feet ; habits aquatic. 3 



Size diminutive j upper jaw ~i 

 Li 



Grallatores. Tenuis. } [ Gures. 



placed back in the head. J 



f Size large ; head small ; or-") 

 | namented with append. I 

 Rasores. Scansores. -{ ages ; granivorous or VUngulata. 



I herbivorous ; habits re- 1 

 t markably docile. J 



(285.) Before we make any observations upon this 

 table, we shall take occasion to introduce some remarks 

 upon analogies in general, arising from the degrees of 

 this relation observed in the above table. Those between 

 the Insessores and the Mammalia are of course more 

 remote than between the groups in the two first columns, 

 for the best and most obvious reason, — that, as the 

 animals themselves are more remote from each other in 

 general confirmation, so must their analogies be equally 

 remote. It would be strange, indeed, were it not so ; 

 and yet so little do some writers appear to exercise 

 their reason on this subject, that they actually bring 



