994 ZOOLOGY. 
3. NaTaTores, or swimming Birds, of which the Goose and Duck are— 
familiar examples. ‘They habitually live in the water, for which they are 
admirably constructed, like the whales, dolphins, and other aquatic mam- 
malia to which they are analogous. 
4. GRALLATORES, or wading Birds, well represented by the common Herons 
and Cranes. In these birds the long legs and neck are striking charac- 
ters, and their entire organization has ta its object the pursuit of such 
fishes or other animals as inhabit shallow waters or marshes. 
d). Rasores, or walking Birds, represented by the domestic Fowl and the 
Turkey, by the Pheasants, Partridges, Quails, and other birds. They live 
almost entirely on the ground, and are almost the only birds which have 
been completely domesticated. | 
We cannot, however, possibly enter into any details of this system, and are 
sorry to say that it has not been elaborated by any author to such extent as 
to enable us to avail ourselves of his labors so far as to present a view of the 
various families of birds upon its basis. The reader can consult with 
great advantage, upon this subject, the volumes of Lardner’s Cyclopedia by 
Swainson. 
The publication of “The Genera of Birds” by George Robert Gray, an 
ornithologist of great acquirements attached to the British Museum, has 
placed in the hands of naturalists the most complete synopsis of the genera 
and species of birds ever produced. His method and views of classification 
we propose to adopt in the following pages. 
Gray divides the class of birds into eight orders, as follows : 
1. AccipitRes, Rapacious birds. ( Pls. 104, 105.) 
2. PasseREs, Sparrows, Thrushes, and generally all the small birds. 
(:Pls..99, 100,108, 102.) 
Scansores, Parrots, Woodpeckers, Cuckoos, &ec. 
(Part of pls. 97, 98.) 
4. Corump#, Pigeons and Doves. (Pl. 96, figs. 12 to 15.) 
5. Gatitin #, Cocks, Pheasants, Grouse, Turkeys, &e. 
(Part of pls. 95, 96.) 
6. Srruruiones, Ostriches, Bustards, and the Emu. 
(Pl. 94, figs. 1, 2.) 
7. GraLita, or W ading birdgs,.(P1..98. )s:, « 
8 ANSERES, or Swimming birds. (Pls. 91, 92.) 
These orders contain, according to the views of Gray, about fifty families, 
which are again divided into about one hundred and fifty sub-families, admit- 
ting about eight hundred genera. 
The Geher of species of birds known is variously estimated. Gray 
enumerates in his great work about six thousand species, but Des Murs of 
Paris, in a beautiful and important work the Iconographia Ornithologica, 
now in the course of publication, and in which he intends to give plates of 
all known birds not previously figured, estimates them at ten thousand. 
The probability is that there are at this time about seven thousand well 
determined birds, many of which have been discovered since the commence- 
ment of Gray’s work; and to this number constant and large accessions 
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