§ V. COLLECTION OF BIRDS. 



On leaving the gallery of ruminating animals, 

 we re-enter that of the birds. The species 

 nearest to each other from their natural affinities, 

 form the genera and sub-genera of which M. Cu- 

 vier has traced the characters in the first volume 

 of his Regne Animal. To avoid the loss of space, 

 which the different sizes of birds of analogous ge- 

 nera would have caused in the cases, had they been 

 placed together, we have frequently been obliged 

 to lay aside the order adopted by M. Cuvier for the 

 distribution of his genera ; but they can easily be 

 referred to, by means of tickets on black pedes- 

 tals, placed before each group : those on the red 

 pedestals indicate the subdivisions of the genera. 

 To the support of each bird is attached a label, 

 the first line of which is the French name with a 

 reference to a figure. The name given by Buffo n 

 to the species has been prefered, for all those 

 which he described, as well as the coloured 

 plate in which it is represented by him. The 



