Notices of New Books. 



8435 



really true what an extraordinary appearance must the Loddigesia 

 mirabilis present during its evoluti ns ! " 



The last structural peculiarities to be noticed are those of the feet. 



TJie Humming Bird's Legs and Feet. — " Nothing has yet been said 

 respecting the legs and feet. Diminutive as they are they will be 

 found to be very diversified. In some instances the tarsi are bare, in 

 others they are thickly clothed, as in the Eriocnemides ; in some the 

 toes are very diminutive, and are furnished with equally small rounded 

 nails ; in others all the toes, particularly the hinder one, are greatly 

 developed and armed with long, curved and extremely sharp spine- 

 like claws. This latter form is admirably adapted for clinging to the 

 petals of flowers, a habit common to many members of the family, 

 which not only settle upon but thrust their spiny bills through the 

 bell-shaped flowers. The power these little birds possess of clinging 

 to the branches is very remarkable ; they hang on with their little feet 

 and hooked claws like bats with such pertinacity that I was often 

 fearful of dislocating the legs of my living birds when attempting to 

 remove them from their perch." 



I do not wish to conceal the fact that these copious extracts are 

 made because they are delicious and instructive, and will I am sure 

 be welcomed by my readers. It is a matter of course that I should 

 append to them certain commentaries just to show that I have not 

 quoted at random, but have had a method and aim, to which the 

 extracts are used as contributions. That object is classification. 

 Mr. Gould's views on this subject are now before us. " While I 

 admit," says he, " that humming birds are somewhat allied to the 

 swifts, they are so essentially distinct from these and all other birds 

 that they might be separated into a distinct order," &c. (see ante). 

 The admission that they are somewhat allied to the swifts seems an 

 act of courtesy rather than of judgment, since Cabanis and all the later 

 writers unite them with the swifts and goatsuckers, and since the 

 writer of the admission proceeds immediately to, point out what he 

 considers the most striking points of dissimilarity. Now when we 

 consider the prestige attached to the name of Gould as an ornitholo- 

 gist and the very humble claims which the editor of the ' Zoologist' 

 possesses to be called an ornithologist at all, — his weaknesses having 

 taken very different forms, as of fern culture, reptile study, cater- 

 pillar describing, &c, — it caunot be expected that his editorial opinions 

 will have much weight, still I venture very explicitly to state that I 

 dissent in toto from Mr. Gould's first conclusion that the humming 

 birds are " somewhat allied to the swifts," and equally so that humming 

 birds can possibly " constitute a separate order of birds." And were it 



