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ON ZOOLOeiCAIi SYSTEMS, AND THE 



agreeably occupy us through an entire lecture ; so curious, so attractive, 

 so interesting, are their structures, their powers, their habits, their instincts. 

 But all these must be reserved for subseq?jent studies.* Our oniy concern 

 at present is to give a glance at the manner in which they are grouped 

 under the Linnean systeai. It is the mere alphabet of the science to 

 which we must at present confine ourselves. 



The AcciPiTRES, or predacious birds, constituting the first order, with 

 a bill somewhat hooked downward, and four claws hooked and sharp- 

 pointed. It consists of not more than four genera, the vulture, including 

 the conder, (v. Grypkus,) as one of its species ; the falco, including the 

 numerous families of the eagle, falcon, hawk, osprey, buzzard, and kite, 

 together with various others : the owl, and the lanius, or shrike, of which 

 the butcher-bird, (1. Collurio^) is one of the chief species. 



The PicJE or pies, form the second, and most numerous order. The 

 bill is here compressed and convex, which constitutes the ordinal character. 

 A secondary distinction, taken from the feet, divides them into tribes 

 formed for perching, formed for climbing, or formed for walking. To this 

 order belongs the ti ochilus, or humming-bird, the minutest animal of the 

 bird tribes ; and which seems to connect the bird with the insect class. In 

 one of its species, trochilus minimus^ or least humming-bird, it sometimes 

 does not weigh more than twenty grains, nor measure much more than 

 an inch ; it is consequently less than several of the bee tribes, and like 

 the bee, feeds on the nectar of flowers, which it hovers about and extracts 

 while on the wing, with a delighted hum. 



To this order also, from similarity of bill and foot, belong the very 

 numerous families of ihe psittacus or. parrot kind, including the proper 

 parrot, maccaw, parrakeet, cockatoo, and lory ; equally celebrated for 

 their imitative powers, their longevity, and the splendid variety of their 

 colours ; the paradisea, or bird of Paradise, chiefly a native of New Guinea, 

 and distinguished by the long and taper elegance of its bending feathers ; 

 the monstrous rhamphastos or toucan, whose bill is, in some species, 

 larger than its body, and whose tongue is quaintly tipped with a bundle 

 of feathers, probably answering the purpose of an organ of taste. 



All thus far glanced at are exotics. Among the kinds a few of whose 

 species are inhabitants of our own country, I may mention the social and 

 clamorous corvus or crow-tribe, including the rook, raven, jay, jack-daw, 

 and various others ; the picus or wood-pecker, that drives into the stoutest 

 and toughest timber-trees of the forest its liard and wedge-like bill, and 

 often with a force and echoing sound like the stroke of the woodman ; and 

 whose bony and pointed tongue transfixes the various insects upon which 

 it feeds, and in this state not unfrequently draws them out from a consider- 

 able depth in the bark of trees into which they have crept for protection. 

 The alcedo, or king-fisher, is another genus of this order, whose species 

 haunt streams and rivers for the little fishes on which they feed, and are 

 most dexterous anglers in catching them. To these we may add the cu- 

 culus or cuckoo, that, with the same want of natural affection which 

 marks the ostrich, builds no nest for its eggs, except under particular 

 circumstances, but avails itself of that of the hedge-sparrow, or some 

 other bird, and abandons to foster-parents the care of its eggs.' 



The THIRD ORDER of birds is denominated ansekes, and in Enghsh 

 WEB-FOOTED : they are ordinarily characterized by having the bill covered 

 with skin, broad or gibbous at the tip, and a palmate or web-foot, formed 



* f^e^ hect lY, V, Yin, IX, ol tW? Paries'. 



