the Family of Cuculidos. 223 
between the other four groups in each column leaves us without any 
doubt that their station, at least, is natural. The further, indeed, 
that the philosophic naturalist pursues his researches, the more will 
he be struck with wonder and admiration at the universality of a 
few general laws, simple in themselves, yet modified in such a man- 
ner as to produce the most inconceivable variety. In the present 
family this is so manifest, that the analogical characters above given 
might either be employed, with little variation, to designate the pri- 
mary groups of the Cuculidce, or those of the tribes of the order 
Insessores. Thus we see that the most conic billed cuckcoos are 
typical, and represent the conirostral tribe. Those which follow, of 
all others, have the bill most hooked and compressed, these charac- 
ters being also typical of the Dentirostres, The long-billed cuckoos of 
the genus Sanrothera depart from the habits of all their ^family, since 
we are assured by eye-witnesses that they watch, like the fly- catch- 
ers and tyrant shrikes, for their prey from a fixed station, darting 
upon insects and lizards when they come within reach, and then re- 
turn to their former seat, this habit being altogether peculiar to fis- 
sirostral types. 
The honey-guides, independent of their possessing a tail whose 
feathers are more stiff than those of any other group in the family, 
exhibits one of the true characters of a scansorial foot ; that is, a 
tarsus so short, as to be greatly inferior in length to the outer or 
versatile fore-toe. This structure is a decided proof that the birds 
possessing it climb more in a perpendicular position than any 
other ; since it is carried to its maximum of developement in the 
two typical forms of the Scansores, the Psittacidce, and the Picidce. If, 
in short, the analogies of a group are correctly stated, they will bear 
comparison not only with every other in the same class of animals, 
but, as I firmly believe, with every other in the animal kingdom. 
There is a curious circumstance regarding the honey-guides which 
must not here be omitted. Upon what principle does this cuckoo, and 
this only, evince such attachment and familiarity towards man, as ac- 
tually to call in his aid for procuring food ? The answer is deductable 
from the foregoing table. We have elsewhere shown that in every 
natural group one of the types is remarkable, above its congeners for 
its docility or its attachment to man, and that this type is the scanso- 
rial among the perchers, and the rasorial among birds. We may 
now add, that it is produced under a different form in the Pachydermes 
among the ungulated quadrupeds, and in the order Ungulata among 
the Mammalia. These relations, however, will be better comprehend- 
ed by the following table, each column being viewed as a circular 
group. 
