THE QUINARY SYSTEM. 
XXXV 
more or less to resemble this type^ they are said to be more or less 
tyj)ical. The centrum or perfection of a group,” says Mr. Mac 
Leay, ‘‘ is in fact that part of the circumference of the circle of 
affinity which is farthest from the neighbouring group, and exactly 
the same thing with what in the Horce Ejitomoloyicae has perhaps 
more happily been called typeE * Again, we are expressly told 
that one portion of a group is always normal^ that is, according 
to rule or corresponding with the tyjw ; and another portion is 
always aberrant ; that is, wandering from the rule, or not perfectly 
corresponding with the type ; all which terms are borrowed from 
Robinet, De Blainville, or other foreign writers. For instance, the 
group of vultures ( Vigors) being arranged according to 
this plan, the normal character, we are told, is ^‘general conforma- 
tion powerful ; head and neck bare of feathers ; organs of smell 
strongly developed^ \ The aberrant character is, general confor- 
mation weaker; head and neck less bare of feathers; organs of smell 
less developed^ f All these vultures, as well as the animals in any 
similar group, whether normal and corresponding with the type^ or 
aberrant and not conformable thereto, are said to have an affinity 
with one another, alleged to be real, natural, and, of course, a 
portion of the plan of the Deity; while they have an analogy^ or 
representative and symbolical resemblance, in form, and other 
characters, to some other group or groups of animals. The vul- 
tures, for example, while they have both an affinity among the 
members of their own group, and a more distant one with the 
groups of eagles and of owls, have an analogy (but no affinity) 
to dogs and to insects which feed on carrion [NeciDphaga^ 
Latreille.) 
The MacLeayan systematists, upon grouping animals by their 
affinities^ also arrange them in a circular series, uniformly con- 
sisting of Jive members, whence the system has been called the 
Qitinary system. These five members also are said to be com- 
posed of two normal or typical^ and three aberrant ones, — the vul- 
tures, for example, thus : 
* Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. p. 59. 
t Zoological .Journal, ii. 374. 
c 2 
f Il}id, p. 377. 
