142 
ANTHREPTES. 
found. Nectarinea belongs exclusively to South 
America, and it may be called a tropical genus. 
The range of Diceurn is between that of Nectarinea 
and Anthreptes ; that is to say, it lies between South 
America and continental India; so that Australia, 
including New Holland, is its more particular abode. 
Last of all, and quite different from either of the 
preceding, comes Melithreptes, a group especially 
restricted to the islands of the Pacific Ocean, where 
none of the other genera of this family, so far as 
our knowledge extends, have yet been discovered. 
The circle of the Cinnyridce being thus established 
by the affinity of the different groups to each other 
in the order in which we have arranged them, let 
us now see what analogies result therefrom; and 
let us examine whether our proposition, that the 
primary types of the feathered creation follow each 
other in a definite series, is verified in this, as it 
has been in numberless other instances. The value 
of a theory, in fact, whether in this or in any other 
branch of physical science, must eventually be 
brought to bear upon the minute details of that sci- 
ence ; and by these details it will either stand or fall. 
It is idle to talk of some of the analogies being re- 
mote, and therefore tending to invalidate the theory 
itself. If some affinities are more remote than 
others, which every man of common understanding 
knows to be true, it follows, as a necessary conse- 
quence, that some analogies will also be more re- 
mote than others ; for both are no other than different 
sorts of resemblances. The resemblance of a Euro- 
