88 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
Todus with the orders of birds, and the tribes of the 
perchers, as in the following table : — 
Subgcncra of Genus Todus. Tribes of Orders of 
Todus. Analogies. Perchers. Birds. 
TBilI short; lip abruptly ^ 
Platyrynchus. < hooked; notchortooth vDentirostres. .Raptores. 
C very distinct, 3 
Conopapkaga. J'Fret^syndactyle; j N atatobes. 
Platystera. BUI slender, Tenuirostres. Grallatores*. 
Upt.ru.. 
(101.) It is quite unnecessary to add any thing in 
further proof of the correctness — we may even add the 
beauty — of this perfect illustration of the theory of re- 
presentation ; and yet, the more it is looked into, the more 
perfect do the analogies come out. The form of the 
bill, for instance, in Todus, when viewed vertically, is 
precisely that of a conirostral bird ; and this observation 
equally applies to the typical genus Miiscipeta, Platy- 
rynchus, like all dentirostral types, is that where the 
bill is always shorter than in the conirostral, and where 
the tip is most abruptly hooked or bent down. Conopo- 
phaga, from its large legs, might, on a cursory examin- 
ation, be mistaken for a rasorial type ,■ but its toes are 
syndactyle, while its large head and very short tail 
clearly demonstrate it is, in reality, a representation of 
the Fissirostres and the Nutatores. Platystera and 
Hyliota are the furthest removed from their own types, 
and their analogies, as a necessary consequence, are 
more remote than any of the others ; but Lepturus and 
Seicircus unite, and therefore their analogies blend into 
affinities : these two subgenera, in fact, are those only 
which have the feet quite perfect, — that is to say, the 
tarsus is lengthened, and the toes fully cleft. This struc- 
ture, and the pointed form pf their tail feathers, is in exact 
accordance with what every ornithologist knows to be 
the most conspicuous characters of the rasorial order, as 
the philosophic inquirer will find more perfectly and 
