92 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
CHAP. VIII. 
ON THE CONIBOSTRES, OB CONIC-BILLED TRIBE. 
(105.) The Conibosthal tribe is the most highly or- 
ganised of all those which form thegrand division, or order, 
of Peuchehs ; of which, in consequence, it is pre-emi- 
nently typical. The prominent distinctions of these birds, 
and the characters by which they are separated from the 
tribe we have just quitted, have more than once been 
touched upon. * The general reader will form no inac- 
curate idea of the contents of this circle, by looking to a 
crow (/iff. 150. a), a starling(6),a sparrow (c), a plantain- 
eater (a!), and a hornbill (e) ; and associating in his mind 
all those birds whose conic and slightly notched bills ap- 
proximate more or less to one or other of these forms ; 
in none of which do we observe that degree of curvature 
and dentation of the upper mandible, so characteristic 
of dentirostral birds. To define them, however, with 
scientific accuracy and exclusiveness, is much more diffi- 
cult j seeing that, as in all large groups, they possess no 
one characterwhich is not found among those birds which 
are connected with, but do not enter into, the circle of 
the (JoftirostvBSt That distinction, however, which 
appears most general, is the strong conic-shaped form 
* Vol. I. p. 339. 
