96 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
arrangement of all the genera of this family ; nor will 
our space admit of an attempt to demonstrate those groups 
in it which we have already worked out. W e shall, there- 
fore, merely intimate what we conceive to be the only 
natural series, hy arranging the genera, in our synopsis, 
under the following subfamilies: — i. FrigilUnee ; 2. 
Corvinm; 3.Garrulin(e; ^.CrypseriruE; a.w\,5.Cnraein(e. 
(110.) The Corvinie, or typical crows, exhibit the 
greatest perfection, and themostvaried powers, with which 
nature has invested this class of animals. This superiority 
consists, not in the extraordinary developement of any 
one particular organ or quality, hut in the union of 
nearly all those powers which have been separately as- 
signed to other families. This perfection is best ex- 
emplified by looking to the economy of the ordinary 
crows. In every climate, habitable to man, these birds 
are found. 'J’hey arc as well constructed for powerful 
and continued flight, as for w'alking with a firm and 
stately pace on the earth ; they feed indiscriminately 
on animals or on vegetables, and, when pressed by hunger, 
refuse not carrion : hence their smell is remarkably acute. 
They are bold, but wary, live in common societies, and 
possess great courage : when domesticated, they evince a 
power of imitating the human voice nearly equal to that 
of the parrot: while theircunning, pilfering, and hoarding 
dispositions are all symptoms of greater intelligence than 
what is found in any of the families already mentioned. 
Some of the smaller species so closely resemble the shrikes, 
that this analogy has been taken for an affinity. In the 
subfamily of Garrulina;, which includes the jays, these 
perfections are diminished ; for these birds, like bush 
shrikes, live entirely in woods, and are seldom, if ever, 
seen upon the grouuil : like their prototypes, also, they 
devour young birds, and are well known in America to he 
great pilferers of eggs, of which they rob the nests of 
other birds. 
(111.) The G/flMcopirKF, or rasorial crows, is the only 
division of this family we have yet analysed with a view 
to determine its chief generic types ; yet these we can 
only glance at during the rapid survey we are now com- 
