130 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
junction of the last with the first being effected hy 
the great hollow-billed genus Phanicoplusus, and by 
Sythrops, the Australian genus of toucans. If we consi- 
der the woodpeckers as the most perfect of all climbers, 
they will constitute the typical group ; for, although 
the parrots possess the greatest intelligence and the most 
varied organisation, they do not excel in that particu- 
lar quality which constitutes the perfection of the scan- 
sonal structure : we must, therefore, consider them as 
the representatives of the Dentirostrex, and of the 
hawks, — an analogy fully borne out by the structure of 
their bill : these two, therefore, form the typical and 
the suhtypical groups of the entire circle. The great 
head and large size of the toucans, independent of their 
often catching their food in the air, plainly indicate 
the fissirostral type. The cuckows, which are the most 
imperfect cliinliers, are therefore the most aberrant; 
while the Certhiada, or creepers, represent the scansorial 
division, as already intimated. We shall now take a 
hasty glance at each of these families, the minor groups 
of which will be systematically defined in the subse- 
quent synopsis. 
(144.) The Cebthiadac, or creepers, of all other 
climbers, evince the closest affinity to the suctorial 
order of Tmuiroxtres, like them they are generally of 
a small size ; like them, they have a very slender, deli- 
cate bill; and in both groups the hind toe is much 
developed. Some of the honeysuckers, as the Ento- 
miza cj/anotis S.*, climb trees ; and the similarity of 
Clymuxterix mystinalu to a Meliphuga is so great, that 
no less an ornithologist than M. Temminck has actually 
mistaken it for such. Nothing, therefore, can be more 
conclusive, if authority were alone to decide the ques- 
tion, than that the Scansores pass into the Tenuirostres 
by means of the Certhiada in one, and the MdiphagidcB 
in the other. 
(145.) The primary divisions or subfamilies of the 
Certliiadce, did our space admit of their fuU elucidation, 
• Lewin’s Birds of Now Holland, pi 4. 
