PRIMARY TYPES. 
9 
Animals so endowed are called, for the sake of brevity, 
typical of their own group. Thus the crow is the type 
of the whole feathered creation, because it unites in it- 
self some part of the properties of all other birds; while, 
upon the second principle, the woodpecker is the type 
of the climbing tribe, because it possesses that particu- 
lar faculty more perfectly than any other. The swallow, 
again, is the pre-eminent type of the fissirostral birds, 
because it not only flies with the greatest comparative 
swiftness, but its feet are more perfectly organised than 
those of the night-jars {Caprimulgiis). The iusessorial 
type, in a word, is that which exhibits all the characters 
of the division in w'hich it is placed. It thus becomes 
pre-eminently typical, and stands in opposition to an 
aberrant type, which possesses part only of such charac- 
ters. In regard to the external characters, the bill, in most 
instances, is more or less conical, and slightly notched 
{Jig- 1.4), while the feet are well developed : but there 
are so many variations, that 
it will be necessary to enter 
into further particulars 
when we come to enume- 
rate the orders and tribes. 
(11.) The Raptorial, 
or sub- typical form, has the 
upper mandible much more 
hooked ; and, in a large 
proportion of the groups, there is a deep notch near the 
tip on each side, by which a process, performing the 
ofhee of a tooth, is produced. {Fig. 1. a.) Carnivorous 
habits especially belong to this ty}ie, which corresiionds 
to the Feline order among quadrupeds. Its highest 
development is seen in birds of prey, Faptoren, ivliere 
the claws of the toes are also retractile, like those of the 
cats {Felinte). 
(12.) The aberrant types come next. Of the indica- 
tions of the Natatorial, or aquatic structure, the two 
■which are most universal are the shortness and limited 
power of the feet, and the broad obtuse form of the bill. 
