148 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
Strained and unusual attitudes seen in the tomtits 
(Parus), sometimes hanging hy their feet to reach a 
bunch of flowers, which could not otherwise be ap- 
proached ; the feet, therefore, of the two families, in 
aU essential points, are precisely the same. 
(128.) The name of Syndactyle has been given by 
writers to all such feet as have the outer toe more or 
less joined to that of the middle: hence, as such feet 
occur in almost every natural group among the perchers, 
the term has become altogether vague, from its in- 
discriminate use. M. Cuvier, more especially, has so 
far neglected a due restriction to the meaning of this 
term, that he has actually, from this one circumstance, 
classed the hornbiUs {Buceridm) with the bee-eaters, 
and the kingfishers! Syndactyle feet, in short, are 
even more varied than the scansorial, but with this 
essential difference, that the birds possessing them do 
not, like the Scansores, constitute a natural group ; but 
are merely one of the indications of the natatorial type. 
Hence it follows, that every modification of foot 
which we have described (even among the Raptores) 
presents instances of this union of the two outer toes, 
which, according to M. Cuvier’s views, makes them 
syndactyle, and entitles them to a place in his artificial 
tribe of Syndactyles. As it is quite unnecessary to point 
out the inconsistency of such a classification, we sliall 
merely observe that the most striking examples of this 
union of the two outer toes will be found in the genera 
Mnlncnnotm, Pitta, Eurylamus, Prionops, Datiyccphala 
Bticeros, Lciolhrix, Myothera, Rupicola, Todus, Pha- 
nicirciis, Pipra, Rendrocokiptes, &c., genera, in fact 
which are spread over the whole order ImessoreJ. 
Nevertheless, the term is good, if limited to such feet^ 
with united toes, as are of a different formation to all 
others, and would not, even if their toes were free, 
come under any of the definitions we have already 
given. Such a form of foot will be found in the genera 
Merops and Alcedo, containing the bee-eaters and the 
kingfishers, to whose feet, par excellence, we shall limit 
