292 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
first pursued. Here, then, is that great superiority of 
grasping, though manifested in a different way, which 
we find in the typical perchers and the four-handed 
quadrupeds : for this perfection, which belongs to some 
of the most perfect falcons, must be, without doubt, 
a typical characteristic ; the more so, as there is no 
evidence to show that it is possessed by any birds of the 
other divisions of the family. This fact so materially 
strengthens the other evidences in favour of the genus 
Falco being the representative of the conirostral birds, 
that we may consider the analogy as established : it 
consequently follows that the hawks represent the Den- 
Urostres, because the succession of affinity in their own 
circles of these groups with those two we have just 
compared have long ago been established. In other 
words, no one can doubt that the hawks do not follow 
the falcons, or that the Dentirostres do not follow the 
Conirostres. Yet it must be confessed, — if these facts 
were not established, so little do we know of the habits 
and instincts of the greater proportion of the Falconicke, 
— that this analogy would not, at first, appear so perfect 
as the last. It deserves attention, however, that, as the 
shrikes (wdiich stand at the head of the DentiroslreF) 
have the largest tooth among the Imcssores, so is the 
tooth or festoon of the hawks 
I (.%• 95. a) much larger than 
that of the falcons ( 1 ), although 
not so formidable in its use. 
All the typical shrikes, that 
is, the Laniadm and the 
Tliamuophelina, have rounded 
wings like the hawks; and the 
prevalent colours, both in . 4 c- 
eipUer and Lanius, are grey, 
transversely banded beneath 
with narrow lines : these lat- 
ter, in the Laniadee, disappear- 
ing with age. The Dentirostres is obviously the subtypi. 
cal group of the perchers; and the hawks are as obviously 
