26 
USE OP THE TABLES. 
shorter than the second. He next looks to the beak, 
which is not lengthened, and straight from its base, 
but is bent throughout, and hooked at the point. 
His bird must, therefore, be of the Buteo or Astur 
genus. But the wings do not extend beyond two- 
thirds of the tail, it therefore belongs to the Astur 
genus ; and he has then only to ascertain the species, 
which he will easily do by consulting museums, or 
books with minute descriptions and plates. 
Again: a bird is brought to him, which, on com- 
paring with the characters given in the first Table, 
he finds to have no back-toe, and that the fore-toes 
are united by a membrane, he rightly, therefore, 
concludes, that it belongs to the order Palmipedes, 
or Web-footed; and he is directed for further par- 
ticulars to Table XXYI. Thus he perceives, that 
as his specimen has only three front-toes, that its 
beak is not toothed, or serrated like a file or saw, 
and that its wings are very short, it must be of the 
tribe Brevipennes, and he is referred to Table XXX. 
Then, as the wings are feathered, and it has no back- 
toe, it must be of the genus Alca; and he will have 
little difficulty, on referring to its colours, size, and 
a few other particulars, to ascertain its species. 
In the above references, the birds for consideration 
were a Sparrow-hawk and Puffin, species more or 
less known to most of our readers. One more, how- 
ever, shall be added, entirely foreign. Its colour a 
brilliant green, beautifully mottled and variegated on 
the upper part, the lower part of the breast and leg- 
feathers being of a delicate lemon colour; the size, 
rather smaller than a Thrush. On looking to Table 
I., the hind-toes are found to be two, and two before; 
