48 
mical point of view, and considered in reference to man, the flesh of 
these birds is wholesome, nutritious, and is generally considered highly 
palatable. The division comprises the following orders, in each of 
which partial exceptions to one or other of these general characters 
occur:— 
1. Gallinse, or the Poultry order. 
2. Brevipennes (Cuvier), or the Ostriches. 
3. Pressirostres (Cuvier), or the Plovers. 
4. Longirostres (Cuvier), or the Snipes. 
5. Macrodactyli (Cuvier), or the Rails. 
6. Plongeurs (Cuvier), or the Divers. 
7. Lamellirostres (Cuvier), or the Ducks. 
2. Gymnogenous Birds. —In these, when the shell is broken, the 
chick makes its appearance in a state of helpless infancy : it is naked, 
blind, and incapable of locomotion: it cannot distinguish its parent 
by means of its senses: it gapes for food, but does not distinguish 
between proper food offered by its parent, and a stick or a finger held 
over it: it cannot feed itself, and would die were not food placed in 
its mouth: it rapidly attains its full size, often before leaving the 
nest. When full-grown it uses its wings rather than its feet: it flies 
with a succession of deliberate and easy strokes: it takes wing for 
recreation and for food, and not merely for the purpose of moving 
from place to place : it is strictly monogamous; the sexes being 
equal in number : males share with females the cares of incubation 
and feeding the young until these are able to shift for themselves. 
Birds possessing these characters build elaborate nests in trees, and 
perch in trees rather than on the ground : many of them sing melo¬ 
diously ; others imitate, with wonderful facility, the voice of man or 
of animals. As an economical character in connexion with man, their 
flesh is bitter and unpalatable, often offensive and disgusting; hence 
man has never domesticated them for purposes of food. These are 
birds par excellence : they possess in perfection the essential charac¬ 
ters of birds : in the habitual use of air for progression and of trees 
for resting, in the want of abilities for terrestrial progression, in 
strength and bulk of pectoral muscle, in monogamous habits, in the 
fabrication of nests, in pow r er of song, they are raised as birds, but 
degraded as animals, since in all these characters they recede from 
those animals which suckle their young. The division comprises the 
following groups, in each of which exceptions to one or other of the 
general characters occur :— 
1. Totipalmes (Cuvier), or the Pelicans. 
2. Longipennes (Cuvier), or the Gulls. 
3. Accipitres, or the Birds of Prey. 
4. Cultrirostres (Cuvier), or the Herons. 
5. Passeres, or the Sparrow^ order. 
6. Grimpeurs (Cuvier), or the Climbing birds ; and 
7. Columbee, or the Pigeons. 
