BIRD GROUPS 
beauty and variety in the nightingale, is a character of 
birds which is not found in any reptile or indeed in any 
other vertebrate, in spite of Mr. Ruskin’s singing ser- 
pents! There are more kinds of birds in the world 
than of any other group of vertebrated animals, very 
many more. They are the insects among vertebrates 
by reason of these numbers, and of their gaudy hues, 
also unequalled in generality of occurrence and in 
variety among other vertebrates. 
In spite of their general uniformity, the “ aery cara- 
van” can be divided up into a number of distinct groups, 
which, however, have by no means the value of the 
major, or even of the minor, subdivisions of the mammalia 
or of the reptiles. The range of structural variation 
among birds is possibly about equal to that of the 
lizards among reptiles, or of the frogs and toads among 
Amphibians. We may acknowledge the following 
groups, to which we shall not apply the term orders, as 
that would suggest an equivalence with the orders in 
the mammalia: (1) Passeres, all the small perching 
birds, such as crows, thrushes, wagtails, birds of para- 
dise, swallows, etc., etc. ; (2) Pict, that is, woodpeckers, 
barbets, and toucans; (3) Alcedines, including king- 
fishers only; (4) Colii, an assemblage of very limited 
extent, confined to the African mouse birds or colies ; 
(5) Lvogones, the American and Afro-Asiatic trogons ; 
(6) Coracia, i.e. rollers, bee-eaters, motmots, todies, 
puff birds; (7) hornbills and hoopoes constitute the 
group Bucerotes ; (8) Macrochires, humming-birds and 
swifts ; (9) Caprimulgi, goat suckers ; (10) Sériges, or 
owls ; (11) Psittaci, or parrots; (12) Cucult, cuckoos ; 
(13) Musophagi, touracous; (14) Opfisthocomt, the 
Hoatzin only ; (15) Galli, the gallinaceous birds, phea- 
sants, curassows, turkeys, megapodes, guinea fowls, 
quails, etc.; (16) Columba, pigeons ; (17) Pterocletes, 
sand grouse ; (18) Twrnices, the quail-like birds Turnix 
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