File:On the natural history and classification of birds (1836) (14562832970).jpg

Identifier: onnaturalhistor221836swai (find matches)
Title: On the natural history and classification of birds
Year: 1836 (1830s)
Authors: Swainson, William, 1789-1855
Subjects: Birds Ornithology
Publisher: London : Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman : John Taylor
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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ike to a crow, than the beefeater is to astarling. In Buphaga, we have, in short, the scansorial feetand tail; with the bill (fig. 157. a a) so perfectly resemblingthat of the honeyguide (b b), that one of our best ornitho-logists, without suspecting the affinity, has named a newspecies of honeyguide Indicator Buphagoides ! statingas a reason, that it has nearlythe appearance of the beefeatersbill, partially agreeing in thestrong and angulated form soconspicuous in that genus. tThis species we have personallyexamined; and if any doubts hadthen remained in our mind onthe propriety of removing Bu~phaga from the Sturnidce, they5li would have been immediatelydispelled; but we had, in truth,already determined this point,by a careful analysis of the Sturnine family. (120.) The analogies of the family we have now in~vestigated, whether in regard to the corresponding groupsamong the Corvidce, or to its own internal relations, are* Class, of Birds, i. p. 144. t Liu; Trans, xvi. p. 91. , , H 4f
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104 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. satisfactory and perfect. We shall first show in whatmanner the Sturnidce represent the primary types ofornithology, and consequently the tribes of the Inses-sores, or perchers. Sturnid^e, or Starlings, — Analogies. Subfamilies. Analogical Characters. Tfo£ssJrn* Sturnid^b. Bill lengthened, more or less conic. Conirostres. SCAPH.D™™. (Tasilr™s»„SuUatyd deVel°Pedi C°mmli S—RES- «*»• (Bi^sy4OXingSlOng,POinted;)FlSSIB0STRE9-The analogies between the two typical groups are soperfect, that they hardly require any further notice.The starlings are the most typical of one group, justas the Conirostres are of the other; and both have themost conic bills of that particular modification whichis calculated for searching on the ground for insectfood; in both also, the upper bill is very slightlynotched,— a character which is not found in either ofthe three aberrant groups of the Sturnidje, althoughtheir bills are more conic than even that of

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